Anything can happen

[cward]

So, I haven't heard of this happening before. Was cleaning my tank and using a micro fiber towel to dry my hand off. I laid the towel on top of my euro bracing and forgot it there. Evidently a corner of the towel dropped into the water and started soaking it up out of the tank, causing a siphoning effect and draining about a gallon of water onto the floor. This was in a 24 hour period. Has anyone ever heard of this happening before? I thought it was pretty damn weird. Other than a wool area rug getting wet, no harm done.

 

[szwab]

Yep, had a filter sock hanging over the edge of my sump once it was dripping water on the floor after a while.

 

[hllywd]

I've seen it too.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Yep, I've done that a couple times. Ill lay a towel down on the rim and it a corner falls in without noticing.

 

[zeppelin]

Luckily no, haven't had that happen. Glad there was no major damage Chris.

 

[Norm R]

You are in good company cward.

 

[Reefdiver72]

And my wife thinks those weird things only happen to me I had it happen with a curtain that hung around like a canopy and got to sagging and it actually let about 15 gallons out enough to run the sump down that the return pump shut off.

 

[jh2pizza]

same here with a old terry cloth towel. I just knew not to tell anyone what I had done.

 

[RokleM]

Yup, microfiber is crazy like that. Amazing absorption. I always kept one on top of the light fixture on the 58 that I used to wipe the front of the tank. I fell off and landed right on the rim half in half out. Luckily I caught it quick.

same here with a old terry cloth towel. I just knew not to tell anyone what I had done.

Good call Joe. :lol:

Ok, this will sound unusual, but I was working on my drains this morning, trying to make the slightly quieter. I have a 1/4" hole drilled into the cap of a 1.5" drain that has always made a good bit of noise, I used a pencil and barely stuck it into the hole to see what it would do to the flow and noise and it go sucked into the drain. Well, its apparent, I had a good bit of suction into the hole. Needless o say, I now have a pencil somewhere within 47 feet of drain.

Would the compounds of the pencil have a bad effect on 300 ish gallons of water?

I should have posted this under sammies name so everyone would not realize what kind of bonehead I am.

 

[jh2pizza]

Once a SA, always as SA.


Too funny. This is what I hate about these things. Your post never go away, just linger in the distance to haunt you again someday.

 

[RokleM]

I think that's the cue for Mark's picture :lol:

 

[szwab]

Talk about things that haunt you

 

[hollback]

The wick effect. I remember doing a science experiment like this from the back of a cereal box when I was young.

 

[cward]

The wick effect totally makes sense, but once the towel was completely saturated, I would have never thought it would have continued pulling water out.

 

[dgunn]

This happened to my wife and I with a beach towel in the hot tub last weekend. The end of the towel in the hot tub was soaked and warm while about three feet of the other end was frozen stiff as a board from hanging outside in the cold!

 

[MarineFishGuy]

The Wicking Effect is enabled via capillary action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary_action
I learned about this in Junior High Science class.

Given the number of people who have been affected by this, it sounds like a great topic for a meeting.
:wave:

 

[geo]

Given the number of people who have been affected by this, it sounds like a great topic for a meeting.
:wave:

Unless being presented by a hooters waitress I somehow doubt a 45 minute lecture on "wicking via capillary action" would be of much interest to any of the club members.

 

[MarineFishGuy]

They were thinking of you Geo.
They have a Wicking T-shirt for the Hooters Preservation Society.
Don't worry the link is Rated G
http://www.zazzle.com/2009_hsp_day_2_ladies_wicking_t_shirt-235158121151037170