One Inch From DISASTER!!!

[greyhoundfan]

Came home to the sound of my dry running Aqua Clear 70 it was making a terrible grinding noise.

I franticaly look at my tank and half of the water is GONE!! I look at my fish..
My little Giants are OK..

Now I try to figure out what the heck happened. Base of my tank is bone dry and I can feel water about 6" away from my tank.. This just doesn't make sense. I look closer and BINGO!!!

I find the slow leak culprit. One of my air hose got dislodged from my pump while my airstone was still in the tank. You guessed it. Backward siphon started and water slowly leaked out of my tank. I did not have air check valves on this tank. DAMN..

My dining room's carpet is soggy. Lucky I have a carpet cleaner. I sucked up about 5 Gallons of water.. The rest will just have to be blown dry. I'll reassess the carpet later.

My heater is on an Otto controller turned up on FULL TILT. If the water leaked just one more inch the temp guage would have been completely out of the water. I would have come home to some cooked blue knights!!

They're ok, my carpet and pride are not. Learn from my mistakes here and put in those check valves if you don't have them already. Anything can happen. Maybe subconciously I want to replace the carpet. I've burned it and now I just soaked it.:( :(

[fishmama]

Wow...that was too close for comfort! Sounds like you owe the Mrs. some nice new carpet!

[Kindredspirit]

Good Lawd, Reid! At least it was not a broken tank ~ I am glad all wet pets are fine!:)

....and I am moving to hardwood floors.... http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_11_9.gif

[alxjss]

Hi Reid,
Luckily it was only the carpet. Check ur insurance policy, u might get a deal

[wolfbane]

I'm thinking stone or tile sounds good to me Marie! Reid, is the filter still usable? Boy, you got lucky!

[dragonlover]

Maybe subconciously I want to replace the carpet. I've burned it and now I just soaked it.:( :(

I saw the picture of the scorch mark....ouch....:shocked: your wife must be a saint....lol...the room will look great when finished, though, with or without carpet!

[greyhoundfan]

Well..we'll see what happens.. My Mom in Law is here too.. Don't know if it's good or bad.

This is on the first floor so under carpet is concrete.

Regarding my filters.. My HOB filter media was still completely submerged in water figure it should be ok, and I also have a sponge filter that remained completely submerged too.

[swinters66]

Yep that happened to our 150 gallon tank a few years ago...talk about a MESS to clean up...luckily we didnt lose one fish (Africans). They were in a few inches of water when I got home that night, called my husband and he raced home...not a fun night! We weren't as lucky as you and had a backward siphon...we had a huge crack in the tank!

[Darren's Discus]

Yes i too have had this happen,
that's why these days my pumps are always placed higher than the tanks to avoid such things,glad you made it in time.


cheers

[pcsb23]

Reid, good to hear its nothing more than wet carpets :) Its always the stupid little things that catch us. Glad the fish are ok, oh and get that check valve fitted!!

[poddan]

Thanx for the reminder.
Just ordered check valves .
An cheap insurance :-)