Guest Kimo March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 Well, it finally happened to me. My skimmer overflowed last night and dumped 10 gallons onto my brand new carpet. Luckily the carpet is on a slab, so there's not floor underneath to rot away. I extracted everything I could this morning and peeled the carpet back - The pad is SOAKED. This is not looking good. I used 1.5" PVC fittings to hold the carpet away from the pad on the left side of the tank (the water ran across the room - affected about a 7x2 area) and I folded back what I could. I have a walmart 20" box fan blowing on it on high right now. Hopefully it will dry out without destroying the pad. What do you all think? Any advice? This SUCKS. Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Grenier March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 If you don't own one, rent a carpet cleaner and clean the heck out of the carpet. Do the affected spot twice and the whole carpet once. Turn the thurmostat up a few degrees to remove the moisture faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelg March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 The carpet pad will probably be fine. Thing you really want to prevent is mold growing there, and drying it out like you are should work fine. Congrats on christining the new carpet! What kind of skimmer was it that pumped that much water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 1) shop vac 2) dehumidifier I also agree with the carpet cleaner. We've got one of the portable vacuum type ones. I've used it a couple times.... Depending on the carpet, you really don't need to clean it, just suck all the water out then use a dehumidifier or fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kimo March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 Thanks for the responses! I was using a MR-2 from myreef creations. It's the first time I've plumbed it externally. My waste vessel (a 3 gallon carboy) filled up and overflowed. I don't know what happened with the skimmer - I guess the input was more than the output! The skimer was full of water when I found it and it was just overflowing at a trickle so I think that this was a slow process all night. LESSONS LEARNED: 1.) Don't mess with the skimmer and then go to bed. 2.) In sump skimmers are GOOD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelg March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 Yeah- the first one is key. I never screw around with my skimmer unless I am going to be home to check on it for a few hours, tempting as it may be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JFish March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 maybe this would be a good reason to get an auto shut off waste collector...I have one for my MR-1 and it works very well...if it's full no air passes through so the water just runs through the skimmer without air mixing in. If I didn't have this I would surely have had a water spill like you just had after my fiddling with the skimmer in the early days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quazi March 20, 2003 Share March 20, 2003 John, GREAT IDEA! I have learning from others, as I hope to have a large tank one day. I have seen kimo's setup. It look great, it never occurred to me that the Pskimmer would over flow. I simple float switch would have saved the day here. Live and learn :O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JFish March 21, 2003 Share March 21, 2003 I wasn't talking about a float switch rather an auto stopping waste container. Here is a pic of what I mean: The air has to pass through this for the skimmer to work...as the skimmate rises in the collection chamber it eventually causes a ping pong ball or the like to float up inside the PVC and stop the flow of air to the skimmer. This makes the skimmer just push water through without mixing with air so the water just passes through the box of the skimmer and no skimming takes place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveller7 March 21, 2003 Share March 21, 2003 The waste containers are great for the skimate output, but if the water return gets "blocked" you will still have water come out the becket injector air inputs, blow the cap off the top of the skimmer, etc. :O Proved this twice during plumbing experiments :( Given the new plumbing design, I would check for potential back pressure on the output as well. Is the skimmer water output above the water level? Did the sump water level rise? Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kimo March 21, 2003 Share March 21, 2003 Hrm...That's an interesting point. The skimmer output is just even with water level - Like this: =-------- = = = Where the = is the bulkhead and the - is the water level. The sump level did not rise. I don't know how the output could have been blocked - I have a lifereef copy sump. Heh maybe I'll go skimmerless ??? It looks like the damage was more than I thought - The water ran along the wall and under the carpet on the other side of the tank. I need to rip out the pad, I CANNOT get mildew/mold. I'm allergic to both. And it's a new house - That would be VERY dissapointing. Heh I even thought about breaking down the tank. But only for .00001 seconds. :D How can I get as much water out from under the tank as possible? It is an Oceanic stand - Flat piece of Oak on the bottom. It is directly on the carpet. I am going to pull the carpet up as much as I can around the tank and cut out the pad along the edges where it is wet. I'll then try to dry it out for a week or so. Then I'll get a new pad and put it down, go rent a carpet kicker and reinstall this thing. Anyone here have experience laying a carpet? How does this plan sound? This has been a MAJOR PITA!! If you put a tank on carpet DON'T SPILL! This will be the last tank I have on carpet. Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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