Water on the floor this morning...

[Illithid]

Nothing wakes you up in the morning as stumbling out to see what the strange noise is coming from the filter and feeling cold water on your bare feet. Child/dog vomiting sounds come in a close second.

The pipe with the output for my skimmer fell off and the resulting water pressure from the skimmer was strong enough to pour out of my sump. I approximate around 55 gallons was aiming for my floor, but 30 gallons was caught by the towels under the sump built into the stand. Of the remaining 20 gallons, 10-15 was absorbed by the oriental rug, leaving 5-10 gallons on the wood floor. Definitely no fun, but not insurmountable.

I explained to my wife that if the tank had a leak in the bottom glass we would have felt it when we got out of bed at the other end of the house.(240 gallons + 100 gallon sump)

I have 2 screamers that are sitting in their cases next to the tank stand that I will install today.

The good news is that:
the new top-off system I made works, it was empty - 5 more gallons of water for the floor .
The pump didn't burn out because the pump is lower than the sump .
The stand filled with towels idea worked and saved alot of damage.
The rug is a cheap replica and can be dried out outside with no damage .

It didn't kill me, so I must be stronger (yet for some reason I still bench the same. )

 

[Domboski]

Trial and error. I love the positive attitude! I have experienced a random refuge overflow for a time and I couldn't figure out why (until I realized a snail loved climbing out of the water into the overflow). I wake up immediately at the sound of water to wood floor .

 

[DHyslop]

I'm glad to hear that it was so well contained! Even though its a drop in the bucket you might consider putting the auto topoff on a timer so it only runs for fifteen minutes each day. Even though it only would have saved a couple gallons of cleanup, I like it as a final level of protection in case the ATO fails on.

Redundant screamers, I like! You might play with one of the screamers: cut into it and find the low voltage line that goes to the buzzer, then install a relay onto it. That way if it detected water on the floor it could shut down your pump; just in case it was another plumbing failure.

Dan

 

[Illithid]

I love the positive attitude!

What else can I do? Crying just puts more water on the floor....

Redundant screamers, I like!
Dan

I would have liked them alot more if I had taken them out of the box.

The ATO is a DIY.
I noticed that a 3/4 barbed fitting fits a 5 gallon water jug perfectly. So I just got a jug and suspended it from the stand interior with the flexible pipe secured underwater. When the water level goes below the pipe - water enters the jug and it slowly lets water out of the jug like in a cooler.

I was thinking about buying a pump cut-off system, but I likeyour idea better Dan! I will look into it more and get back to you.

 

[cuttlegirl]

Originally posted by Illithid What else can I do? Crying just puts more water on the floor....

Sorry to hear of your water problems, a positive attitude keeps you from grinding your teeth to nubs...

I think my 55 gallon has a leak somewhere, the rug is awfully wet about 1 foot from the tank (at a low point in the floor) or else the cat is peeing in that spot...

 

[sorseress]

If it was the cat peeing you would know...nearly the worst smelll in the world. Cat's other smell is worse.

 

[cthulhu77]

I came up with the absurd idea to suspend a tank over my bed once...for some odd reason, I felt that having a large fish tank near me would be relaxing and far less expensive than one of those little fountains.
Disaster set in almost immediately.

Glad to hear most of your stuff survived...tank breakages can be a real nightmare. Why, oh why, don't we all use acrylic? (I include myself, for some stupid reason, the last two tanks I bought were glass)

 

[Jean]

glad all survived.............we had our 5000L tank leak once..................~ 2500L on the floor and YES the TANK had sprung a leak............ we had to get specialists down from the north island to fix it (we staff are NOT allowed to try to fix a $100,000 tank.....wonder why???? ) anyhoo it took a week to dry out the carpet and we had to rent every dehumidifier in the city, then get the carpet cleaners into clean the salt out of the carpet..........hope it never happens again!!!!!!

J