Flood! Help! Wife will soon find out!

[darkdep]

So, here's a story to brighten your Monday morning...

For those of you new to the hobby, I can now tell you for sure what the single most important piece of aquarium equipment is.  No, it's not the filter, or the lighting, or even the tank itself.

It's the little suction cup that holds your spray bar in place on the back of your aquairum.  Yep.  That's it.  Because at some time in the middle of the night mine decided to let go, and the spraybar was happy to spray almost the entire contents of a newly set up 30gal all over my basement carpet.

The tank contains 5 Super Red Empress and 5 Lithobates, which were just put in yesterday.  Luckily I came downstairs in time to stop the madness (There was about 4 inches of water left in the tank).

The inhabitants are ok; I refilled the tank and they aren't freaking out.

For the carpet, I used a wet/dry shopvac to suck up what I could, and then dropped my dehumidifier in the middle of the mess and turned it on full blast, hoping it would help dry up the rest.

Does anyone have any futher suggestions on how to deal with a soaked carpet?  This is my first aquarium mishap and when the wife finds out she's gonna freak.  I just hope she doesn't do any laundry today!!


As an aside, because I put a lot of fish in the tank at the same time, I was thinking of doing a massive waterchange today.  Seems that worry can go away now.   :lol:

[fishycanuck]

I've had something similar (but less dramatic) happen. You've done all the right things, but I would also spritz the area with some weak vinegar solution and/or one of those deodorizers (think Febreze). Even though your tank is a new setup, it might leave a less than pleasant smell.
Good luck!

[srenka]

One note on how to prevent this.  

I assume your filter is a canister type.  In that case, what you can do is to put a very small hole in the intake tube slightly below the lowest water level you will have in the aquarium (evaporation).   What this does is it breaks the siphon if the water reaches below this level but does not contribute significantly to water flow.  That way, you will only loose a small amount of water if a leak happens in the pipes, or, as in your case, the spray bar decides to spray your wall.

I also, put extra suction cups on the hoses that lead to the spray bar, just in case   (Belt and suspenders, you know  :lol: )

Sarenka

[BigDaddy]

It is best to pull it up from one of the edges and put some kind of a spacer between the carpet and the underpadding.  Then, blow a fan between them.

If you don't dry out the underpad, that's where the big mess and big stink will come from.  I had a washer drain go, and a buddy of mine who lays down carpet told me for large volumes of water, a dehumidifier isn't enough.  He gave me the advise above and it worked like a charm.

[darkdep]

srenka:  Thanks, that sounds like a totally logical idea.  I'll do that tonight.

I was hoping not to have to lift the carpet...there's a lot of furniture down on top of it...d'oh...

Hmmm...actually now that I think about it, I actually wonder if there IS any underpadding...see, it was put in by the previous owners and seems to be that thin lamo carpet they have in older office buildings.  The basement was very badly DIY'ed...that I can probably check quickly enough.

[Evan]

Bigdaddys advice works well.....

Also get your wife a present it will ease your pain a bit.

[Nelson]

...mold will be your worse nightmare if the carpet and underlay is not COMPLETELY dry.

[blueturq]

get your wife a present it will ease your pain a bit.

LOL, yeah.... that's not going to make it look obvious that something's up! :lol:

[darkdep]

Well, I called her and told her.  She was obviously upset but I convinced her I'd take care of it and not to worry.

I think I will bring home some flowers today tho.  :lol:

And Nelson, you hit the nail on the head, mold is my biggest worry.  I'll attack the problem more tonight with fans, more shopvac action, and I'll see if I can lift the carpet...

[blueturq]

Well, I called her and told her.  She was obviously upset but I convinced her I'd take care of it and not to worry.

I think I will bring home some flowers today tho.  :lol:

And Nelson, you hit the nail on the head, mold is my biggest worry.  I'll attack the problem more tonight with fans, more shopvac action, and I'll see if I can lift the carpet...

Smooth! :lol:

[gvv]

Well, I called her and told her.  She was obviously upset but I convinced her I'd take care of it and not to worry.

This was smart decision for such a situation! I think she understood.
In any case, even without such a flooding that you had today, there is a possibility you will have a water on the floor , e.g. during water changes. You'll have to live with the fact that your floors will never be so nice and dry anymore :?  :lol:  Just don't inform her every time you wet the floor. :wink:

Regards

[pegasus]

I just hope she doesn't do any laundry today!!

I would have done the laundry. :twisted:

[darkdep]

I'm not concerned with the drips and splashes that come from regular maintenance (and she only grumbles a bit at those).  But 25 gallons is something else

[darkdep]

pegasus:  I have a wife and 2 daughters (So, I live with 3 women). To explain mathematically:

3 women = infinite laundry

[manytanks]

Last September Hurricane Francis graced our basement with 8" of wall-to-wall water when the sump pump decided to take a break just when we needed it most. Everything was immersed: kids' toys, carpets, underpadding, everything...including the lower 16" of drywall throughout the finished basement.

Couldn't wait for the insurance company to come around (they were overwhelmed) so I removed/dried/tossed everything and over the course of many months replaced the lower two feet of drywall, patched, primed, painted, reinstalled carpets and saved about 60% over some local contractor coming in to do it.

The thing that saved our carpets was rolling them up, squeezing them through the basement window - they weighed a ton with all that water - and laying them out in the yard in the full sun for two days straight. Nothing - including blowers, even the very powerful ones available for rent from Home Depot - will get your carpets as bone dry as quickly. We've had a number of leaks/floods in the basement from different causes (we're working through them all - aaargh!) and the sun works best of all.

And I agree: it's imperative to get things dry as quickly as possible to avoid mold, and you'll almost certainly have to replace the underpadding unless it's the kind that doesn't absorb water. We had to replace ours, but I'm happy to tell you (if you need to know) where the cheapest place in town is to get replacement u-padding. Don't use heat to dry the carpet, as that will accelerate mold growth.

Finally, from Manions Pump House on Clyde Avenue off Carling near Westgate, you can buy a sump pump alarm that gives off a smoke alarm-type sound if the two small contacts are bridged by water. If you're really paranoid about this happening again you could locate this under the tank in an upright position and the moment there's a millimetre or two of water on the floor, you'll hear about it.

Good luck. Been there several times - although not yet from fish tanks.

[Tim]

As long as you get it completely dry within 72 hours mold won't be a problem.

[darkdep]

Ok, Well, it's morning #1 (24 hours after flood):

I've been on a repeating schedule of:

- shopvac (have determined that at least 10gal has been sucked into that)

- dehumidifier (another few gallons, although technically that might not be from the carpet...but it can't hurt)

- Towel stomping (my 4 year old thinks this is great fun...lay down 8 big towels and stomp on them until soaked, they throw em in the dryer for an hour to do it again.  This has sucked up a rediculous amount of water so far)

- Fan blowing across the wet area (no idea if it's helping)

- I WAS using a heater for a couple hours last night along with a hairdryer for about 10 minutes (that got old fast).  Given the suggestion that heat might accelerate mold production I won't continue this.

It's night and day this morning from last night.  Unfortunately, because it's wall-to-wall attached carpet with a rediculous amount of furniture and junk on top of it (our basement is technically a storage area at the moment) it would take much longer than 72 hours for me to get the carpet out into the sun.  If it goes to that I'm going to have to end up replacing it.

[Julie]

Hi Darkdep,

Good to hear you have a wonderful assistant and it's fun for everyone.

As manytanks mentionned, sumppump alarms can be very helpful.
I purchased mine from home depot for $10 a few years ago and it works quite well.

Julie

[darkdep]

Although probably very useful, the sumppump alarm idea isn't good in this case as these tanks are temporary setups, and I'm not sure right now if I will continue to have tanks in the basement.

What I WOULD be interested in is some alarm system where if water ISN'T touching the sensors, a shriek will happen.  This way, I could put them just below the surface of my tanks and if any form of leakage starts, I'll get an alarm...anyone know if such a device exists?

[Nelson]

Although probably very useful, the sumppump alarm idea isn't good in this case as these tanks are temporary setups, and I'm not sure right now if I will continue to have tanks in the basement.

What I WOULD be interested in is some alarm system where if water ISN'T touching the sensors, a shriek will happen.  This way, I could put them just below the surface of my tanks and if any form of leakage starts, I'll get an alarm...anyone know if such a device exists?

Would be very easy to construct a cheap but effective one from parts available at Radio Shack (Source).  A very good idea - I'm going to look into it myself.