Entire Living room flooded this morning!!!

[HumanBean]

Well, today at 1 am in the morning am awaken by loud bangs on the door. At first I thought it was the police, but when I started approaching the living room, which is carpet covered btw. I noticed the most terrifying noise I ever heard, the sound of my bare feet splashing around in 2 inches of water. Worst fear coming to reality, as I continue walking into the living room , I look to my right and there it was, a 220 gallon tank half empty, with filters still running. I thought the worst of it , when I answered the door it was my bottom floor tenant telling me his ceiling was getting wet. Now as I turn towards the tank and at this point , everything seems to be moving at slow motion. I inspect the tank fast and I realized there is no cracks, nothing is broken so how the heck, am missing 50% of water that's laying all over my living room and dinning room. 110 gallons on the floor is a scary sight, now at this point I realized my 15" long 2.5" wide fat Endli bichir is gone, so there laying next to the dinning table which is like 5 feet from the tank, lays my pride and joy, wasn't moving and he looked dark so I left him there for dead as I turned all my filters off. Now I approached the Endli and touched him, he was dry and wasn't moving so I grabbed him. Once I layed a full grasp on him the son of a gun starts jerking around so I freak out and dumped him in the tank. He started gasping for air in the bottom for a good 10 minutes then starts swimming like nothing ever happened..... are you serious >??????? So at this point I start looking to see how this whole mess happended. My tank has super heavy glass lids only with a small opening in the back for the inlet and outlet of the filters, literally about 2" gap, there I realized that one of the output was knocked out of the tank. So this little son of a gun somehow I mean 1% freak of nature must of bolted himself straight into the output that only has a small 2 " gap and knocked it off the tank and himself................................................................................. Well to make the story short from now on. Had to call a vacuum company at 2 am, which they surprisingly came in like 20 min, vacuumed my place, cleaned carpet, dried it in under an hour... A++ service . I refilled tank and everything back to normal.

What I learned from this>? don't underestimate the strength of this bichirs.. my goodness .. I also placed 3 x heavy duty suction cups on every output so no more knocking it right off.

I had a beautiful night, 4: 30 am I finished cleaning everything up and I had to leave to work at 5.... Welcome to my world !

Scary situation. But please put a face to the name of convicted ?

 

[Ihsnshaik]

That is an insane story! Im glad everything worked out for you! Good thing your downstairs neighbor came and told you. How long was your output? It caused half your tank water gone? Any pictures of the situation?

 

[nd496]

Yeah the carpet has a foam under, the guy told me most of the water was retained by the foam and that only the corner were the output was directly spraying on was the one that got through the foam into the bottom neighbor ceiling. I will run fans and AC for as long as I feel the carpet is super dry. I will look into a humidifier right away. Thank you for the advice.

DEhumidifier. Those two letters are an important difference.

 

[Wailua Boy]

Wow, at least you caught it early, opposed to letting it sit for a few days. I would run a blower for a few days to assist in drying...

 

[pops]

Yikes!!

 

[jamntoast]

Yea this must have suuuuucked. At an old apartment I was filling a tank during a water change and got distracted. Was away for 15 minutes or so when a shot of terror hit me as I remembered the water was still on. I think I used every towel and bed sheet in the place to soak up the inch of water on the floor. Luckily the floor was a bit slanty so it all ended up in the corner the aquarium was in instead of spread across the bedroom. I feel your pain. Hope there isn't any permanent damage to the floor

 

[Pataphysicist]

That is an insane story! Im glad everything worked out for you! Good thing your downstairs neighbor came and told you. How long was your output? It caused half your tank water gone? Any pictures of the situation?

The thing is I don't leave my outputs long, I just like to leave the U shape tube and I don't attach any tubing to make it longer, I like the look of just water pouring down into the tank. And my fish like to get under it and get hit by it.

That is an insane story! Im glad everything worked out for you! Good thing your downstairs neighbor came and told you. How long was your output? It caused half your tank water gone? Any pictures of the situation?

Last thing on my mind was taking pictures lol, all I wanted was that whole disaster cleaned up FAST. Only damage I really got is the tank wooden stand, on the spot were the output came off is bubbleing up a bit. Should affect the tank, I wiped the entire tank stand with pledge and olive oil. I guess when I move, is time to replace the stand with a steel stand !

 

[viejafish]

The length of the output U tube has nothing to do with flooding. You don’t want to extend the U tube to eliminate aeration from cascading water. The OP has a violent fish that pushed it off the ground. I have heard similar flooding disasters from a house cat that played with and knocked the tube off the ground or scratched a hole in it. Canister filters are vulnerable to flooding accident because they have external plumbing and if any part leaks, it can drain the tank. One way to avert flooding disaster is to provide anti siphon break in the intake tube so if there is a leak, it is limiting to draining no more than the siphon break allows. Personally, I do not trust any filtration system that has external plumbing in my living area.

 

[CORVETTE]

I have a water alarm that sits on the floor under my tank it it senses moisture it goes off with a high pitch scream... only around $20 and its lasted about 2 years so far, I check it from time to time, might be a good investment. This ones was on ebay.

The water leak detectors are a set of mini alarms that you can place in your basement floor and will sound out an alarm once it detects any sort of water or moisture on the floor. No longer will you have to worry about heavy rain storms, if your sump pump is working properly, a leaky water heater, or if you ate too much Chipotle and clogged up the toilet and let the poop water flow down through the cracks to your basement, the water leak alarms will let you know if there is a water emergency. The water flood detectors fire off an extremely loud alarm at 95dbs that will last for up to 24 hours, come in a set of 3 alarms, and has a non-replaceable battery that will last for up to 2-3 years after purchase.

 

[convict360]

This whole thing makes me glad I'm not using a canister anymore, or any external filtration; regardless of superior filtration capability!