Tank Flood Cleanup Advice

[ccary23]

Well it finally happened to me. I got the call that water is all over the floor. My tank is in my 2nd floor office which is carpeted. Basement is unfinished is the only +.  

[ReefdUp]

Ohhh nooo. It's awful, I know. I hope the tank is ok.

 

Unfortunately I've been through this, and you won't like what I have to say. This is assuming it wasn't bad enough for insurance... but bad enough that it's not a little clean-up job either....

 

Pull up the carpet and throw out the pad (to at least where it was water-logged). Use carpet cleaners to remove as much of the water as you can, then clean the carpets. Prop the carpet up on buckets and get the industrial "hamster wheel" fans to dry it out. You'll likely also need to get a dehumidifier to draw moisture out of the air. If it got to the walls, you'll need to remove the baseboards and probably cut ventilation holes in the drywall to let it dry out. There are drywall mousture meters that I highly recommend using to know when you can put it all back together again. There are a lot of great water remdiation places that will rent you the equipment or just put the carpet and pad down for you.

 

I've never seen any attempt to salvage a pad turn out well (unless it was a waterproof pad).

 

This is from experience with a legitimate house flood, where we had to actually call in experts. I watched everything, knowing that I would need to know what to do for an aquarium flood. Sure enough, it happened with my tank, and we knew what to do. If we had cut corners, we'd be facing moldy carpet and mold in the drywall. Not worth it.

 

Good luck. 

 

 

[WheresTheReef]

More details? How much water are talking about?

[DaJMasta]

As with any water, humidity remediation is a top priority, so get some fans going down there and run a dehumidifier if you can, especially if it was a large volume of water.  Saltwater can be nasty to a bunch of things, so it may actually be beneficial to clean off things with fresh water in small portions, but I would look around for saltwater cleanup tips - I'm not sure how necessary this would actually be, and it would likely depend on material/sealing treatment.


An alternative to removing baseboards could be opening the ceiling from below, but if it's unfinished, maybe just circulation under the floor could be sufficient.  As said, if it was a large tank/complete loss of water, it may be best to contact a flood remediation company at least for a consultation.

[ccary23]

Thank you all for the advice. I have a RR750xxl. All but 5% of the water was out of the tank when I got home.  I used a shop vac and now I have a carpet blower running.  From what I can deduce, a siphon started. 

 

I may end up out of the hobby for a while after this one. The tank is to heavy to be taking down and putting back up again.  

 

On a positive note all of my fish survived.