I broke my fish tank and created a man-made lake.

The carpet should dry out pretty easily, it's the padding underneath that will be the problem. I'd look into renting a large dehumidifier and running the heat all day to dry it out as best you can. Don't wait, either. Once the carpet padding mildews, it's game over. You'll have to replace the carpet.

 

i'd say try and get as much water out of it as you can...use a vacuum or use towells...keep at it until its just wet, but not soaked....i think it should be alright at that point to let it dry out...maybe take a blow dryer to it, obviously won't solve it, but it'll help some..

i'm guessing there's places out there that deal with it, maybe stanley steemer has some super vac for this

 

Yeah, I think Rookie's idea a good one -- especially the second time around. The AC will dehumidify the air, and the fan will wick away water vapor as it evaporates.

 

Is there fish in the lake?

 

What's the point of that? It's not particularly funny and it's already the second page of the thread, and a lot of people have contributed advice. You just come off as a jackass.

To the OP, I second the suggestions of cranking up the AC and placing fans around the area. Also, pick up some mule team borax for the carpet, it inhibits mold and mildew.

 

Sorry about your trouble man, I used to own a carpet cleaning business on the side. What you need to do is look up in your area on some carpet cleaning companies and ask them if they have the water extraction equipment and how much do they charge. You can not be stingy on this as some poster earlier said it's the padding underneath that had absorbed all of the water. Your carpet will stink and you will have a serious mold and mildew problem.

After you extracted the water out of your carpet I would suggest get it clean by a professional one preferably using the dry-foam method, don't use the steam method like most of the companies out there, the last thing you need is more water being dumped into your carpet.

Good luck Bro!

 

Its not really an emergency, he broke his fish tank and wet his carpet.... Right after the "picture" I was actually going to tell him to go to Lowe's and rent a steam cleaning machine for about $30...... But noo you had to get your panties wet over a little joke.... To the OP, go to Lowe's and ask them what is their best carpet cleaner.... There is one I used to clean a carpet that a washing machine spilled all its water into...... Its a white plain bottle with purple letters I think.... Once you use that just rent a rug doctor and steam clean it..... You will be ok, your carpet will be okay......

 

I think the best thing to do would be to pull the carpet back and dry it out, not necessarily pull it all out. There should be foam under the carpet too, and it's not going to completely dry out on it's own quick enough to avoid mildew smell.

IMO

 

I have a 100 gallon tank with stand if you're looking to replace your tank... possible small crack in my tank.

 

Get a steam cleaner. If not buy one, go rent one. Steam clean said area, to make it smell good. The steam cleaner also has a heater / blow drying effect to dry the rug.

I steam clean like once every 2 weeks.

 

How did you break it anyway? Just curious.

 

Sorry for your loss. If you were in Portland I'd let you have my tank for free. I have a 40 gal just collecting dust in the garage. I used to have cichlids. They were a lot of fun but cleaning the tank became to much of a pain in the ass.

 

I'd definitely rent a steam cleaner as others suggested if you can't pull the carpet up. I'm not sure how much it'll help the pad below it. It's not just water that got on your carpet, it's fish crap, ammonia, etc. Make sure you dry under that cabinet, too.

Did the tank break on its own or did something hit it? If nothing hit it, and you decide to put another tank up, make sure the tank is level before you put it up. Non-level tanks tend to put a lot of strain on a portion of the glass causing it to possibly fail. Also try staying away from most Walmart or PetSmart, etc. tanks. Many of the cheaper ones use thinner glass.