Water Leak last night

Uhg, so I had a small leak last night. My saltwater res holding tank siphoned water from it after I used it to fill a bucket. Got about 3-5 gallons of water on the floor :-X. Lucky I caught it within a few minutes though.

The tank is on a floating laminate floor which shifts all the time, and it appears water got underneath it =X. From what I've read, if the floor is permeable for air to get underneath it, then everything will eventually dry. It is a concrete slab below the floor, since this is in the basement.This floor is def. permeable since I can put a lot of pressure on the floor where the spill was, and get water to leak up. Currently I'm using a dehumidifier,some fans, and some of that Damp-Rid stuff to try to dry it up. It's all dry on the surface, just not underneath. Nothing is smelling, and the water was quite clean so I don't think it's going to smell too bad if at all.

My question is, has anyone else had this experience with a floating floor? Just want as many suggestions as possible because I really can't find much info on it. I'd remove the floor if I have to, but I moving the tank(90gal) is going to be awful, especially since I just set it up a month ago =X. I'm buying a flood alarm just so this doesn't happen again...sigh.

 

Ugh, I hate it when stuff like that happens.

Hopefully all the flooring gets dried out with no hard work.

Is this the type of flooring that has a rubber pad of sorts under it? If so, I bet it will dry out.

 

Yes I believe it has a padding between that and the concrete. Hopefully that's a good thing, but for now it seems like only time will tell. Blahh. I guess I look at it as, it could have been much much worse, and nothing died so that is also a plus.

 

I've not had an experience with a spill on a floating floor but I've had a few spill experiences in the past. Its always a good idea to keep a stack of absorbent shammies on hand, like sham-wow or some other brand/manufacturer. You should also possibly consider investing in a water sensor for the floor or inside your stand so you can have a quicker heads up in the future when a leak occurs.

 

Good luck!

 

The floating floor will be just fine, it will take some time for the water to dry up. Sounds to me that you are doing the right things (especially using the dehumidifier). Floating only indicated that the floor is not adhered to the concrete in any fashion, thus permitting the wood to expand and contract with the ambient temperature and moisture of the room. In your current case the floor has expanded with the absorption of the spilled fresh water, it will take some time but it will dry up and you will be fine. I would be concerned if you spilled more (much more) water. Good luck with your tank.

 

I agree that the floor should be fine and the reason for that is its not adhered to the slap. This will allow it to expand and contract with out causing damage. Obviously you dont want to test it but in the case of an accident such as this one you should be fine.

 

I accidentally left my ro unit on one night pumping water to my bucket for a water change and it overflowed quite a bit and ive got a floating floor aswell but there was no way in hell i was gonna take that up or move the fish tank. so i just left it and its now a few months later with no problems and looks the same again.

 

on a side note...since I think the main topic has been sucessfully answered ---

To ensure this doesn't happen I leave a reminder out (usually a jar of buffer) - I leave it on the landing of the steps....the whole family is involved and usually the kids will walk past it and announce "making R/O" as they pass by -- damn near impossible to forget in this house !!

Aside from a visual reminder the second best thing would be to make R/O in a MUCH larger container than you need.

"making r/o" origin -- watched dirty jobs and Mike was with the military learning how to remove a humvee from mud. they used plenty of ropes and if you crossed the ropes you had to announce "on the line"....quickly become "making r/o" in my house hold. At least I think that was the episode - it was mike rowe anyway

 

CG, I overflowed my top off bin many a time at the old house. happened frequently enough that I ended up replacing the shelf. it messed the sheetrock up something awful. I was fortunate enough to patch it before selling our house.

We got it the habit of setting the oven timer for 1 hour (took just over that long to fill) to remind us. since it was in the garage, if we went out there, you could hear the hiss of the system.