Water From Tank Has Wet The Carpet And It Now Smells

[Foz]

Hi all. I'm sure you are sick of my questions and help so I shall make it brief. Doing a water change and some water has inevitably gotten onto the carpet. It's slowly starting to smell.

Quite simply, do you guys have any suggestions on how to fix it? I'm asking here as this will often happen I'm sure whenever a water change occurs.

Cheers.

 

[Essjay]

Do you mean just a wet carpet smell? It will go away as the carpet dries. If you have, or could borrow, a dehumidifier that would speed up the process.
 
As for future water changes, lay a towel in front of the tank. I use an old curtain with a rubbery thermal layer on the back which makes it waterproof.

 

[Foz]

The water seems to of gotten through to the underlay. It's not a lot, only a very small patch. But enough to make it smell somewhat.

Cheers for the pointer about using a towel, will take that advice on board.

 

[Mark Z.]

You could aim a fan at the carpet to dry it up.

 

[Essjay]

I must be getting old!!!!
 
The first thing to do is get some absorbent cloths (eg old towels) or wads of paper towel, lay them over the spillage area and walk on them. When the cloth/paper towels are soaking wet, repeat with a dry bit of cloth/new wad of paper towels and repeat as often as necessary till no more water is soaked up. The amount of water that is left will dry quicker.

 

[Akasha72]

febreeze?
 
But cover the tank with a blanket if you are going near it with cleaning chemicals. 
 
As others have said - in future put some towels down or similar. I had a new carpet fitted recently and I asked to keep the cut offs. One piece was big enough to lay down over the carpet in front of the tank and I keep it rolled up in the cupboard and get that down before a water change 

 

[Brilly91]

Sadly chances are you wont get rid of the smell yourself if its soaked through into the underlay or worse floorboards? A professional carpet cleaner may be able to repair the issue via repeated hot water extraction but make sure its a professional as home use ones will only make the issue worse.

 

[Akasha72]

I've thought of another trick. It's a trick I was taught when I got my dog from the rescue centre. They said if she wee'd on the carpet to sprinkle biological wash powder over it and once it was dry to rub it in to the carpet and leave it.
 
The smell of biological wash powder removes the smell so the dog won't go back and keep wee-ing in the same spot. I'm wondering if this would work for water smells too. 
 
The problems with using chemicals is the tank. If the smell gets to the fish you could end up losing some. I've read it's best not to use furniture polish near a fish tank and so I've applied that to all cleaning products near my tank

 

[NickAu]

Wet carpet stinks,  I did that once it took about 2 weeks for the wet carpet smell to go away.

 

[jag51186]

Wet carpet stinks,  I did that once it took about 2 weeks for the wet carpet smell to go away.

 
I drip water on my carpet all the time and it never smells...What are you guys growing in your carpet overseas?? 

haha

 

[NickAu]

It wasn’t a drip it, It was closer to 10 litres, I wasn't paying attention and didn't notice the end of the hose wasn’t in the bucket.

 

[jag51186]

It wasn’t a drip it, It was closer to 10 litres, I wasn't paying attention and didn't notice the end of the hose wasn’t in the bucket.

 
I did the exact same thing, but it was in the bathroom on the laminate and was probably only about a liter thankfully. Never letting that happen again!