What do you use for water spill cleanup?

[Zinda]

In the 3 months I've had my 110 gallon tank, I've already had 2 spills of, let's say, over 1.5 gallons of water. Given that the tank is on hardwood, that can do some damage. One of them was contained in a quite large custom tray I have built, but then I need to get the water out.

So, I'm looking for quick and simple ways to soak up a ton of water.

I thought "water absorbing" technology had come a long way, but it seems very hard to find products that start thin, can absorb huge water and then get thrown away.

I started with a Pig product which are thin blue mats. Turn out each one only absorbs a surprisingly small amount of water, like 1/10 of a gallon.

After researching what I finally understand are called "sorbent" products, it appears that they come in a few standard forms and, unless you just want to scatter a dust over everything (and try to clean it up later), the most absorbent kind are the "pillows" as far I can tell. The best I've found are this one from ULine that does 1.75 gallon per pillow and this one from Pig that does 2 gallon per pillow. The problem is they are *really* expensive. Like ~10$ per pillow.

Outside of grabbing all the towels in the closet, what products are people using for emergency spill cleanup?

 

[CrayHawk]

Towels and dehumidifier for me. ATO dumped out 5 gallons on me once.

 

[FUNGI]

Refrigerator heater.......

 

[Dan_P]

In the 3 months I've had my 110 gallon tank, I've already had 2 spills of, let's say, over 1.5 gallons of water. Given that the tank is on hardwood, that can do some damage. One of them was contained in a quite large custom tray I have built, but then I need to get the water out.

So, I'm looking for quick and simple ways to soak up a ton of water.

I thought "water absorbing" technology had come a long way, but it seems very hard to find products that start thin, can absorb huge water and then get thrown away.

I started with a Pig product which are thin blue mats. Turn out each one only absorbs a surprisingly small amount of water, like 1/10 of a gallon.

After researching what I finally understand are called "sorbent" products, it appears that they come in a few standard forms and, unless you just want to scatter a dust over everything (and try to clean it up later), the most absorbent kind are the "pillows" as far I can tell. The best I've found are this one from ULine that does 1.75 gallon per pillow and this one from Pig that does 2 gallon per pillow. The problem is they are *really* expensive. Like ~10$ per pillow.

Outside of grabbing all the towels in the closet, what products are people using for emergency spill cleanup?

How have a box of old towels within reach for emergencies.

 

[FUNGI]

Refrigerator heater.......

sorry....quick.......this one is not so quick LOL

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Lots of towels.

 

[bblumberg]

Towels and shopvac

 

[slingfox]

I lay down some large towels when I do major work in my tank. Shop vac can be used to suck up piles of water quickly.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Paper towels

Mop

One could use hospital chucks

 

[VintageReefer]

Stop spilling 1.5g of water? How
Does that happen? Are you pouring water out of heavy 5g buckets?

For minor splashes and drips I just use spare towels. The ones that would normally get thrown out and replaced with new towels. I keep those and use them for floor spills

 

[Zinda]

Stop spilling 1.5g of water? How
Does that happen? Are you pouring water out of heavy 5g buckets?

:-) Spill #1: have both ends of a vinyl tube in the tank with a loop of it over the side. Go to the bathroom. Come back and realize one side flopped out due to wave action from the powerhead and has siphoned a surprising amount of water onto the floor.

Spill #2: Go on vacation (that's probably enough of a reason right??). While you are there, inexplicably have the sump level rise slowly over the course of 5 days. About 3/8" per day. At some point, shut off the return pump to stop the rise, but of course the sump gets filled just a little bit more, let's call it 1.5 gallons, which basically goes over the side.

I have to believe most people have some kind of bizarre thing that has caused a big ole leak like that.

 

[Zinda]

Shop vac can be used to suck up piles of water quickly.

Oooh! That's a good one. I gotta remember that.

 

[Twocorns]

Shop vacation, but remove the filter before using to suck up water.

I also use my.carpet cleaner to.suck up water, or my mop

 

[Rubymoon286]

This is going to sound really really stupid, but I've had success with it with a tray under my orchid shelf, orbeez, and a shop vac - ymmv

put dry orbeez in the tray, let them absorb the water, shop vac them out of the tray, lay them out in the sun for an afternoon to dry back out (I think you may be able to also use an oven on low heat but I don't know for sure) and then the next time you spill repeat. I imagine if you don't hate the look of it, you could leave them in the tray to catch spills or minor overflows.