In 2004, on movie night I was cleaning the fish tank. Somehow I managed to leave the tank vacuum in the tank, with the air hose attached when we left for the show.
It wouldn’t have been a problem had I left the compressor attached, but I used the same compressor for the tank bubbler, and swapped it over.
Movies were fun back then, before Hollywood’s output became reductive, retreaded or simple garbage, so I imagine we had a nice time. I can’t say for sure, because the event that stands out was entering the apartment to the sound of trickling water.
I instantaneously knew what I’d done, and rushed to the tank to fine about 4 inches of water in a 55 gallon tank. Just enough for the fish to survive, but that little compressor tube (5 mm in diameter?) over the course of hours had siphoned out about 40 gallons of water.
I got to reminiscing about this little disaster this morning as I was returning to my study with a fresh cup of coffee and I tripped at the top of the stairs, spilling about 1/2 a cup of said coffee onto the carpet.
The cure for spills in carpet is not rubbing, trying to scrub out the stain only makes it worse.
The solution is dilution so I poured several cups of water all over and around the spill, and got my shop vac.
The shop vac I bought the night I drained the fish tank onto our living room carpet.
Powerful little thing sucked up most of (both of) the spill(s).
Probably saved me a major repair bill for my landlord then, and just saved me another coffee stain in my upstairs carpet. Fixing that little disaster all those years ago left me the tools to fix my spill today.
