Dark Morelia Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 Don't you hate that sinking feeling..... When you notice the carpet outside the bathroom door is wet and you open the bathroom door, only to have water surge out around your feet and into the hallway, bedrooms, etc. And then you remember leaving the tap on..... It's my Sister's Birthday, and i thought i'd just fill up those drums for a water change before i head off and help with the food preperation....... I inadvertantly left the plug in the bath tub where my water drum was filling up.... and when it filled up and overflowed... the bathtub filled up and overflowed... then the bathroom filled up, Oh well. The worst is cleaned up now. Still a bit squidgy though. Not my idea of how to spend an afternoon Hope you got a laugh out of it anyway My Mum didn't. Cheers, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepperfish Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 I dont think the water board would look too kindly at something like this.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViS Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 Even though you learned a valuable lesson, it won't stop it happening again down the track.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 I'm not laughing at all. In fact I am dreading the day it happens to me Good luck with the cleanup mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 in my experience fans are wonderful for drying out carpet. towels also work wonders to get some of that squidgyness out of the carpet. anyone would think I had done something similar? mums tend to calm down quickly at least. I find girlfriends much less understanding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted October 7, 2004 Author Share Posted October 7, 2004 I dont think the water board would look too kindly at something like this.. Yeah i thought of that All the towels are sitting in the shower, so once i've done my water changes, i'll squeeze them out into the drums to use on the garden Think positively!: if i'd remembered to take the plug out of the bath as usual, then there would've been several hundred litres down the drain, or even more if i hadn't noticed it for a while ! This way it's all in the bath tub, and will get used on the garden in my experience fans are wonderful for drying out carpet. towels also work wonders to get some of that squidgyness out of the carpet. anyone would think I had done something similar? Thanks for that m8, i'll try it At least this isn't as bad as when my brother's 4x2x2 decided to empty itself in his upstairs bedroom ! we had to hire a water vacuum for that one ! My Mum's mostly used to this sort of thing by now, LOL ! Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 G'day I hate it when the tubs spill over . To stop it from happening again. Go down to "The Warehouse" (A two dollar shop kinda place). Purchase yourself a "Bath Alarm". Then get a piece of wire and make it so that it easily hooks onto the side of your water drum. It works really well and now there will be no more excuses needed for your mum, or in Gav's case, his girlfriend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAZ Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 As a plumber myself, I am well used to wet carpets, floors etc. I LOVE to hear stories like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck with the cleanup - and crawling back into your mum's goodbooks. lol Warren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 just on Matt's point, since I got those alarms, my popularity has soared nah seriously they are tops stuff. my gf got ours at liverpool dick smith and we use them all the time. now I very rarely spill water, much to her pleasure. its a highly recommended addition to any fish room Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted October 7, 2004 Author Share Posted October 7, 2004 Yeah, I'll definitely invest in one or two of those alarms for future use. Not that it would've done much good today, with dance music at 20 million decibels (haha, i'm only 17 and old already) Well, the fish got his water change, we had a good birthday night, and i seem to have escaped relatively unscathed.... except for that feeling every time i squidge across the swathe of hallway carpet on the way to my bedroom(read fishroom) I haven't had time to find a fan to put on it *Crawls into bed after drinking one too many *cough* - glasses of Coke - *cough cough* Cheers, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a_devis Posted October 8, 2004 Share Posted October 8, 2004 Hi, Alarm is a good thing - only to tell you that you ALREADY have spilled the water. There are many ways to avoid it at all. Two of my favorits: First -expensive ($35)-buy a garden timer and use it to fill your drums - you have to know the time it takes. Second - free, but only if you are good in electrical wiring- take an electrical valve and timer from an old washing machine. Third - if your drums are stationary- use toilet tank fill valve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav Posted October 8, 2004 Share Posted October 8, 2004 the alarms I speak of actually have a wire that you can drop over the side of your tank / container. that way the alarm goes off 2 or 3 inches from the top. never spilled a drop when using them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlakeyBoyR Posted October 8, 2004 Share Posted October 8, 2004 Well I suppose there's an upside ..... at least you know your Mum loves you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted October 8, 2004 Author Share Posted October 8, 2004 Yeah, well, she wasn't too impressed when we discovered the water had run underneath the carpet, and now about half of my room, and most of the spare bedroom carpet is soaked anew. Not to mention the fact that some of it found it's way through the walls and soaked the down-stairs laundry as well.... Dunno where it's gonna show up next. Must've been more than i thought overflowed ! To make matters worse, the Dishwasher emptied it's load of water in the kitchen this morning as well. All the towels were wet already, so out came the blankets and doonas from the cupboard. Next thing you know the clothes line will collapse from all the wet things on it. (oops i shouldn't've said that) And don't anyone say anything about things happening in threes !! *punches the wooden desk* (bugger knocking on wood) *sigh* Cheers (kinda), Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CThompson Posted October 10, 2004 Share Posted October 10, 2004 It sounds as though you gave it a real soaking. As an ex-carpet layer, you might want to investigate what is under the carpet. That is, if it is felt, it may stay wet for a very long time, unless you do something about it. If the carpet it is laid on smooth edge, you'll have no issues getting it up, but if it is turned and tacked/stapled, it is a lot harder and the potential of damaging the carpet is good. I once had a similar fish tank based flood 20 years ago in a rented apartment. I had to remove the tank (out onto a veranda), pull the carpet up, blow dry below the carpet, then relocate the tank. It doesn’t hurt the carpet to get wet (providing it doesn’t stain), but you may damage it permanently if you don't get it dried out before it starts to rot. And if you have felt underlay, the chances are that there will be some dark dank corner where it won't dry in time. The smell of rotting carpet is pretty off. Once my carpet was dry and relaid, it was in fact cleaner where it had been wet. If you have rubber underlay, things won't be so bad, but if you have foam, which will soak the water up like a sponge, then you have reason to be concerned here as well. But foam will be better than felt, as foam at least wont rot like felt will. If you pull your carpet up, you will probably need a carpet layer to put it back down again. A better idea than an alarm to warn when the barrel is full (what if you step out of the house?), is to install (= drilling hole in side of barrel) a float valve (much like toilet cisterns have). Brooks Irrigation at Kirrawee have them, they have one with a metal arm (usually in stock), or an all plastic version that may have to be ordered in. From memory that are around $20.00. Then even if you are out of the house, the water will turn itself off. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serial-Cichlid Posted October 11, 2004 Share Posted October 11, 2004 Andy - that's a bummer mate The story sounds all too familiar though. About 6 months ago I did something similar to that except I was siphoning water out of my Tanganyikan tank whilst in the middle of a computer game (Warcraft). Thank god my housemate's girlfriend accidentally disconnected me as only then did I remember I was in the middle of a water change. When I got back down to the garage, the tank was empty and about $500 worth of fish were flopping around on their sides, the heater plastic grips had all been melted and the aquaclear was making that horrible grinding noise. Thank god my pants weren't white cos I was really packing it. In the end all the fish survived as I had another tank fully cycled available. Gav or Matt - On the topic of that alarm.... how loud does it get? Cheers Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebe Posted October 11, 2004 Share Posted October 11, 2004 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you is one lucky man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted October 11, 2004 Author Share Posted October 11, 2004 The smell of rotting carpet is pretty off. Yeah I noticed Everyone who's entered our house since the "incident" exclaims "What the Hell's that stink ?!?!?" Although i'm immune to it now.... with most of it being in my room I can't seem to get any of the edges up to see what's under it, but the surface feels mostly dry now... The carpet in my room is very old, half rotten, moth-eaten, digusting tan coloured woolly stuff (which sticks all over your clothes), which my parents have been going to replace for AGES, so maybe i can convince them to rip it up. I've TOLD them i'd prefer just the bare concrete to the rotten carpet.... especially considering the amount of minor spilages i seem to have Removing the carpet entails moving 3 tanks, two 3ft, one 4ft, and a huge, heavy, wardrobe, so i may be able to convince them to get new carpet at the same time. But worst of all.... it means i have to clean my room I'll show them your post, Craig (And thanks for the post, too, very helpful !) And those float valves sound REALLY good... i'll have a look around for those too. See if i can adapt one. The drums i use don't fit under the bathtub tap, so i use a piece of hose to fill them, and then they get lugged about 15ft into my room, and the tanks, so a turner-offerer will have to be mobile..... Well, i'm now a firm believer in things happening in threes..... the hot water system at my sister's place (renting) pretty much burst this morning.... 250L.... and it kept trying to fill itself back up until they turned the water off luckily it was in the laundry... no carpet... and the water mostly went out the back door. Hehe - Paul Your disaster sounds pretty terrible, LOL, Lucky your fish survived. Did the tank hardware survive ? I've lost count of the amount of times my bucket's overflowed while siphoning... but not to that extent. Also one time the hose came out of the bucket in the middle of a gravel-vac .... result: quite a bit of black muck all over said carpet in a 4-foot arc, LOL. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 G'day Paul The "Bath Alarm" sounds a LOT like a Smoke Detector. Pretty loud and it is very hard to not hear it. PS. Best Money I ever spent in the fishroom, well on gadgets anyway. cya Matthew... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serial-Cichlid Posted October 13, 2004 Share Posted October 13, 2004 Thanks Matt - The reason I asked is that the fishroom/garage is separate from the house. I'll check them out next time I'm at the hardware store. Andy - all the tank hardware survived. Just the heater plastic grips didn't, so I swapped that heater for the one in my sump. After yesterday I don't think the sump needs a heater. Tanks got to 30-1 degrees Cheers Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted October 13, 2004 Share Posted October 13, 2004 Hot one wasn't it. I was working outside, and after about 5 minutes Id be back in the pool. I didn't get much work done, but I got a nice start on a tan Those bath alarms sound like a good investment, will add them to my list for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted October 13, 2004 Author Share Posted October 13, 2004 If i'd remembered to take the plug out of the bath as usual, then there would've been several hundred litres down the drain, or even more if i hadn't noticed it for a while ! This way it's all in the bath tub, and will get used on the garden Gee, am I glad most of it's still there today.... i jumped into it, LOL. 32°C on the shaded side of our house And we don't have a pool... at least not one that holds water. What's it like for you poor buggers down on the flatter land ? (One reason i like the Mountains ) (Actually... about the only reason) If it wasn't for the breeze, i'd be thinking about joining the Goldfish and Koi out in the pond Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serial-Cichlid Posted October 13, 2004 Share Posted October 13, 2004 Heard it was supposed to be hotter today. Not looking forward to the train ride home if it's not an airconditioned Tangara. If the weather stays this way, I'm going to have to leave the lids off the tanks while away at work or invest in some sort of airconditioning unit. Cheers Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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