Roommate tried to help.... FML

[Flash]

SO It's 6:30.... I'm sleeping, and my gf screams at me that my tank is overflowing.... I jumped out of bed run down stairs, cut the power grab a bucket start scooping... hardwood floor is wet, rug underlay i have under the tank is sopping... I yell for towels and out little green carpet steam cleaner... my gf calls the roommate who sent her a text and had already left for work and she her defense was "well her tank was bubbling so i added 6 buckets of water and it still wouldn't stop" so I sent you a text to let you know and left.... I turned the pump back on and opened my valve to my overflow fully and a snail pops out into my sump.

I spent an hour trying to get all the water up I could. Opened the window beside the tank fully, cranked the heat and have it pointed from the vent at the foor by a piece of glass.... soaked up as much water with towels and rags and am now using news paper under the underlay to try and draw as much moisture out as possible. I checked my salinity, thank goodness it was at a level it can afford to drop a bit but now I have to try and get someone to cover for me so I can go home at lunch and see how the situation is coming.... my fear is the moisture trapped under the stand. nothing leaked into the basement... i went and checked that first.... should a drill a hole into the wood my sump sits on and blow a hair dryer into it??

my first major tank oops... and only 4 days before my parents come to visit... GREAT.... ugh....

[subman]

That sucks!! If you need anything lmk

[Delphinus]

Egads, good luck with everything. :neutral:

[reef-keeper]

I really know how you feel that sort of thing happened to me a few years back. Good thing you were at home. I went to work then come home to the front of my tank shattered all over the floor. When all said and done cost of repair was well over $15,000.00. That was the cost to replace the hardwood floor with better water resistant type hardwood. And it took me a long time and a move across the country to be able to have a betta bowl. Today I have a 40 gallon Discus tank and trying to set up a 135 and a 15gallon seahorse tank.

[Flash]

the good news is it was within 45min.... so i think i managed to get most of the water.... i am not pleased with my roommate though.... not pleased at all.. i have banished her from touching my tank ever.... harsh... yes... but it had to be done.

[troni]

hold on so your roomate added 6 buckets of water? WTF

[Flash]

hold on so your roomate added 6 buckets of water? WTF

exactally.... SO... you'd thing if the water you're adding to the sump.... isn't being returned to the sump there's a blockage in the overflow right?! WRONG... just add some more water.... I should explain the 6 buckets totalled about 10 gallons. but still... tank level rising.... sure.. let's add another!! ugh.....going home @ 1 to see how it's dried out and check my fish and corals.... i am so not impressed and she knows it.

[reefgirl189]

This is bringing me back to the days where I had roommates... *shudders*

I'm sorry. What a sh*tty way to wake up in the morning.

[Oilers]

I hope she added Prime to the water at least. Sorry to hear the news Flash. It's not something you want to wake up to for sure.

[Flash]

ya I thought someone had died.... instead my hardwood floor was soaked... not super fun! lol! could have been way worse though!!!

[Proteus]

I would have cut off her fingers.

Nobody touches my tank

[Oilers]

I would have cut off her fingers.

Nobody touches my tank Wow, easy there Titus. Another enemy for life thread? :twised:

[Flash]

just not impressed i have to go home and check on it and the floor... hopefully opening the window right beside the tank helped!

[troni]

Wow, easy there Titus. Another enemy for life thread? :twised:

+1

just not impressed i have to go home and check on it and the floor... hopefully opening the window right beside the tank helped!

if its still damp get a fan on it!

[Flash]

If i owned a fan I would! lol!

[Proteus]

Wow, easy there Titus. Another enemy for life thread? :twised:

Haha. My wife had a play date with 20 kids running around
My house. I got them dropping shells in the tank. At least it was just shells. But every one of them had to put there greasy fingers in there

Might have to get some poles and velvet rope around it. Lol

[Flash]

i think we have some do not touch stickers at work I could take home! lmao!!

good news is, so far I think the floor will be semi-okay... we'll see later though... the newspaper was dripping wet for I changed that out in hope to get more moisture by the time I get home and the wind is blowing righyt in the window which is helping a lot i am sure.... last thing I need to to be stressed about my fish tank, right when it was perfect!!!!

[sphelps]

Crappy deal, if it's solid hardwood or engineered the damage should be minimal if any.

Just curious but I'm guessing you're using a herbie style drain and your back up couldn't handle excess?? On the bright side you were home and the damage is minimal and you can fix the issue that caused it in the first place. If this happened while you were away things would be much worse.

[Flash]

yup it's herbie'd... and i am very lucky i was home... just not awsome waking up to screaming and a flooded floor

[fishoholic]

Yikes! glad the tank is ok though.

[subman]

yup it's herbie'd... and i am very lucky i was home... just not awsome waking up to screaming and a flooded floor

did the back up fail too?

[philg3]

Almost the same thing happened when I was in Iceland... frantic roommate phone call saying the pump was running dry and topping up wouldnt help.

I got him to turn off the return and put a hang on skimmer i had. Came home to lots of algae outbreaks and the display filled with heaters and hoses, but no flood at least.

Sorry to hear about the flood, roommates need tank training days. At least with your parents around you have some extra hands to help out with the cleanup!

[subman]

I got that call once too. From my niece who was house sitting for me while I was on holidays in San Diego. Tank was overflowing and the top off was adding to it...as it turns out my trigger locked himself in the drain line. Little bugger bit her hard enough to draw blood when she tried to grab him lol. The tank was a mess for a bit but didn't lose anything

[subman]

At least with your parents around you have some extra hands to help out with the cleanup!

I have a feeling it better be perfectly clean before they get there.
:twised:

[Flash]

I have a feeling it better be perfectly clean before they get there.
:twised:

house has to be spotless.... ugh...

[noirsphynx]

house has to be spotless.... ugh...

So does this mean they now know about Ryder or is that gonna be a surprise :lol:

[Flash]

they still think he's a foster dog! and they don't know i got my lip pierced... or about the new furniture, or lola... or that i framed the basement... or that i bought a new truck.... it will be an interesting weekend.

[noirsphynx]

they still think he's a foster dog! and they don't know i got my lip pierced... or about the new furniture, or lola... or that i framed the basement... or that i bought a new truck.... it will be an interesting weekend.

OH MY :rofl2: shouldn't be a boring visit :lol:

[Flash]

i already have a bet with sarah that as soon as she sees my lip she'll go stay with my aunt and uncle. then i'll get a big ass lecture about buying a new vechical and she'll be one ****ed off mom... probably won't say much to me this weekend!

[christyf5]

LOL! Do they own the house? They kind of sound like scary parents :razz:

My hubby knows not to touch the tank or god forbid he buy me a nice new fish and put it in the tank for me (I have heard of some people doing that and yikes! :eek:). He calls me if I'm not home and there is an issue and either its not a huge deal (no water on the floor, everything is alive and something is beeping) or it is a huge deal (water on the floor or dead stuff) and I walk him through what needs to be done.

Hope your floors survived ok :biggrin:

[Flash]

we both own the house.... but mom always has something to say! lol!

i spent a good portion of my night switching out news paper (thank god we got flyers last week) and using a blow dryer on and off for about 4 hours... i'll go home tonight and really look it over... all of the stress in the tang has now given my scopas tang ich.. Freaking awesome.... NOT... but it's eating like a champ and still best friends with my sailfin... so i will just watch it.. there is no way of getting it out without tearing down my tank and stressing everyone else out.

[RuGlu6]

This is what i use
http://www.reefshops.com/hang-on-overflow-box-small-size-clone-2.html
This overflow is long/wide so snail or anything else will have hard time blocking it. But nevertheless I use a screener on the intake and a second screener on the bulkhead. Also i use a vacuum cleaner hose (wide) to drain the overflow, and last but not least low return flow from sump to the display tank. This slow water flow is for two reasons: Gives skimmer (in the sump)better chance to process the water available at the moment and keeps usage of electricity low (no need for a high flow pump). Inside the display tank i have a high water movement with Tunze pumps. (low voltage also)

The next step in safety is built in duorso stile oveflow with extra overflow pipes for redundency.

[tt101]

they still think he's a foster dog! and they don't know i got my lip pierced... or about the new furniture, or lola... or that i framed the basement... or that i bought a new truck.... it will be an interesting weekend.

hahaha this made me loooool so much!!!! omg i would love to see the look on their faces.....btw if you dont mind me asking but who is lola?

[Flash]

LOL! Lola is a dog... if you can call her that... i prefer the term guinea pig that barks... she was a rescue and in rough shape but my other half took her in as her own (so i am not taking any blame for that dog being in the house) lol she's a Chorkie... chihuahua-yorkie mix weighs all of 2.5 lbs! lmao!

[tt101]

LOL! Lola is a dog... if you can call her that... i prefer the term guinea pig that barks... she was a rescue and in rough shape but my other half took her in as her own (so i am not taking any blame for that dog being in the house) lol she's a Chorkie... chihuahua-yorkie mix weighs all of 2.5 lbs! lmao!

haahahah thats more of a barking fuzzy slipper!!! omg that must be adorable lol. her being so small your parents shouldn't mind too much...i thought lola was your girlfriend/wife and your parents didn't know she was living with you.......now that would make for some intresting tv with popcorn:wink:

[Flash]

no sarah is my wife and they know about her! lmao!!

[tt101]

hahahahah i would hope so!! lool. this is still going to be a great weekend:wink:

[gregzz4]

Wow
This is why I'm contemplating a float switch inside my overflow box to cut power to the return pump. It may end up cycling a lot until I find out about it, but pumps are cheap compared to the alternative.

Hope the visit goes better than you are thinking

[Flash]

lol it would have been fine and my pump would have just run half dry for another 20min.. worse case is pump died, i have a back-up..... not had 6 buckets of water added! lol!

[tt101]

lol it would have been fine and my pump would have just run half dry for another 20min.. worse case is pump died, i have a back-up..... not had 6 buckets of water added! lol!

hahah lol, i mean your room mate was trying to help.......albeit in a bad way but still......lol

[sphelps]

I still don't get why it failed, if back up drain can't handle the full flow from the return on it's own then you have quite a large issue. This is Herbie 101. I would hope you've fixed this so this won't happen again.

PS good luck with the folks, for the record it's easier to tell them these things over the phone when they happen. They can't do much from a different city so this would be the smarter play as appose to doing it all in person at once :surprise:

[Flash]

the problem was a turbosnail that was blocking the water at the ballvalve... one turn of that thing and TING! everything was back to normal! damn snails... I'll be looking to make an egg-crate fix tonight!

[sphelps]

the problem was a turbosnail that was blocking the water at the ballvalve... one turn of that thing and TING! everything was back to normal! damn snails... I'll be looking to make an egg-crate fix tonight!

If your main line gets clogged which can happen easily because it has a partially closed valve then the back up must be able to handle resulting flow. Eggcrate is not a solution, the back up drain should be sized better or the flow should be reduced.

[Flash]

ask big tang... he's the one that plumbed my tank!

[sphelps]

ask big tang... he's the one that plumbed my tank!

Then you should ask him to fix it cause it's not right.

[Flash]

awesome.... anyonew want to come re-plumb my tank?

[Flash]

apparently my overflow is too small..... sucks to be me I guess

[sphelps]

apparently my overflow is too small..... sucks to be me I guess

What do you mean? You have two drains correct? What size are they?

[redddogg]

Sounds like the OP has a siphon type overflow and is mistaking that with a Herbie. Or a drilled tank with an overflow box and no emergency drain.

[Doc_Polit]

$hitty luck but you are not alone.

I am sure numerous reefers have had a snail or 2 teach them how to mop. :twised:

[sphelps]

Sounds like the OP has a siphon type overflow and is mistaking that with a Herbie. Or a drilled tank with an overflow box and no emergency drain.

If you only have one drain then you can't use a valve to restrict the flow safely.

[gregzz4]

Flash, what type of drain setup do you have? Regular, Herbie ... ?
I have done a couple designs on my overflow box and I am going to end up with a plexi cover instead of eggcrate or mesh or etc.
I was going to go with this

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx136/Gregzz4/75%20Gallon%20Build/DSC00835.jpg

But have since decided to make an acrylic cover. It won't be suspended this time; it will sit on top. It'll have tabs on the inside to keep it from sliding around.
The only things that will make it into the overflow will have to get through the teeth.