Wet carpet goona' rot ?
 

So I'm runnin' around the house this morning lookin' for my garlic pills 'cause ich has appeared in my 60g due to a new arrival..."maybe it's it's in the 90g cabinet?" No, but water is...guess what the first word out of my mouth was ? The canister filter had been leakin'. It wasn't yesterday but there were a few drips in the basement below so it was "significant".
The cabinet has a "solid base". Presumably pretty moist under it :rolleyes: .
What's my best plan of attack here ? If I take the attitude "just leave it and it'll go away" am I destined for carpet replacement when the tank "someday" gets moved ? Should I dismantle and move the tank now to lift and dry the carpet ? :cry: . Or should I just move out before the wife gets home from work...? :evil:

Doug, next time I'm feelin' gloomy, I'm going to click on "Find all posts by TANGOMAN" and have a good chuckle.

It's like Red Skelton with a reef tank... or Mr Bean.

:lol:

I'm glad I bring enjoyment to your life Alan. That's what it's all about ! I don't wanna' be a "Mr. Bean" though... :cry: How about Benny Hill ? There's always lot's of scantily clad honeys running around... :cool:
I'm soon going to write a book. I'm just in the process of gathering material... :rolleyes:
Ya' didn't offer an opinion on what to do with the damp carpet AJ ! Whaddaya' afraid if ya' say move it you'll be recruited to go steal plastic garbage cans in the middle of the night or worse yet, have to come help move the tank while the wife stands in the hallway casting evil spells upon us... :evil:

You guys do that too??? :razz:

I didn't post it because I was too busy trying to clean it up, but the other day I added a bunch of new frags to my tank. Needless to say, the epoxy made my skimmer go berserk, so I came home from work to find about five gallons of watery skimmate on the floor. Anyways I shop vac'ed it up and then blew a big fan on the carpet for a full day. No stain, no smell. Went pretty darn well.

Quinn, I keep hearing about epoxy bothering skimmers, but I've never experienced it. What epoxy are you using? I can use 1/2 a stick and my skimmer is fine!

Doug, it's probably not great for the underlay but underlay gets all musty and moldy over time anyways (ask anyone who's pulled underlay out of a room, right Brad :razz: ), you can't really stop it from happening, you might just accelerate it a wee bit. But if you can't notice any discoloration or any wetness outside of the stand footprint, I'd be inclined to not worry about it until it's time to take the tank down anyways. Odds are pretty good until that day there will be other "spillages" along the way.

Maybe places like Ram could offer us group discounts for "Frequent Flooders Club" or something...

I'm actually quite surprised how much salt water you can pour into a carpet without it rotting. And it does seem to dry out under there somehow.. :confused:

Well I would think that all the weight placed on the carpet, that not much water would get under there anyway?? I've had a couple of big spills in the past few weeks and it dries out every time (no underlay tho, its on concrete).

Christy :)

FWIW, if you've got an OSB (particleboard) subfloor, and it stays wet, it may swell and put your tank off kilter, up or down...
Can your solid base cabinet have some holes drilled in it somehow to allow the moisture to evaporate?

Mitch

Mitch, I'm fortunate the sub-floor is plywood. Never thought about the adverse reactions with an OSB sub-floor. :eek: . The cabinet base has a glass sheet silconed on to it so drilling would require Tonys services and beer...(that silicone obviously isn't sealing very well eh ?)
Deb, what are you doin' pourin' saltwater onto the carpet for ? Washin' turd stains...? You'll wanna' change your ways 'cause when you get those eclectic blue tiles installed that water will cover a lot of ground. (Like you don't already know that eh ? :rolleyes: .
Christy is this weeks winner for the most convincing load of crap award... :lol: ."No really honey, the water doesn't stay under there 'cause it's too heavy..." I like that theory the best !
I've never worried in the past about the rotting effects 'cause I was just renting...attitudes change when ya' own the place eh ?
We plan on stayin' here for a long while so the tank probably won't get moved until we replace carpets anyway ? That theory definately justifies my laziness...
I'm sure glad there's a parasitic invasion in the other tank or this would have really wrecked my day... :rolleyes:
You can come out of hiding now Alan. You won't be roaming the dark alleys tonite... :lol:

Well I'm all for the "I'll deal with it when I move" option.

Load of crap award? Woohoo! What do I win?? :razz:

Dehumidifier
 

I had this problem a few years ago when my FW discus tank overflowed in the morning cuz I forgot to turn off a timer that was attached to a water pump that was in a garbage can full of top-off water. I woke up to the sounds of the water pump gurgling as it was running almost dry and I ended with about 40 gallons on my carpet and into the basement. The flooring was plywood and after drying as much off, I put several fans aimed at the carpet around the area and I also put a dehumidifier in the room and set it at the lowest setting of 35%. Within a week and half, it was bone dry but I kept the fans and dehumidifier on for another month just to make sure the moisture in between the subfloor is "sucked" out. If possible, unscrew the lighting fixtures in the rooms underneath to expose the space between the gyproc and electrical plastic enclosure to get as much air into the subfloor. HIH

Tman wrote

You can always get a liquid that is more viscous and miscible...like say alcohol, pout it kinda where the water is … and hope it displaces the water. You can tell your wife it will evaporate easier then the water. :biggrin:

It might not work very well but it has the added advantage of taking the heat off the real problem when you explain to your wife why you poured perfectly good alcohol under your aquarium.
:rolleyes:

Oh and make sure you have wine waiting for her when she gets home, I think it takes 3 glasses beore she will believe you.

:BIG:

Ross definitely gets the "Best load of crap award!" :lol:

Chin lee, I'm fortunate in that the basement is unfinished. Chrity asks what she wins ? Well, lets see...being it is the "best load of crap award", lets say ya' win the whole load of, well, you know... :lol: . Aparently you will have to share that prize with Ross...
Ross, why would one pour perfectly good alcohol onto the carpet ? Perhaps if I was to filter it through my kidneys first, :drinking: ,but then that presents a whole new problem.

Ewww. Yeah, um ... you go ahead Doug, good luck with that.
I thought people only did that to cycle their tanks.

I am going to politely excuse myself from this thread now...

Just so you can breath a little easier. If your floor had been OSB it does not swell like particleboard. I work in a plant that manufactures sturdi-wood and have tested the stuff. Mitch is right, it will swell, but only with continued exposure to water. Not like particle board that seems to double in size the first time your water bed springs a leak. One of the ingredients in the process is wax that repels water.
I think I agree with christy and the weight thing. Ask EmilyB about how the carpet looked when she moved the 155 G.
IMO

Keith

If you can get pure acetone, that stuff evaporates like nobody's business.

Brad, I think I'm using Aquastik or something like that. It's two colours in the tube and you roll it until it's uniform. It's a clear tube with a red lid. It smells good.

Wouldn't pure acetone melt the carpet though? Good luck gettin the stand off that :wink:

tman wrote
Actually If you are worried about mold and the like, you should check the effect that a bit of alcohol has on it. Naturally one would not sacrifice ethyl alcohol...but some cheapo methyl alcohol seems to work.

I think that a small amount of alcohol might help with the mold, but who could turn down a chance to win the load of crap award?

you know I had a large spill under my stand and when i moved the carpet under the pads was perfect.. Salt is a natural preservitive so maybe it preserved the carpet and prevented rot :mrgreen:

Steve