Emergency Tank Broke

[Paradiddle7]

My main concern right now is getting the water up and salvaging the carpet and other materials to prevent mold. Luckily, I have a rug doctor machine so I'm sucking up the water in the carpet with that but there will still be tons of liquid and salt it can't get.

I'm thinking I should pull the carpet back and remove the padding, dry everything good with fans and then have someone come reinstall the carpet.

Any tips?

 

[ThaBeast]

Yes remove carpet, throw pad away, go rent some big commercial dehus and fans, not consumer grade crap.

Run fans and dehus in sealed house for 72 hours. Carpet can be saved, pad can not

 

[Paradiddle7]

Thanks, this is what I figured.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Good thing it's a marine aquarium.
Freshwater causes mold. Saltwater does not.

 

[Paradiddle7]

Wow, that's EXCELLENT info Gary. I never knew that.

I've got the carpet up and pad out. The fans almost have the subfloor dry on the top. Any carpet cleaning tips? I'm thinking about putting towels under a section of the carpet and doing a pretty wet extraction, just to get some more of the salt out, but maybe I should just do nothing and then do as dry of an extraction as possible?

Luckily the tank was in the corner and only 16 gallons. The entire tank emptied but most water went down the wall into the basement. It did ruin some things down there and most annoyingly we had 10-12 boxes of brand new china and the boxes are ruined and full of water. The china can be washed, but it will be a pain unpacking it all and washing it and repacking it.

 

[Paradiddle7]

I just remembered I have a bounce house blower! It's kicking but right now. It blows incredibly strong. I'm going to put some spacers between the carpet and sub floor and have that blow in between.

 

[ThaBeast]

Prespray carpet with a pump up sprayer. Don't put anything in your rug doctor other than water, EVER.

Easiest chemical to get for consumers is oxyclean, but don't use on wool

 

[Paradiddle7]

What's the reason you don't put anything in the rug doctor?

 

[ThaBeast]

think of it as using the washing machine without the rinse cycle. Putting chemicals in the cleaning water is a marketing ploy to make your carpet get dirty quicker by leaving residue in the carpet. Residue is basically detergent, detergent is designed to attract dirt to itself, so detergent residue in your carpet = nasty dirty carpet very soon.

Thats why I suggested using a pump up sprayer to apply oxy clean, then your rug doctor effectively becomes the 'rinse cycle' for your carpet cleaning

BTW, I am a certifed master tech, run two van business in western Kentucky

 

[ThaBeast]

Stanley Stinker is notorious for this residue ploy

 

[ThaBeast]

also, pull baseboards off affected wall areas. Dehus will dry the drywall, but not where trim is covering the drywall--first place I look for mold when doing restoration/remediation that was left to sit before we were called in or whenever someone else did the remediation work

 

[Paradiddle7]

Thanks man. I normally just use hot water only and I don't go too wet. I'd rather go over the spot more times over several days. I also have an orbiting floor machine and i use that rubbery powder and then vacuum it up. That seems to work very well sometimes.

I got really lucky my tank was in the corner. I think only about 5-6 gallons got on the ground.

I do have some tank sprayers. I can see how that's the easiest way to control the amount of liquid that gets into the carpet.

Do you use any chemicals at all?

 

[Dashylock]

What was the cause of the tank breaking?

 

[Paradiddle7]

The fact that it's a Nuvo. They just break way too much.

 

[ThaBeast]

Thanks man. I normally just use hot water only and I don't go too wet. I'd rather go over the spot more times over several days. I also have an orbiting floor machine and i use that rubbery powder and then vacuum it up. That seems to work very well sometimes.

I got really lucky my tank was in the corner. I think only about 5-6 gallons got on the ground.

I do have some tank sprayers. I can see how that's the easiest way to control the amount of liquid that gets into the carpet.

Do you use any chemicals at all?

I use my own formulations most of the time, prespray only. We choose the chemical according to the condition of the carpet and the type of soil. For example, when we do rental units we just use the commercial restaurant formulation because a tenant will almost always damage a carpet to the point of requiring replacement prior to damage caused by that chemical formulation. We use a formulation that reminds me of the water wetter we used to use with the cooling systems of drag cars on nice homes that are well cared for because that formula will never damage a carpet. Also the type of carpet fiber is important for proper chemical selection. Remember I said never use oxyclean on wool? Thats because oxyclean when mixed strong enough can dissolve wool fibers. Oxyclean is your best bet in this situation, especially given the oppressive aount of regulation in New York...I dont think a consumer could buy what we would use without a license of ome sort.

I have had about 10 instances in the last five years I have told one of my techs to run chemicals in the fresh water tank, special situations only. We have enough experience we know immediatey when a less qualified carpet cleaner has been there before us, and especially when we find a house with a homeowner fond of resolve. I purchase a powder in bulk we carry specifically for dealing with reolve type issues. I have a friend that is a chemist (his line of business is in surfactants) & he has provided tremendous help to me in the last few years dealing with consumer grade carpet cleaning chemicals.

A side note--all dry carpet cleaning powders & agents such as the ones agitated in with a scrubber greatly reduce the life of the carpets appearance by causing wear to the individual fibers

 

[ThaBeast]

Good thing it's a marine aquarium.
Freshwater causes mold. Saltwater does not.

Gary, I'm gonna test that theory next time I am in the shop tinkering. My experience says bull, but I wonder if the salt concentration is strong enough to prevent organic growth.

 

[Paradiddle7]

Thanks Beast, good info. We need more people like you in that business.

 

[ThaBeast]

Thank you, yes we do! You should see some of the commercial crews my night crew competes against---it is downright scary

 

[Paradiddle7]

I posted this on another thread. I'm very happy with the outcome.

Update: Innovative Marine has been so exceptional to work with. Thanks to Randy at ARC, he has worked out a deal with them to get my tank replaced with a Fusion 20. He's letting me take one of his in stock tanks now and IM will replace it for him in the next shipment. It sounds like both of them are doing me a favor to get me the different tank, so I really appreciate that. IM has been outstanding though, very professional and apologetic.