I walked in the house around 6:30 this evening after an all day meeting. Into the kitchen thinking about dinner. Looked up a the ceiling..........
^&%$(*&^)*&^%*%
Run upstairs and my young 20 gallon is 1/2 empty and still leaking.
Mad dash. Siphon the water into a bucket, scoop up fish, snails, shrimp and into bucket. Pull up all my brand new plants (sob). The roots were just growing (sob, sob). Add to bucket and turn on HOB. 2nd bucket for the rest of the water. Tank and gravel into the tub.
Tear up the carpet and foam.
Into the attic for another 20 (good thing I bought some from the LFS when they were down sizing). Tank goes in my daughter's room. Move substate (I guess I'm really glad I didn't do dirt this time). Add water, fish shrimp, float all plants. In place by 7:45. Still haven't had dinner.
Moved the old tank to the deck, I'll figure out what happened this weekend.
I repeat: )(&)*^&*%$%^#
I'm just hoping that all of my new Msjinxzd critters survive. I've only had them about a month.... (sob, sob, sob)
Aftermath pictures for your enjoyment.
EDIT: in the mad dash, my wife broke my glass top.......
Ooh... Not fun. I came kind of close to that once... My dad was moving a mostly-empty 10g, and when he was gonna put it on the table, the bottom split. Everything survived but a danio that jumped down the bathtub drain.
What's a "Msjinxzd" critter?
Betta132 - I got all my "critters" ( fish, shrimps and snails) from Msjinxzd maybe a month ago.
acitydweller - That is 35 minutes of ripping and tearing it up to get the soggy pad out before more water leaked into the ceiling.
sajacobs - Not sure yet what happened. A quick look in the tank didn't show e anything. It's outside now and it's dark. I'll learn more this weekend. As for the ceiling, I hope so. If not, then I'll be tearing the floor out of the upstairs room and the ceiling from the kitchen. On second thought, I suck at that kinda work, so I'll be hiring someone to do it. *(&)(^!!!!!!
woah,
well, think of it as a chance to remodel. Hardwood floors are better anyways.
You might have to cut out parts of the ceiling where it got wet and patch it up with new boards and spackle. That's the easiest part.
If it holds up, a fresh coat of paint might do it too.
It's shocking to see the water damage for your small tank. I'm setting up a 125G in the spring. I'm going to investigate my home owners insurance. Maybe yours will cover any repairs needed.
You may want to drill a few holes in the ceiling, to let out any water that is pooling on top of the drywall, and to help air circulate to dry everything out so you don't get a mold problem.
If you have any of those bulky box fans, get them out and start them up. You want to do what you can to dry out all the damp areas within 48 hours to prevent any mold from forming. If you notice something growing, use a diluted bleach solution to wipe the area.
The parts of the ceiling that got wet, may start to crack/peel about 5-7 days from now when it's completely dry. Don't bother fixing it till spring/summer. You want clear all your furniture underneath the damaged area before they repair the drywall, sand, prime & repaint.
I'll be doing the same thing this summer.
I think I had at least 100 gallons go through my 3 ceilings before I could figure out which water valve needed to be shut off.
Thanks for posting the pictures. Brings back some horrible memories that I hope I don't have to witness again.
Make sure you get rid of all the MOLD. I would dehumidify that house for a few weeks and have a professional inspect for residual mold. It has potential to become a huge problem if you don't get rid of it now once and for all.
My parents duplex flooded while we were on brake, a shower nozel busted spraying just tons of water for hours straight while we were on vacation. We ended up tearing out just about every wall in the first and second floor.
I feel your pain bro. Hope the cleanup and fix goes smoothly, if I were you id put the house as the numero uno priority right now.
Something close to this happen to be before. My 125 emptied itself after the filter seal broke. Best thing we did was go to the home depot and buy a huge dehumidifier. Saved the carpet, and drywall.
Oh yeah I forgot about the dehumidifier. Use that too if you have one.
I have a master general contractor stopping by on Friday to repair an issue I have with a support beam. I'll ask him to give me an estimate on how much it would cost to replace the ceilings/prime/paint.
From your photos, I think most pros would ask $400-$700 for the ceiling. Probably $2-$4/sq foot for hard wood floors.
I still can't believe that was only 20 gallons of water.
Be thankful you got home in time to see this & save the inhabitants.
I will never forget the moment when I saw a water fall pouring out of the ceiling. Made it worst by not finding the right shut off valve when I ran into the basement. I closed 3, missed 1. Came back upstairs to find the water still flowing.
Spent the next two days drying out the wood floors.
Man, I was just coming on line to share a tale of misery but you got me beat. Here's hoping all the tank inhabitants pull thru and repairs aren't as extensive as they first appear.
And since misery shared is halved...
Decided to clean my 37g's practically brand new eheim filter tonight--bought just 3 months ago. Had gotten it cleaned and refilled, turned to carry it back to the tank and tripped over my cat. The canister went flying, hit the floor just wrong cracking one side of the handle clear off the canister and putting a crack in the body rim. Pulled the smaller eheim this one replaced out of storage figuring I could move some of the media over using the new top on the old body---only to have the damn handle break on the old one while trying to get everything hooked up.
Frustration trumps cost: ordered a whole new unit and paid thru the nose to get it here by friday. Meanwhile I have a spare HOB filter shoved full of filter pads and the rest of the media in a holding bucket to keep things running till the new unit shows up. Then I'm going to hunt for a replacement body piece to go with the still functioning head so I can have a reliable backup ready to go as needed next time disaster strikes!
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
The Planted Tank Forum
3.5M posts
130.6K members
Since 2002
A forum community dedicated to Aquatic tank owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about flora, fauna, health, housing, filters, care, classifieds, and more!