Avoided Tank Disaster!!!!

[corrado33]

Phew... So I woke up this morning, checked my e-mail etc, fed my betta and two guppies in QT, then decided to go downstairs. As I'm walkin down the last few steps, I turn the corner into the living room (where my 12 gallon is), and I hear a freaking waterfall of water. I was like OH ****. I look to see my tank HALF EMPTY!!! My first thought was "Mom's gunna kill me if the carpet smells...". I look on the ground and I don't see ANY wet carpet, anywere. I was like "Where the **** did the water go?" I looked around the tank and didn't see water rushing out anywhere, I had NO idea how the water got out. Meanwhile my fish were happy as heck trying to get me to feed them... After a minute I found that it was my CO2 line that I had stuck in the intake pipe of my AC 20. Water was dripping ever so slowly out of it, hence why I didn't see a giant puddle of water, a lot of it had evaporated already and during the night. Instantly I pulled the tube out of the intake and RAN upstairs to get my bucket with water left over from my PWCs on saturday. I poured that in and it brought it up a bit, but now I'm making some more to fill it the rest of the way. Meanwhile I have to leave for work in 40 minutes and my CAR is in pieces because I was fixing a leaky windshield... premonition maybe? I just finished the car, and I put a spare heater in the new water I'm making to try to dissolve some of the equilibrium I put in it a little quicker. The carpet IS wet, and I got a lot of it up with just towels. I also have a dehumidifier inches away on full blast hoping to pull some of the water out of the carpet. I don't think it'll smell (I've spilt things before) so I think I'm good. I'm just SO lucky my AC 20 didn't run dry or I'd be SOL right now... The water line was MILLIMETERS above the top grate of the intake pipe.

Phew...

EDIT: Oh, I forgot CHECK VALVE CHECK VALVE CHECK VALVE WHY DIDN'T I PUT ONE OF THE MANY CHECK VALVES I HAVE ON THE STUPID LINE?

 

[Aquarium1]

Wow, that was close lol.

 

[krap101]

I had that happen with a diy co2 a few years back. It wasn't fun..

 

[meegosh]

Don't forget - a GOOD quality check valve. Don't save a buck and go with those cheap plastic ones, get a good brass one like a clippard.

 

[cabezon]

I had to scroll up to make sure I was in a freshwater forum. Brass is bad for salt water.

 

[meegosh]

Good point, cabezon. The CO2 gave it away for me.

 

[logansmomma1228]

lmao that was a close one hey?

 

[corrado33]

Yeah, the carpet is still wet... agh... not fun. I asked my mom... "Mom, did you not hear the waterfall of water in the living room this morning?" She said "No I didn't hear anything really.." lol

 

[krap101]

I had a few bouts with a dojo loach (by far the more dog-like fish I have ever kept). It kept wanting to jump out, and since the tank was around 20 ft from my bed, I could hear it when he jumped out. A few times, I woke up to splashes, and I know if I went back to sleep, I could wake up to a dead dojo. One day, I woke up and tried to look for him, and couldn't find him, so I presumed he was buried. After I got home from school, I had more time to look, and after moving around some stuff in the tank, and not finding him, I began to get worried, so I moved the tank (the stand was on rollers) and I found my dojo, in the corner, alive. I believe it survived overnight and through the school day on the ground, out of the water.