How can I keep my carpet dry?

November 12, 2007 1:37 PM

Water is seeping out of my aquarium onto my rug. Is there anything I can use to absorb the water?

We recently installed a sump into our marine saltwater system. More tubes, a bigger pump, and of course another separate aquarium were added to the system. We've been having a persistent problem with water leakage- usually several pints at a time, but up to a gallon. Obviously, the long-term solution is figuring out what is causing the leak, but for now I'm trying to find a way to keep the water from soaking my carpet. (It's low-quality, but aggravating to be walking to the bathroom in socks and step into soggy frigid water, and I know I'll be doing long-term damage to the carpet and/or the floor beneath it)

Any ideas? Would a chamois similar to what is used at a car wash work? Any thoughts on how to mitigate the damage to the floor beneath?

Thanks in advance.

posted by arnicae to home & garden (8 comments total)

I use the damprid product, works really well at absorbing odors and moisture, but yeah get that sump fixed ASAP!!!
posted by evilelvis at 1:41 PM on November 12, 2007

Damprid, like most dessicants, will only absorb its weight in water. Which is not very much, especially in the context of a leak that involves the expulsion of two to three pints of water in one go. Unless you want to keep a wetvac nearby I'd suggest you make with the fixings.
posted by prostyle at 2:11 PM on November 12, 2007

You could just put the aquarium inside a large shallow pan and add a small battery pump to fill a bucket. But if you're loosing pints, you need to transfer the fish and live plants to a smaller aquarium while you get this one fixed. You'll probably need to recaulk the seams.
posted by Kioki-Silver at 2:29 PM on November 12, 2007

Yeah, its been pretty mysterious. We have an acrylic aquarium (29 gallon) which has worked fine and been stable for a year. We decided to add the sump over the summer and got an all-glass 10 gallon aquarium. When the problems surfaced, we returned it and bought another one, after testing it for leaks. All to no avail. We literally cannot figure out what the problem is. We do get some condensation on the 3/4" tubing from the sump to the chiller and the chiller to the tank, but just *cannot* figure out where the water is coming from.

The tray is a good idea. We currently have the sump in a cabinet that is only inches larger than it, which makes it difficult to find a pan that would be bigger than the sump, but smaller than the cabinet.
posted by arnicae at 2:47 PM on November 12, 2007

by the way, here's a pic of the sump. Here's a pic of the system, and one of the tank. We love ochre sea stars! It's a marine tank containing creatures from the intertidal pacific zone, all collected (legally) locally.
posted by arnicae at 2:51 PM on November 12, 2007

Sodium polyacrylate can absorb hundreds of times its weight in water, and is reusable. About $10/lb here.
posted by spasm at 2:53 PM on November 12, 2007

Is the sump overflowing?

You'll probably need to replace the carpet pad at a minimum in the area that's constantly wet. And you can be damaging the floor itself. So you really need to figure out where the water is coming from. If you don't have the time or inclination to figure out the problem I suppose you could put the entire stand in a large enough plastic pan to catch water. Obviously it'll look stupid. So find where the water is coming from. And it's silly to use a bandaid in the form of something to absorb water when it's going to get wet over and over again.

If it's not a constant leak I doubt it's the seams and almost certainly relates to something you've done. Which is why I suspect the sump.
posted by 6550 at 3:55 PM on November 12, 2007

Thanks 6550, we've been methodically testing each piece of equipment in the tank- which, if you've ever had a saltwater tank (let alone a marine saltwater tank) you understand takes a very long time.

I wrote my AskMe post after spending the morning up to my shoulders in 54F water, so I'm definately trying to figure out the problem.
posted by arnicae at 4:26 PM on November 12, 2007