# Spilled Aquarium Water Need Ideas!



## nickthefoxtoy (Aug 2, 2016)

Hey guys, I recently bought a brand new FX6 and installed it on my 135 gallon tank 2 days ago. I was so excited I forgot to clamp down the hoses on the canister. I woke up in the morning to low tank water and that waterfall noise. I knew something was up right away and checked the filters. There was a slow leak coming from the hose that lasted about 8-10 hours before I caught it. I ended up losing 15 gallons of water on my carpet. I need some ideas on how to clean this up the best I can. Here is a list of what I have done.

Started with carpet cleaner to suck as much water up from the carpet. I got about 4 or 5 gallons this way. 
After about 5 hours of carpet cleaner I laid towels on it. It was still soaking wet! Every time it was dry, it got wet in a matter of minutes. I decided towels were obviously not enough. 
I did what I didn't want to do, I cut the carpet in order to blow a shop vac under the carpet. It blew everything within 10 feet up like a balloon. I've had that running for about 16 hours now. The carpet is still wet!
Luckily it is concrete and not wood under my carpet. I do have extra carpet padding in case replacing that might be the way to go (I would have to cute about a 6 square foot spot into my carpet to do this).

My main concern is, will I have to move this tank to get underneath it? Obviously that is a cost and operation that I do not want to endure unless absolutely necessary, and I definitely don't want to deal with mold! This is my show tank and it's right in my living room, so as you can imagine I have a very unhappy family, and I would like this cleaned with as little of an eye sore as possible, but I've already gone rug shopping.

Any and all ideas are welcome!

Thanks everyone.


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## Ryanblackheart (Feb 24, 2020)

I've not experienced this particular issue but I've dealt with a damp apartment before and if there is water in flooring, carpet and walls etc I would recommend you Rent a dehumidifier and run it for a few days / week this will draw out moisture you won't get with a towel or vacuum, even if your aquarium is open topped it won't be an issue, I know people with basement fish rooms run dehumidifiers year round to combat the moisture from tank evaporation Into their homes with no ill effects on the tanks or fish


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## Ryanblackheart (Feb 24, 2020)

I have removed the vendor due to forum rules but here is a generic example of an industrial dehumidifier including Cost and efficiency for about £45 you can have it for a week and potentially draw out 25 litres a day  obviously keep an eye on your aquarium water level while you are running one


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## nickthefoxtoy (Aug 2, 2016)

Thank you for the idea! I got a smaller one and have it running. Just an update I have been running the fan under the carpet and it seems to be drying very well. Hopefully no mold or tank movement is in my future.


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## Ryanblackheart (Feb 24, 2020)

Amazing news ))


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## sm1ke (Apr 9, 2020)

I had a spill when doing a water change on my 130g about 7 or 8 years ago. I had just started filling a 5g bucket when my girlfriend rang the doorbell. I forgot that I was in the middle of a water change and came back to the tank 10 minutes later to find that the water was overflowing from the bucket onto the carpet.

Like your house, the carpet sits on top of a concrete floor. I immediately started running a fan over the wet area (must have been an 8' by 6' spot) and used a bunch of towels to soak up as much water as I could. The carpet dried up after two or three days of the fan running non-stop. To this day, there have been no mold issues or damage to the flooring/carpet. If this were to happen again, I would do the same thing, and maybe run a dehumidifer as well.


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