Room Flooded! Carpets, what else to do?!?!?!

[SawickiB]

Hi, as you know my room has flooded, frogive me but i was watching a movie in the other room and completely forgot i was filling up my 180 gallon! Now there is a mess of water all over the place, im afraid to turn the power on in my room atm and ive used all the towels i can, they are all soaked now. I have 2 fans connected to the hall way blowing into my room and bathroom but it seems like the water is leeching everywhere under the carpet! Is there anything else i can do? Ive also opened up all the windows, i really dont want to have to take down my 180 to clean this and i have such priceless fish in there, but it seems this may be my only option soon

 

[rayguy84]

Shop vac and to suck up all the water u can then pull up an edge of the carpet up and rent an industrial drying fan that sits underneath the carpet to dry the pad and floor

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[krichardson]

Do you have wood floors where the spill occurred?

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Not enough information in your initial post. Some key things will be the type of carpet? The type of floor? Did the water get into the walls? Was it a few gallons or a great deal of water? Upstairs room? basement room?

Having had aquariums leak on carpeted floors myself and having done some carpet instillation as a side job, I can say that aquariums and carpet do not mix. You can do the shop vac, fans and open windows but much will depend on how much water is involved and the answer to my questions above. If you are lucky and have cement floors under the carpet, then the damage may only be the carpet.

A lot of water on wood floors can damage the floor. Even with fans and such it can take days to dry a carpet. A carpet with a pad under it is even harder to deal with. The pad holds water. Carpet can sometimes be saved if it is pulled up and a new pad down. Even with the carpet and pad pulled it can take a while to dry a soaked floor. Some types of wood floor will warp when soaked. The quicker you get it dry the better.

If you try to just dry it from the surface without pulling it up there is a chance of getting a lot of mold growth. There is a fair chance that small spills from the tank over time have already made long lasting damp spots and the mold is already in place. There is fair chance for an interesting smell to develop.

Good luck

 

[SawickiB]

Thanks for the info, i will be trying the vac today, ill have to talk to my dad about further actions i can take.

The floor is like a tan, short carpet, i believe there is cement underneath because i live in florida, i believe it went out the back onto the walls, it was enough to fill my bathroom and soak 1/3 of my bedroom, midde floor because we dont have a up or down stairs.

I woke to find lots of dead fish i lost my moke, polli, ornate, palmas palmas, weeksii, angelfish x2, winemilleri x2 not sure why though... most of them can breath surface air :/

 

[clgkag]

See if you can rent a dehumidifier to help pull the water out of the air. It will help the water evaporate out of the carpet.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; A cement floor does not warp from being wet and that is a plus. You may have a fighting chance to dry things out. Keep an eye on the walls for any sign that the water wicked up. Fans, open windows when it is dry outside, a shop vac to pull water directly from the carpet and a dehumidifier as already suggested.

A short nap carpet will dry quicker than a thicker carpet. It was common to glue a jute backed carpet directly to cement floors and thus there may not be any sort of pad or foam under it. If so that is better. There can be a pad or foam backing under the carpet of course, but it is some what less likely on cement.

Could it be that the power being off hurt the fish?

 

[SawickiB]

It may have been combined stress with such are large water change, and then no flow for only about 7 hours even, i thought the 180 gallons wouldve carried enough oxygen for them to survive the night i got an extension cord and turned on one of my filters and some bubblers hopefully this helps a bit more.

 

[xraycer]

Could it be that the power being off hurt the fish?

Probably such a massive wc caused a huge swing in pH and temp.....then there's the likelihood chlorine issue

 

[SawickiB]

I have well water, so yea that what i believe happened as well, its so wierd with what fish died to. I had 7 bichirs die while my one weeksii survived, i had 2 nandus nandus one died, 4 red head tapajo (the most healthiest alpha died), i had 4 winemilleri 3 died, 2 angels both died, dead severum, and my L25 and 15" common pleco survived.