flood stories

[Quinn]

after approx. 4 months, i am nearly ready to fill my 150 gal (maybe one more month at the very most). i want to hear everyone's flood stories, to get it out of my system. everything is well planned in my eyes, and i think i'll be safe if i keep my head up, and a few gallons on the floor doesn't really scare me (i have one of those super shop-vacs, we used it to empty our hot tub :cool: ). but has anyone ever actually had an entire tank drain onto their floor, and what were the circumstances?

[ranz]

Tank was set up for only two weeks, I had been working on it all day and into the late night when I decided I will test the main shut off to my overflow...
Dont know what I was thinking? within two minutes Niagra Falls was in the middle of our house, looked worse then it really was beacuse water poored off three sides...

The hobby is edicting and late nights can cause floods due to tired stupidity....

Anyways since this accident I have taken some flood precations, directing stupidity (water) right into the crawlspace, beter then the foyer...

Ranzreef

[Buccaneer]

Actually happened only a few days ago ...

I built a dual beckett skimmer and hooked it up to my sump ... finished it late and set it to half way mark on the 6" x 18" first riser and went to bed ... checked it the next morning and no change at all ... went to work and asked my wife to look in on it every now and then ... no worries all day till about 5 pm she is making supper she decides to take another look and it had overflowed the cup AND the 5 gallon bucket that it drains to from the cup ... all over the floor in the fish room :frown:

So she is calling me on the phone to try and shut it down while supper is burning on the stove and sopping up water all at the same time ! ... helluva a wife I got :cool:

Beckett is running like a champ now and pulling all kinds of junk out of the water ( did not need to run both becketts yet )

Cheers

Rasta :redface:

[sumpfinfishe]

I have only done this once, ok twice- but don't tell anyone :mrgreen:

working in the tank until all hours, replacing the cover and canopy and then powering on the return, but forgetting to replace the return line back into the tank :crazyeye:

[Canadian Man]

Back in the very early days of my tank (and my reefing knowledge) I was running a fluval 404 on my 90g tank. At this point I had no sump. I was doing my monthly fluval mantainence, unplugged the fluval, disconnected the quick connect and took the filter to the sink to clean the media and inpeller. Once the fluval was clean I proceeded to put it back on line. I put the filter in place put the quick connect back on and plugged it in to the power outlet. I had to use the fancy gadget to prime the fluval a little and once it was running I noticed there was a little bit of a leak comming from the quick connect area. I looked like the compressiong fittings for the hose. I got my pliers and began tightnening the hose fittings and crack that's when the fitting broke.........Yes the plasic it self broke!

So the output fitting (the return back to the tank) was the one that broke so I had to flows to deal with. One was the output of the filter shooting everywhere and Two was the syphon created by the filters tube hanging over the tank. :eek:

So I unplugged the fluval and that stopped the one source and the other one I tried to plug with my hand witch of course worked but being under the stand and home alone I had no way of getting the hose out of the tank. I had to let it spill some more and then I just ripped the hose out of the tank. :rolleyes:

So once that was all dont I spilled about 4" of water out of my 90g tank all over the floor and into the basement!

that's my worst spill story :evil:

[ron101]

Another Fluval 404 story. The return line came unattached and oriented itself in such a way as to 'return' the water over the back of my 90 gal (FW at the time).

I came home to a half empty tank and very squishy carpet. Went to unplug everything to stop the funny noises and got a nice jolt. Had to move the fishies to spare tanks and tear down the 90 to wet vac the carpet and replace the underlay. Took a few days to get everything done and the carpet to dry out.

[TANGOMAN]

There appears to be two common factors here. Fatigue and Fluval. (If ya' look up Fluval in a Latin dictionary you will find "Flu" means to flood, "Val" means all over the floor when your not in the room... :lol: . Oh, lighten up, I've got several Fluvals. Almost as many good memories as bad too.
One term has not been mentioned yet but I'll bet most of ya' got nailed a few times because of it. Temporary. Oh that's a word that is always accompanied by a statement like, "I should have finished it properly the first time".
When we first moved into this house last year I had a lot of temporaries in the basement...I also got ready for work and was aware of a "wet concrete smell" more times than I'd ever tell ya' 'cause you'd just think I was a clown...
So teevee, if I recall you live with your parents and they were so happy to see that reservoir go to the second floor of their home. How's about sayin' at dinner the other fish guys assured me it's not a question of if it will cause a flood, but when... :lol: . (Post pictures)
A tank that size could always be used as coffin... :eek:

[Quinn]

hahaha well said! my sump isn't in the basement, by the way, assuming that's what you thought. nope, it's all in my bedroom. i feel a wave of nausea everytime i open my door (just kidding). i'm counting on careful planning and my massive shop-vac to take care of things, but if it ever gets serious... there will be a 150 gal available on the buy/sell forum.

honestly though, i expect this to be one heck of an adventure. getting the tank up the stairs with two people was enough fun, wait till it's set up!

[Bob I]

I was just watching a movie in which the bathtub on the second floor overflowed. As the water ran down the stairs, I could not help thinking of Teevee. I was thinking that he is not all that tall, and you only have to bend his legs a bit to get him to fit in the tank for burial. :BIG:

[Quinn]

:lol: i would definently fit into the tank. there's some guy on RC who's signature is something like "when i die, cremate me and put my ashes in my deep sand bed". but i have no DSB so i guess that won't work for me.

[EmilyB]

http://www.crazypics.de/smilies/frech053.gif

well.........I was wondering where to start..........but...what can I say.. :eek: (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=flood+Deb+Hadford&btnG=Google+Search&meta=group%3Drec.aquaria.marine.*)

Might even get more hits with cracked trickle filters.... :rolleyes:

[Quinn]

deb that's just frightening. and brings up the whole issue of water changes... 20% every two weeks, let's say, is 30 gallons. where am i going to put thirty gallons of water? for emptying the tank, i suppose i could attach a mag18 to a garden hose and pump it down the hall and out onto the patio. refilling is another story. how about a garbage can at the bottom of the stairs filled with the new water... drop the mag18 into the can, run the hose all the way up the stairs into the sump, and let 'er rip! think it would work? would be a job for two, that's for certain. i really should have thought harder about doing a first-floor sump, set up the same way jon has his done. my first floor is a workshop area so i could spill all i wanted without a care. :neutral:

[StirCrazy]

Well lets see, a long long time a go (yesterday) I was starting to drive up Island to visit a friend when my cell rang and the kid said my tank was low on water and making funny noise.

So I turned the rig around and headed home to find my return pump had quit. It was no big deal; the sump held it all and the funny noise was one of my power heads splashing a bit. So I took the mag out and found it needed a good cleaning so as it was soaking I was playing with my truck and then it was announced that the carpet all around the tank was wet and we have a water fall out of the bottom tank. After a quick survey I found the problem, I use a power head to take water from my main tank and sent it up top to the refuge where it in turn spills back to the main tank. Well not quite, it spills into the overflow in the main tank (see where I am going). So even thought my overflows had stopped the water from the main tank from going to the bottom tanks, this power head was still pumping water to the bottom tanks. So I ended up doing a 5 gal water change, and re routing the return from the refuge.

This was about the time the tank tour was at Shane's so it was a good thing no one showed up here... mind you, you might have been able to learn a few new words :eek:

Steve

[BCOrchidGuy]

Knocks on wood and just doesn't say anything....

actually I've left water running a couple times filling my 10 gallon mixing tank but I catch it before I have a mess, BUT I'm glad I keep my aquariums in the basement on the concrete... just incase..

[EmilyB]

i suppose i could attach a mag18 to a garden hose and pump it down the hall and out onto the patio

Yes, but imo I would use a mighty python, and you can't dump salt water onto a patio.......unless you want dead everything around it and salt stains to boot.... :wink:

The filling part sounds okay.....never had a flood of major consequence during a water change (once we figured out it either needs two people, or a timer for the 'alzeimeric'.....or the easily distracted.. :eek: )

[Quinn]

hmm actually i could pump it straight out my bedroom window, just brush out there.

thinking through this process, i think i've actually got it figured out now!

[EmilyB]

This was about the time the tank tour was at Shane's so it was a good thing no one showed up here...

Damn Steve, if I had known there was a flood tour available, I would have DEFINITELY hit that one.... :lol: Brad just had some vague memories....... :rolleyes: :mrgreen:

[BCOrchidGuy]

I find the easiest way to do water changes is to do 10 gallons weekly, a 10 gallon tank is dirt cheap and its sure alot easier than trying to do 20 or 30 gallons every two weeks or so....

[Quinn]

bcorchid what size of tank are you working with? i'll have about 180 gallons of water in my system. i do plan to do smaller changes once everything is established (maybe in a year or so).

[Canadian Man]

http://www.crazypics.de/smilies/frech053.gif

well.........I was wondering where to start..........but...what can I say.. :eek: (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=flood+Deb+Hadford&btnG=Google+Search&meta=group%3Drec.aquaria.marine.*)

Might even get more hits with cracked trickle filters.... :rolleyes:

:rofl: Dam Deb! That's alot of hits for you and flooding! :eek: :lol:

[EmilyB]

did I win? :biggrin: :neutral:

[Michael]

after approx. 4 months, i am nearly ready to fill my 150 gal (maybe one more month at the very most). i want to hear everyone's flood stories, to get it out of my system. everything is well planned in my eyes, and i think i'll be safe if i keep my head up, and a few gallons on the floor doesn't really scare me (i have one of those super shop-vacs, we used it to empty our hot tub :cool: ). but has anyone ever actually had an entire tank drain onto their floor, and what were the circumstances?

Well, I don't know if this is what you are looking for but I'll share this story with everyone.
I had a 135 gallon tank (72X20X24) crack right in the centre , and flooded my apartment. 2 janitors were using 2 shopvacs to suck up the water, but couldn't keep up with it. ( I was busy trying to save the fish). The water went from my 6th floor apartment all the way to the underground garage. Luckily, no one sued me.

Michael

[BCOrchidGuy]

LOL... I can imagine people were so pleased with you....

[Quinn]

Well, I don't know if this is what you are looking for but I'll share this story with everyone.
I had a 135 gallon tank (72X20X24) crack right in the centre , and flooded my apartment. 2 janitors were using 2 shopvacs to suck up the water, but couldn't keep up with it. ( I was busy trying to save the fish). The water went from my 6th floor apartment all the way to the underground garage. Luckily, no one sued me.

Michael

if he had 135 gallons on a sixth floor, then at least i can safely assume my tank won't come crashing through my floor!

[Bob I]

if he had 135 gallons on a sixth floor, then at least i can safely assume my tank won't come crashing through my floor!

Unfortunately that is not a safe assumption due to the fact that apartment buildings are constructed differently than houses. :sad:

[Quinn]

oh... well nevermind then. :razz:

[Michael]

The only bad thing was that when we moved into our new house, my tank (new since the old was was garbage) was banished to the basement right over the emergency drain in the basement floor. So any water leak would do minimal damage.

[Bartman]

I had a problem doing a water change with a Python on a fresh water tank. It was late (as usual) and I mistakenly opened the valve with the tap water on (got confused). I hosed down a wall, a painting (oil paint, luckily) and a couch before I could react. :eek:

[TANGOMAN]

Teevee, I think your right. If it's ok on the sixth floor it'll be fine on a second floor.
OK, now that we've (I've) begun the process of increasing Bob's blood pressure...I ponder a thought, would the tank not be safer on a higher floor as atmospheric pressure, 14.7psi?, is decreased as we approach the stratosphere. Thats a half-baked thought somewhere between physics and one of those "hippie-type" :cool: phylosophy questions kgb asks in the lounge... :eek:
Also keep in mind that people drive so fast just to get out of Red Deer that there is actually a vacuum created...actually, Red Deer's not that bad. It's alway's been a great spot for a pee break when headin' to Edmonchuk... :lol:
Anyway, I gotta' go. I just temporarily set my old Fluval 404 on the 90g as I'm preparing to get some rocks for Bobs garden... :rolleyes: :eek:

[Delphinus]

Well if the pressure is less at higher altitudes, would that not help to siphon water out of the tank? The likelihood of spillage thus increases the higher you go!!!!

(I am just kidding, Quinn, you'll be fine. You have the shopvac already .... )

[Quinn]

hahaha! this could be bad for any airline pilots hoping to bring their nano with them on that next flight!

regardless, thanks for the input everyone. at least now i know what to look out for. i was more concerned about floods involving shattered tanks, but at 5/8" and 3/4", i doubt that will happen. of course that doesn't account for my sump tank... and when that goes... TONY LOOK WHAT YOU DID! :lol: :razz: no worries, although i have to say i scared myself the other night. the tank (with baffles in place and everything now) is sitting in my stand, and i was sliding my CO2 tank into the stand alongside it, and i banged the side of the tank - half expected to see a massive crack form. luckily no damage was done.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Well don't forget that 14.7 lbs/sq in is from the atmosphere to sealevel, so the 6th floor may bring the atmospheric pressure down to 14.9996 lbs/sq in....

Most... well alot of apartments that were built in the last few decades are mainly concrete.... so, if the 6th floor wasn't an issue, you need to consider the fact that there is a good chance the building was concrete not wooden framed.

I think how you place your tank and divide up the weight will determine if that is a risk or not. If you just have 4 small feet/legs on the stand then you have to consider how much weight per square inch you are putting on the floor... If you can find the joices and place your stand so it is being supported by them and not by the plywood under your floor, and then have your tank against a load bearing wall I think you will do well....
(does it sound like I have a clue what I am saying?)

[Bob I]

... If you can find the joices and place your stand so it is being supported by them and not by the plywood under your floor, and then have your tank against a load bearing wall I think you will do well....
(does it sound like I have a clue what I am saying?)

Not really, but I would like to find some Joices, actually one would be fine.

I think you meant to say Quinn should find the JOISTS. :eating:

[BCOrchidGuy]

I used to date a girl named Joyce, real sweet, real cute.... I should look her up... DOH.. wife didn't like her.... lol

[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.