flood stories

[Jeff]

The circumstances: 8-9 years ago. In a 10'x15' dorm room at university. Had my 72 gal reef beside my bed. Used a self-made 5+' tall countercurrent skimmer that was fed by pumping with a powerhead out of tank. Overflow (IIRC) was from the top of the tube brought it back into the tank. Airline was up near the top.

What happened: Did some adjustments on the skimmer/tank. Went to a party then to a bar. Got home at 3:30AM in an "extremely" drunken state. Tank half empty. Entire floor soggy and squishy and pooled with water. Turns out I had accidentely disconnected the airpump hose that fed the airstone (wood) so water drip-dropped out of that airline for 8-9 hours and proceeded to spread itself across my room. Luckily and surprisingly no casualties in the tank. Just a hellish night cleaning up 35 gallons of salt water from my carpeted floor water while falling-over-drunk.

Upon reflection I don't remember how that much water got out of the tank. I wouldn't have submerged the powerhead very deep. Maybe it had fallen off it's suckers. I don't recall.