Most common and worst flooding accidents

[viejafish]

When you place a show tank in the living area, there is always a flooding hazard. The bigger the tank, the greater the hazard and the resulting damage. There is a reason why hot water tanks are always located in the basement or garage, and never in the vulnerable living area. But it makes no sense to place your show tank in the basement or garage no one (except yourself) can appreciate.

I am creating this thread to share experience on what are the most common and worst flooding accidents, and ways to prevent them.

The most common flooding accidents I had were overfilling my tank in WC, forturnately, none were serious as I discoverd them early to prevent damage.. Now I have a scientific way to prevent overfilling. In every WC, I set my oven timer for 5 min to see how much the tank gets filled up and then project how much more time it will hit dangerous level. I reset the timer based on the projection and go back to watch TV or browse the internet.

I am blessed that in 30 years of fish keeping, I only had one really bad flooding accident. When I first started out in the hobby, I bought a 55 gal tank from a garage sale. There was a small chip on one edge I didn't notice. The tank was holding water for 6 months until one day during a WC, one edge gave up at the chipped area. 55 gal of fishy water rushed to the floor. The worst thing wasn't the cleanup, but the fishy smell in the carpet that never went away even with repeated efforts to clean it up. It was a rental apartment so I couldn't justify to replace the carpet at my expense, so I have to endure the smell for the remainder of my lease before moving out.

 

[skjl47]

When you place a show tank in the living area, there is always a flooding hazard. The bigger the tank, the greater the hazard and the resulting damage. There is a reason why hot water tanks are always located in the basement or garage, and never in the vulnerable living area. But it makes no sense to place your show tank in the basement or garage no one (except yourself) can appreciate.

I am creating this thread to share experience on what are the most common and worst flooding accidents, and ways to prevent them.

The most common flooding accidents I had were overfilling my tank in WC, forturnately, none were serious as I discoverd them early to prevent damage.. Now I have a scientific way to prevent overfilling. In every WC, I set my oven timer for 5 min to see how much the tank gets filled up and then project how much more time it will hit dangerous level. I reset the timer based on the projection and go back to watch TV or browse the internet.

I am blessed that in 30 years of fish keeping, I only had one really bad flooding accident. When I first started out in the hobby, I bought a 55 gal tank from a garage sale. There was a small chip on one edge I didn't notice. The tank was holding water for 6 months until one day during a WC, one edge gave up at the chipped area. 55 gal of fishy water rushed to the floor. The worst thing wasn't the cleanup, but the fishy smell in the carpet that never went away even with repeated efforts to clean it up. It was a rental apartment so I couldn't justify to replace the carpet at my expense, so I have to endure the smell for the remainder of my lease before moving out.

Hello; I also had a 55 empty in a rental house. I did, however, replace the carpet. I caused the damage and felt responsible. I imagine that the owners of the place had to fix the carpet for the next renter. I can also see the owners not allowing tanks in the future.

 

[BIG-G]

I had a 150 saltwater reef tank for about 8 years. Got up to go to work one morning stepped out of the bedroom and Squish! saltwater everywhere. The bottom seam let go during the night. Lost everything. About 5000 dollars worth of fish and coral. Not to mention the damage to the house.
The wife was not to happy about that one.

 

[jpcampbell123]

when I first bought my first canister filters I was new to siphoning them to start them running when setting up a new tank or doing tank cleaning or water changes I just had topped it off with some good ro water and I went to siphon it before I realized the siphon started and didn't know how the canisters worked yet as it was my first time using it I drained about half the tank out before I realized it in a matter of seconds.

 

[tiger15]

A recent thread talked about a flooding disaster caused by an air hose draining a tank. Don't underestimate what a tiny air hose can do. If back siphoning occurs during the night or when you are not home, it can drain the tank.

Air hose leak has happened to me a few times and made a big mess though not draining the tank as I discovered the leak early. I found that when I used a divider to split the air and if one hose comes loose, it can create a venturi effect sucking water out of the other hose guaranteeing leak. Now I don't use air pumps at all except in one fry tank where I place the air pump above the tank. In fact, I don't trust any filtration systems that run hoses in and out of the tank and this is why I avoid using canister systems.

 

[tanyaelec11]

walking away from a siphon hose in a 5 gallon bucket .. the hose decided it wanted to jump out and bam .. thankfully I wasn't away for too long !!!

 

[jpcampbell123]

I was filling up a 180 gallon with an ro unit and I thought I had the ro line in it good where it would not come out and I knew filling such a large tank with an ro unit would take along time so I went to sleep and checked it the next mourning to find out the line came out of the tank in the middle of the night and it flooded the whole room floor was wet for several days before it finally dried up.