Wet carpet goona' rot ?

[TANGOMAN]

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 .
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 ? . Or should I just move out before the wife gets home from work...?

[AJ_77]

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.

[TANGOMAN]

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... How about Benny Hill ? There's always lot's of scantily clad honeys running around...
I'm soon going to write a book. I'm just in the process of gathering material...
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...

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by TANGOMAN

... to go steal plastic garbage cans in the middle of the night...

You guys do that too???

[Quinn]

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.

[Aquattro]

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!

[Delphinus]

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 ), 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...

[EmilyB]

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..

[christyf5]

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

[MitchM]

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