Leak The First

The LilyPod is known to have some issues with its plumbing: in other words, it leaks. Brian discovered this after he had a bunch of work done on it and set it up in his upstairs yoga studio, above a store with thousands of dollars of machinery directly underneath. The leaks were a serious disaster, and prompted him to drain the tank and bail on the process.

I'm not foolish enough, he says, boldly, to buy a something in non-working condition without some insurance plan. So, I've only put a (moderate, 1/5) deposit down until the tank works, at which point 3/5th more will be paid. Once it runs for a year, then the final 1/5th is paid. This ensures Brian stays motivated to make sure this completes -- pretty typical, as if you were paying a contractor.

And it's a good thing that I made this plan, for tonight I put maybe 40-50 gallons of water in, only to find that the bottom-most joint, a 3"? connection between PVC and fiberglass leaks at a rate of about 1cc every minute. Most unfortunate.

I futzed for a while fully localizing the leak, digging out with a knife a bunch of pink foam that the inner tank rests upon. I then tried to figure out if I could control/direct the outflow and leave the tank with water in it until morning, perhaps even filling it all the way to look for other leaks. This proved to be challenging, though perhaps would have worked via one mutilated Frisbee, some plastic, and a few miscellaneous materials. But I worried that some water might be running along the bottom-inside, where I couldn't see it. It seemed imprudent to leave water in the tank.

...which brings us to a lesson:

How to drain a float tank.

1. Siphon. Use a garden hose to siphon out the water til that doesn't work any longer. Start with a full hose, and get the out-end lower than the in-end. The LilyPod is in the garage, on the ground floor, so I can't get much elevation difference.

2. Bucket. Scoop with Tupperware or trashcans into plastic bins. Serious diminishing returns on this as the water gets lower. Probably pulled out 20 gallons this way.

3. Shopvac. Very fast. Pulled another 2-3 gallons.

4. Sponge & bucket. Slow. But gets the job done. Maybe 1 quart removed this way.