Flood!!!!!!!

[TheGrog]

This is a long one with a few questions at the end. Sorry, about to break down so need to vent.

OK, the kids, future inlaws and my fiancee just spent a wonderful day at Seaworld.

We get home to find that the living room/dining room floor is one giant puddle!!!!!!

Looked at the tank (125 reef with 40 sump) along the side wall and at quick glance, all inhabitants are doing fine and the tanks water level is where it should be. My first fear of a tank break is gone.

So, I looked underneath to the sump.............and it is overflowing.

Turns out that a valve for the RO-DI topoff was partially open (still waiting for a part to repair the automatic setup) and it had been slowly filling with fresh TDS 0.0 water ALL FRIGGIN DAY!!!!

Now, I have about 15 gallons of room in the sump for volume (designed in case of power fail until siphon breaks kick in). So IT LEAST 15 gallons of RO/DI made it into my tank.

Sooooo, got out the wet-dry vac. Moved all the furniture around, dragged the soaked rug outside (may be a total loss on that $5 gariage sale rug) and started sucking up water off the Pergo flooring.

Figured that I sucked up about 10 gallons of salt water off the floor.

Figured that the carpet absorbed it least 1 gallon, that makes roughly 26 gallons of water into my system.

Onto my tank. The salinity (stable at 1.025) is at 1.014!!!! :eek1: :eek1: :eek1: Figures about right with the amount of water introduced.

Status of tank Inhabitants:
Fish don't care....they just want to be fed.
Soft corals....all look fine
Stony corals.....look about the same
LPS....not looking so hot, but still extended some
Anemones.....looking poor, but alive
Starfish......no idea as it hides and only occasionally comes out at feeding time.

Already added some salt to bring things up to 1.018 and will add some more in the morning as to not overcorrect things. Threw in a bunch of buffer as well as my alkalinity was 5.....now 8. The calcium reactor can make up the rest.

My biggest concern is the Pergo flooring (and my furious fiancee....but I don't think you guys can do anything except avenge my slow and painful death).

Does anyone know how it reacts to being soaked for 10+ hours??? The seams are all pretty tight and only found a few end-to-end ones that bubbled up some water when stepped on.

Bottom line is that the floors are now dry & cleaned. Do/should I call my insurance agent in the morning in case the floor comes up??? Keep in mind that this is a RENTAL (with a $2k deposit total with pet deposits).

Thanks and I would GREATLY appreciate any advice.

Now to try and mend things with my fiancee.......now where did I put those knee pads?

 

[saltysupply]

ouch, were you using a float valve, these will stick sometimes and cause floods which is why I recommend buying a electronic system. I hope everything does ok....I love it the fish just want to be fed, mine are the same way in events like that.

 

[TheGrog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11872869#post11872869 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltysupply
ouch, were you using a float valve, these will stick sometimes and cause floods which is why I recommend buying a electronic system. I hope everything does ok....I love it the fish just want to be fed, mine are the same way in events like that.

I normally have a float valve system (electric with a second float as a shutoff), but it shorted out and fried everything due to an errant water splash during a water change. What happened is I took out the solenoid valve and just put in a simple JG on-off valve that I manually open and close. That is what was partially open.

Yea the fish are funny. The clowns are the best.....little friggin orange sharks!!!

 

[mfp4073]

I have been thinking of a topoff that holds say 5 gallons of water. That you have to refill everyfew days, but at least that would be the most you could loose in this situation.

 

[TheGrog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11873029#post11873029 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mfp4073
I have been thinking of a topoff that holds say 5 gallons of water. That you have to refill everyfew days, but at least that would be the most you could loose in this situation.

Well my electronic float topoff system performed flawlessly for years until I got careless with it and fried it. This is something that must of happened when I closed the cabinate door and something fell on the valve inside and opened it.....or I was just in a hurry to see Shamoo and got careless.

 

[skippy823]

the pergo will start swelling at the seams first and the rest will swell as it dries. sorry to here that and helps make my desicion about an ato that much easier

 

[mfp4073]

same recommendation as another thread today about this. Instead of making up more water, just pull water out of your system, mix in extra salt and then add it back. No reason to waste salt or water.

 

[TheGrog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11873377#post11873377 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mfp4073
same recommendation as another thread today about this. Instead of making up more water, just pull water out of your system, mix in extra salt and then add it back. No reason to waste salt or water.

This is what I have been doing. About 1 gallon with several cups of salt mix poured into the sump skimmer chamber.

Thanks skippy. I will call the insurance agent in the morning and give the heads up...no formal claim yet just don't want to get dinged for not telling them in time.

 

[sailfin3]

I had a friend who"s toilet was overflowing all day while thewy where at work and came home sucked it up and you can not tell anything happened. Put a fan blowing down on it all night to help dry it upGOOD LUCK

 

[jay24k]

I would just put a fan in there. I don't think your pergo will get ruined as long as it is cleaned off the top and not a huge puddle. The bottom should be able to soak it up especially if they used a moisture barrier. I'm assuming you have renters insurance? I don't think that it covers the property, only your items. If the floor is ruined, you can kiss that deposit away. Honestly, I'd let the seller know as well. If something happens in the future, it could come back to haunt you and it is the honest thing to do.

 

[mflamb]

My sump has an emergency overflow. It's a 1 inch bulkhead that is plumbed directly out the wall behind the tank. I use an ATO with a 22 gallon reservoir.

 

[mfp4073]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11874011#post11874011 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mflamb
My sump has an emergency overflow. It's a 1 inch bulkhead that is plumbed directly out the wall behind the tank. I use an ATO with a 22 gallon reservoir.

that is a good idea!

 

[sttaylor]

Even if the top is dry your floor is probably sitting in a pool of water underneath. The water pools on top and then runs under the floor at/under the baseboards. My mother had this happen with her laminate floor two months ago when her washing machine overflowed. The floor wasn't wet for half an hour before the mess was cleaned up, but she had to replace two rooms worth of flooring. The worst part was that when replacing the floor the concrete was so saturated that they had to let it dry for two weeks after pulling up the old floor before they could put the new "wood" back down. Fortunately the insurance company picked up the whole bill (less deductible) for about about $5K.

Scott

 

[saltysupply]

by float valve i mean those little $10 ones you use for ro systems for the auto shut off 10 or 20 gallon tanks are good for if you have a total failure like they said that way it wont totally flood

 

[sailfin3]

Laminate flooring can be purchased and you can put it in yourself for as low as 89 cents a sq ft it is easy to put in and would only take a few hours once you get the hang of it.

 

[jay24k]

Yea but it could be a more expensive flooring and he has to match it up unless he is replacing the whole floor.

 

[TheGrog]

I have put in laminate (Pergo) before and it is a snap (unless the room is not square.....like in my last project).

The thing is that this is the largest room in the house at approx 15x30'.

The worst hit area is along one wall (don't think the floor is perfectly level) as the other half of the room had nothing on it at all.

I had fans on it last night along with a dehumidifier. Closed up the room too. Got several gallons out from the dehumidifier and a humidity gauge (from lizard tank) showed less than 5% humidity this morning.

This morning, only a few of the end-to-end seams seemed to be buckling at all in only one area. Not very noticable. The side-to-side seams all looked perfectly flush everywhere.

So, I am working tongiht. Going to re-evaluate it tomorrow afternoon when I get home. I think I will just keep my fingers crossed and hope it does not get any worse. Plus, the areas that look the worst are underneath the couch so there will be no foot traffic on it to make things any worse!

Thanks for the input!

 

[achilles1]

Man sorry to hear abou this. Do you remember me telling you my flood story.....

How are things holding up? Where is your salinity now?

 

[TheGrog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11879850#post11879850 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by achilles1
Man sorry to hear abou this. Do you remember me telling you my flood story.....

How are things holding up? Where is your salinity now?

Yea, I remember that!!!

All tank inhabitants look as they should this evening. The SPS and anemones are back to full bloom. The SG is up to around 1.020 so not where I want to be yet.

As for the floor, there are a few end-to-end seams that are slightly buckled up. Not a single side-to-side seam is up. Going to sit on things for now and see how things settle down. It realy is not that noticable unless you are looking for it.

Thanks for all the help/input guys!!

 

[achilles1]

Glad things are looking better and your losses seem to be minimal.

I'm learning to balance the true cost of me not being as digilent and attentive as I should be with my system. I think we sometimes forget that thousands of $$$$ are sometimes resting on a $5 part or something simple being maintained properly. Details matter in this hobby. It is life or death. Gosh, I never realized I was getting into such a serious thing. lol Anyway, glad things are getting better and the Mrs. didn't kill you. You are pretty cool guy, hate to hear she beat you to death. lol. Sure you've learned your lesson. Later