10 good reasons to own a steam cleaner

phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
Reason #1...just in case of an equipment failure
Reason #2...in case you have just put down brand new berber carpet near your fish tanks
Reason #3...just in case you innocently go out to dinner and the equipment demon decides to strike at your house
Reason #4...just in case you would have to get divorced if 40 gallons of seawater mysteriously removes itself from your sump and spreads itself merrily about your brand new carpeting
Reason #5...just in case of an equipment failure despite having tested and then retested everything to cover all possible situations except the one that happened
Reason #6...in case you are not already exhausted from the Christmas madness and decide to trow a bunch of seawater on your carpet just to see how much effort it would really take to remove it
Reason #7...in case exercise is on your resolution list for the new year and you need to increase your upper body strength by dumping and then extracting 40 gallons of seawater from your carpet
Reason #8...in case your stupid dog gets so worked up about all the commotion that he decided to tinkle on all the seawater so as to add his scent to the melee
Reason #9...in case you might actually find a need to clean carpet
Reason #10...just in case one of your hoses mysteriously decides to detatch itself from the hose barbs for no reason other than that it is Thursday night and you're not home to catch it.
It's going to be a looooong night. :mad:
 
kelly

kelly

Member
Sounds more like you need the giant sponge, or a good shop vac. Good luck on cleaning up the mess. Sorry to hear about it... Nice post though Watch much Letterman?
 
pferboy

pferboy

Member
i acually had a nightmare of the same thing last week. i just set up a refugium and fell asleep thinking of ways that it could leak or overflow. sorry to hear that happend. good luck with the cleanup.
 
phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
Well, spent roughly 6 hours cleaning up the mess...and boy what a mess! Water was all over everything. It seeped through the wall (an inside wall) and soaked the carpet in the bar as well.
We just had our basement completely redone this past summer due to a weather related flood. Since the tanks had to be moved anyways, I had them tile under the area where my tanks sit. GOOD IDEA although I never thought I'd have to put it to the test so soon. The carpet surrounds all the tanks. So far, so good until last nights disaster.
Got up as much as I could with the good old steam cleaner, and have had fans blowing over all of it since. I brought in the big drum fans from the barn.
There must be a better way. I need to go to plumbing school I think. Who would have thought a hose could just slip off like that.
Okay now a question...a hose came off one of my small return pumps (mag 7 that I use with the UV for my FOWLR). Although it had a hose barb on it, there was no clamp. The reason I didn't use a clamp is because I could only find the metal kind and this connection sits submerged. Is there a plastic hose clamp that would be strong enough to use for this purpose?
If I had a cover on the sump, the damage would have been minimal, but I have way too much stuff coming and going from that place to be able to fit the nice cover over it that came with the unit.
Any suggestions appreciated.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
PhoenixRising
Sorry to hear of your wet troubles - hope everything cleaned up okay.
Yes - there are plastic hose clamps available for our use.
I like the stainless steel ones for most "dry" installations, but for any connections that are submerged or exposed to saltspray - these plastic ones work great.
Here's a pic of both - sometimes I get paranoid and will use two - they're cheap.
 
chinnyr

chinnyr

Member
I had the same thing happen too.Although I was lucky and it was only ro/di water.I left the house and left the thing going to top off my tank and came home to about a 30gal. flood!Just to add insult to injury I knocked over a 5 gal.buckrt of fresh saltwater for a water change.I'll tell you what.....wet carpet stinks after a couple of days.Took about two months to get the smell to go away.I should have gotten the carpets cleaned.:p
 
phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
Broomer
That plastic hose clamp looks great! Where did you find one? Are they reasonably secure? I have zillions of the metal ones you have in your pic, but since this connection is submerged I left the clamp off. I thought...now what are the chances that the hose will come off these barbs? I came up with "near zero" which was obviously the wrong conclusion.
Well, back to the drawing board if I can find some of those plastic clamps. I checked Home Depot one time and the sales guy looked at me like I was nuts when I asked for a plastic or non corrosive type clamp for use in seawater. Maybe my LFS carries them? Or maybe Lowe's?
Thanks for your support everyone. It's been a miserable learning experience. :(
 
scruz

scruz

Member
PR-you might even try an auto store if Lowe's doesn't pan out,I've seen them on Fords and BMW's at the dealership I work at-good luck
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
I get them from a LFS here in town, and I'm sure I've seen them online as well.
There like a buck for the smaller ones and go up from there.
 
phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
Thanks for the tips! I found a site online that carries the plastic clamps pictured above. The only concern I have is that it states that it is for low pressure uses and I need it for a return hose which is high pressure. I'm going to order them anyways since I can't find any (so far) for high pressure applications. Maybe I can put on two or three and be okay with it. I guess ANY clamp I have on it is better than NO clamp!
Thanks for all of your help! It is much appreciated!
 
M

mr hanky

Guest
clamp?u could use zip ties. buy em at any auto parts store and walmart. relativly cheap for a bunch. plastic very strong easy to tighten. just an idea.
 
zafirablanca

zafirablanca

Member
Sorry to hear about your carpet, PR. I have hardwood floors and worry about it still.
I second what Mr. Hanky said. Use plastic cable ties. You can get them at any hardware store, look in the electrical department. You can get the kind that is reusable, with a sqeeze catch on the end. But, for a connection under pump pressure, I would use the kind that tighten only. These are the regular, cheap kind. You can get plain white, or colors for color coding seperate systems/ pump lines. The black ones are UV resistant if they will be exposed to alot of light. You need to use a needle nose pliers or small sissors or wire snips to cut them off to remove them, but they are cheap and easily replaced if need be.
I will vouch for the fact that they are very secure and water-tight (If tightened well). I used to work for a biotechnology manufacturing plant and we would harvest sterile, liquid product from bioreactors into sterile containers. We used medical tubing and barb fittings similar to what we might use in our aquarium set-ups, and peristaltic pumps. We would secure all connections with cable ties before begining. They would last through the entire process (hundreds of gallons) under a good deal of pressure and manipulation. At the end of the process we would just cut them off and pull apart the tubing for cleaning. I trust them.
I would never use a barb fitting without securing it with a cable tie. NEVER. I have had to clean up giant messes where they weren't used ( thank god not at my house! ). You don't make a mistake like that too many times.
I wish you, your fish and your house a speedy recovery.
Good Luck,
-Christine
:)
 
wrassecal

wrassecal

Active Member
What's up with the flooding today??? But cheer up, things could be worse. My whole house flooded and I'm going to have to replace all the flooring. It wasn't the tank, well not the fish tank anyway:eek: Glad you could clean up your new berber, mine's all going to have to be replaced.
EDIT OMG I just realized it's you Cindi and after you offered me your shoulder to cry on. I hope I didn't jinx you. :(
 
snowbear

snowbear

Member
Missed this yesterday! Sorry about the mess. I have a Mag 7 on my skimmer that popped off a couple times a week (inside the sump) until I bought some marine grade stainless clamps at HD.
My new house will have no carpets ( just throw rugs) and I put 2 floor drains in when I poured the slab for the floor!
 
entice59

entice59

Active Member
my friend said that he wont get a saltwater tank because when it soaks into the carpet, the wood will rot/warp ... is that true? or is he just making up an excuse?
 
phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
Entice 59...My tanks are in my basement, so the flooring under the carpet is cement. As mentioned above, the area directly beneath the tanks is now ceramic tile.
The carpet is recovering slowly. I have removed all the water I can and have had my big drum fans from the barn blowing all over the place down here since.
Debi...you're right! This basement has had it's share of floods recently. Two major ones due to storms and now this one from my malfunctioning plumbing. I really never thought that hose could come off of there. It was such a pain in my neck to get the doggone thing on there to start with. I obviously thought wrong! I was unable to post last night for some unknown reason, but wanted to tell you that all of my tanks sat in the middle of the kitchen floor (I have a second kitchen in my basement) for two months while they restored the walls and floor. My 150, the Q tank and my refugium and the entire filtration system still is in the kitchen lining one whole wall. The 90 reef is plumbed through the wall and is in my bar. Looks real nice!
Also wanted to mention that I know exactly what it is like to have those humidifiers and fans blowing 24/7 trying to dry walls and floors. Hope your insurance company is planning to pull up ALL the carpet and tear out ALL the drywall at least 3 or so feet up. May as well get out all the potentially moldy stuff!
Mr. Hanky and Zafirablanca...those zip ties are an excellent idea! I have zillions of those things from the light weight ones to the extra huge thick heavy duty ones that I use in the barn on occasion. I never even thought of them! Thanks so much for the tip!
Snowbear...I hope you will post pics of your new place! Are you building it yourself? I have a friend who is doing that. A little at a time, but she is building it as funds are available. It is about 3/4 way done without a single cent of debt. They'll own it outright when they complete the project.
By the way, the hose that came off was from a Mag7. Just can't believe it happened!
 
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