Sucks to be me

[entice59]

i just had one of those days, not the same but it sucks
i noticed my when i sat on the floor practicing guitar when my pants were soaked from sitting down. i was 100% sure i didnt accidently wet my pants. Then i felt the carpet and the whole 2 foot radious of around the tank was soaked in salt water! Then i tried looking for cracks or anything that the filters might leak.
i noticed theres a piece of the media bag hanging down. It was slowly dripping water!!! its been 4 days since i changed the media bag. So it was dripping for 4 days and i didnt notice due to the fact that my crappy carpet is brown. Its not a excessive wetness its just very very very moist. I HATE MY CARPET!.
I used to a lot of towels to clean it up but now its still a little moist. What im worried about is the saltwater screwing up the wood under the carpet (fungus or mold maybe?) now im just leaving the sun to dry it up but tomorrow is going to rain!! great... just my luck. Still moist.
Just when i was enjoying my torch coral and the new frags i got this had to happen. The dead give away was the water level was lower then normal. Which i didnt notice because i was busy these few days.
Do you guys have any suggestions on what to do? any suggestions will be helpful, there is no stupid answer.

 

[krishj39]

I'd run a fan over the area. The faster you can get that water to evaporate, the less damage it will do, and the less smell it will create. Use a floor fan if you have one, or an occelating fan, and, of course, put it on high. Leave it running until you are very certain the area is dry (this may take a few days). If the fan is blowing over any open water from your tank, then you want to monitor your tank to be sure it isn't being too cooled by the increased evaporation. I can't imagine it being a problem, but thought I'd mention it as a remote possibility. When I used a fan for the same reason, the temp in my tank dropped by over a degree within an hour, just from the fan.
Hope it works out, sucks to have to clean up water in carpet, especially salt water.

 

[nm reef]

Just for that reason I keep a couple of fans and a good wet/dry vac handy. Twice now I've had to dry the carpet around my reef. Never fun...but the price we pay for the reefs we keep!

 

[striker]

Happened to me last week on an overflow. It was way worse for my carpet. About 15 gallons spilled over onto it.. Had the fan on for 2 days non-stop. Then I steam vaccumed it twice over. That did the trick.

 

[phoenixrising]

That has happened to me on several occasions...all from something different. On my birthday recently, it was an overflow problem. A few days ago, it was the RO/DI system that decided to start leaking. I have sucked water out of my carpet more than once. Bummer for sure!

 

[stpabr]

Get a hold of a SHOP VAC/Wet dry, and vac until no water comes out, and use a fan and dehumidifyer.
Good Luck..

 

[dreeves]

Get a very sharp utility knife...
Cut a perfect square around the tank stand...
Go to home depot....
Look for an attractive ceramic tile....
Get some grout (sanded), enough 1/4 exterior grade plywood to cover entire floor (where the stinking carpet was previously)...
Rip the old carpet up (from where you cut around the stand)
Install plywood...then put the tile in...
If you don't know how to do tile...Home Depot does free classes for the ceramic tile challenged...
Let it all set...get some grout sealer....seal the grout...
Get some small like 1/4 round or equivelent trim..and put that around the base of tank stand to conceal carpet there...when you move the tank ever...tile that portion in trying to match the grid pattern of the main tile job...
Then buy a wet/dry vac....next time something happens...vacume it up...

 

[entice59]

fans! thats what i should have done! now theres a fan blowing against the carpet. Thanks for the replies. Although i wish i could redo the carpet area with tiles... i cant. Thanks though! i might do that for my friend.
should i even dilute the carpet now? even though its almost dry(from what i feel).
I really wish i had hardwood floors. This house sucks. I think it was built in the around the late 60's. I think the carpet has been here ever since this house was made. No AC only a crap heater which we cant even use because it releases a nasty odor. I even got the crap room. Its freezing in the morning and stuffy and humid in the afternoon. And this is just a normal sunny day!! sucks!!! 600,000 is the estimated worth of this house, amazing how SF has expenisive houses and yet, if you moved away to a different city and you get a house thats larger and better for the same amount.
I really like to thank you guys for your help.. Ive had a spill before when my seaclone pipe decided to give out and it shot water fullblast. But atleast the water didnt marinate into the wood like what happened.

 

[melissa v.]

Since it has been a couple of day's even if you clean your carpet you might still detect some odor when the weather turns warm, so if i was you do what i do, get some baking soda and sprinkle it in the carpet and let it set for an hour or two then simply vaccume it up (works great for any odor, like cat pee etc)
good luck
Melissa V.

 

[jarvis]

I feel your pain......a similar thing happend to me today. I get better deals if I buy corals that don't hit the water in the stores tank. I walked out the door with quite a few new peices and a big smile. I was so in aww of placing new corals and watching them open up in my tank that I forgot I even got a green fox coral. He was lieing in the bag on my bed with one of those metal bands. Needless to say it was slowly leaking over about 2 hours. I had to go to the laundrymat to try and cram a queen size fetherbed in the dryer. As if my place wasn't in shambles enough LOL.

 

[snowbear]

Originally posted by kgrimes
Someone's signature here on SWF sums it up:
Dilution is the solution to pollution!
My $.02
Hey - that's me!!
This late in the game when it's almost dry I probably wouldn't add more H2O, but if it gets smelly later, a carpet cleaner would definitely be in order...

 

[entice59]

so far, still a little moist, it feels kinda dry on the top...
snowbear, great quote.
baking soda! good tip! i'll have to ask one of my friends to sniff my carpet to test it out.
jarvis, lol, when i get new things for the tank, i wouldnt even know if the house was on fire. I love this hobby