First Problem on My Restart

[Reefing Newbie]

Well I had part of my sump drain out! I turned the return pump off because the level dropped to the point where the return section got a lot of bubbles from the surface agitaion in the section. I went to eat because I needed to wash filter socks before turning the return on and now the first section is down about half way. This is all because the pump for my reactor(which is taken off because of granules discoloring the water) created a siphon in the hose. The hose slipped from over the sump to behind it on the floor which drained about 20 gallons of salt water! :deadhorse1: Now the carpet is soaked and there is water pooling under the bottom of the stand. Any tips on how to get as much water out as possible so I don't have a mold issue?

[Reefing Newbie]

Any help?

[jdm01]

The only thing I would know to do is get a very strong wet/dry vac to suction up as much water as you can and then go rent a couple of high volume air movers to dry the carpet as much as possible. That is how I dried some carpet a few years ago after a failed plumbing repair attempt in our bathroom. It worked. They may have to run for a couple of days.

[Reefing Newbie]

My dad got home, and after being mad about it, said a carpet cleaner? We have a wet/dry vac, but I am not sure how strong it is... I have a regular house fan going now and have since I noticed the leaking. Me and water don't get along in the hobby, I spill WC water or have a pump to top off(no ATO yet) and the hose will pop out of the tank when I turn to plug the pump in. I need to be cautious with water now.

[Toddrtrex]

Is the sump in the stand for your main tank? If so, the carpet under the stand will end up stained (( if your stand is stained/painted )), and the wood could rot -- that is a lot of water.

[Reefing Newbie]

Yes the sump is under the tank and stand. The outside of the stand(skin?) is varnished, not sure if it is stained or not because I did not make it. The previous owner did. Actually looking back on how much it took to fill the sump I only lost around 15 gallons, but that is still a lot. I sure hope the stand doesn't rot because I would have to temporarily take the tank down to switch stands. We will probably use the wet/dry vack right next to the 2x4s that make up the base of the stand and hope for the best after using the carpet cleaner.

[Reefing Newbie]

Have a new problem now... One of my Koralia 750s is doing the reverse flow thing where it is taking water in where it should be going out. I would search hear to see if you can fix it, but I can't search any more because of a command=0 client=1 error... Do I need to call the company?

[jamey1015]

I would go up to the hardware store and rent a rug doctor or another type that can extract the water and is made for doing so verses a wet/dry shop vac, next I would get some fans going on the bottom of the stand and behind, as far as the Koralia just unplug it and plug back in.

Good Luck and I think we've all had it happen at one point or another.

[jasimek]

Rent an air mover from home depot....not very expensive for a day. Mull up the carpet in the area and drape the carpet over the top of the air mover....it will move air under the carpet and dry the padding at the same time...you might have to rest retch the carpet in that area when done though....I know this from experience and it worked fine

[skrillnet]

Lol 20 gallons?! I woke up 2 weeks ago to about 200 gallons on the floor!

My wonderful great dane decided it would be fun to play with the return lines from my frag system to the ~250 gallon sump while I was sleeping....was not happy about that....

Anyway, the advice you have here is spot on, you want it dry as soon as possible. Air movers, fans, vacuums, towels will help some. Make sure you have adequate ventilation as well, if your relative humidity gets too high it will take longer to dry also.

Good luck, I don't think anyone in this hobby can say they have never had a water event before. And if they can ask them again in a year! :)

[Reefing Newbie]

I was just happy that it was a return line that popped out of place or anything. That would have been bad. The floor seems to have dried out quite a bit with the one fan going on it all night. As I was refilling I was hoping I had enough salt to make up 20 gallons for the refill. I have a BRS group buy in my local club starting Tuesday so I was waiting for my shopping trip to get free shipping :)

Very sorry to hear that your Dane thought that return lines were toys. Hope he learned a lesson after it had water going all over creation!