55 gallons worth of disaster.

2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Well I just came home for the day after a call from the wife. She called me after stoping by the house on her way to her home office to drop off some paper work to find my 55G tank completely empty and all of the chichlids that were in there dead.
Still don't know the exact cause but there is some visible damage on the heater...and looking all around the tank I cannot see any damage or area where the tank leaked from. I need to get it broken down so that I can move everything and clean the carpet. I'll have to remove everything and take the tank out back and fill it back up to see where the damage is. I could use a half of a day off of work just as much as the next guy but this is not what I had in mind.
 
slice

slice

Active Member
Worst post I could have read from you, terribly sorry.
Too bad we can't zip over there to help...
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Help would have been nice. I've got the tank broken down and moved out to the back patio. Moved the stand temporarily to another wall and pulled up the carpet and pad in that aread, got some fans set up drying it all out now. I extrated as much water as I could. Hopefully will get my buddy over here later with his carpet machine. Luckily the way this building was designed it sits ontop of a concrete parking structure and it apears that the vast majority of the water leaked out through a wide seam of the sub floor near the wall and on down to the parking structure. So that's good in a sense that it kept the damage to small area in the corner of the living room.
The thing that has me perplexed though is how excactly the tank leaked everything out of it. I see no visible sign of where any water whatsoever ran down and dried up on the stand. No cracks or chips anywhere on the tank. Silicone from what I can tell seems good. I'll know more once I clean the last bit of sand out and fill it back up outside to check it. The heater looks like it could have possibly leaked water into it from the top but the heater itself has no water in it. One of the plastic suction cups that held it in place has melted to it (the one on the bottom). And when I pulled the suction cup off of the heater it looks like the glass is flaked or chipped? It's strange! Still doesn't explain to me how there was no standing water left in the tank whatsoever...not even an inch. Glass bottom looks intact.
Anyone else ever hear of or experience something similar?
 
S

smartorl

Guest
Definitely not the time for funny but alien abduction?
Sounds so peculiar with the heater and the tank totally empty. I assumed you would find the floor of the tank cracked for that to have happened.
 
scott t

scott t

Active Member
Sorry to hear about your tank Corey.. That really stinks, I think I would be like over the top if that happened to me. Good Luck I hope you find out what happened...
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
could the damage to the heater from being operated dry? Maybe the water leaked out and then the heater broke due to not being in water. Was the sand damp?
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

I'm so sorry to hear...

I doubt the heater did it, most likely the heater was damaged from being dry and yet being on. Either the filtration system messed up and drained te tank or the tank is broken or leaky.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Well I've got the tank out on the stand out back and filled 3/4 of the way with water. So far it has not leaked at all. My first thought on the heater damage after seeing that it wasn't cracked was that it was damaged because of the water draining out of the tank, yes. The reason that I know it's not the filtration is because I had a canister filter on it...even if the filter was the culprit then at the very least I'd still expect to see about 6" of water left in the tank since that's about how far from the bottom that the intake tube of filter goes. So that led me to think that the tank must have leaked from the bottom somehow. But how since it's not leaking now?
Monsinour, the sand was wet, it had moisture...but as I was scooping it out I expected I would find at least a little bit of water even if just a fraction of an inch. But there was virtually nothing other than damp/wet sand. And when I pulled the whole tank outside and inspected it I could not find a scratch on the tank. The silicone is in what I'd call near perfect shape. No air visible air bubbles in it and none of it is lifting up or separating from the glass
Granted it's a FW tank. But I had African cichlids in it so I kept the water brackish. Anytime I ever dribbled water on my stand when working on the tank...once the water dried I could see where it was because of the area where the water dripped would turn a whitish color from it's salt content. I saw no evidence anywhere on the tank where water had leaked onto the wood structure, inside or outside of the stand.
Maybe it was aliens??? They coulda needed tank water for fuel to get home? Perhaps they abducted my tank water in order to do experiments on it in hopes to figuring out how life on this planet was created? Maybe they just wish to understand our curious and all be it strange fascination for keeping critters in glass cages.
I'm open to anything right now.
Trying to stay open minded about it...it sucks that the fish had to go out like they did as I could tell it wasn't very nice for them. I had two breeding pairs in there and about 7 offspring total that were born and bread and survived as peacefully as cichlids could in that tank...youngest was about 8 months old. I'd really like to know what the chain of events were that caused this to happen.
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
Sorry to hear about your losses.
My vote is aliens. Yup, I mean what else could it have been?
 
S

smartorl

Guest
Maybe Flower's old fish water stealing neighbor moved into the neighborhood?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Makes no sense.....had to leak out the bottom if there was NO water left....how long did it take for this to happen?
Do you get along with your neighbors? LOL....Remember Flowers story of missing tank water.....it turned out her landlord was sneaking in after Flower went to work and using the water to water her plants
 
gill again68

gill again68

Active Member
That sucks. Could the heater have failed raising the temp up so high that the seams separated? I guess then the tank could cool and thus not leak? Then the remaining water evaporated with the heater cooking it off? Thats the best I got.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Mike, I actually considered that very same thing. At this point I don't know how I could verify that thought. If that were the case then I'd expect it would still leak even if the silicone got hot enough to melt, I don't know if I see it sealing itself water tight again since the silicone would have been wet at that point. The heater did get extremely hot though since the plastic suction cup was melted to it.
Meozer I did not know that lol. Maybe that happened before I joined the site...I don't think I ever heard that whole story, no. I'd have to have a little talk with my neighbor if they did something like that lol.
Perhaps I should do a pole:
Aliens:
Ghost:
I drained my tank while sleepwalking:
Flowers neighbor moved to town:
Heater got so hot it vaporized the tank:
Tank go so hot the silicone melted, leaked everything out, and resealed itself when it cooled:
Dog snuck out of room, pulled up a chair and had a big drink:
 
S

smartorl

Guest
You forgot:
Wife said enough and began the downsizing...........
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/381486/55-gallons-worth-of-disaster#post_3323585
I GOT IT!!!!!! The wife read about the spot on the carpet

OH...I asked you how long this took?
Well the tank had water when I went to bed lastnight around 11.
I didn't sleep very well at all lastnight, I tossed and turned all night. So admitedly I was tired when I got up this morning and didn't even check the tanks this morning. I have a total of about 6 years all together if having fish tanks through the years. This is the first full tank loss (and hopefully the last) that I've ever had. But the wife called me after she got to work this morning asking me if I did something to the tank because the fish were all dead. The lights were not on at that point so she really didn't notice the tank was empty. So it must have happened sometime in the night after I went to sleep untill about 9 this morning.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by smartorl http:///forum/thread/381486/55-gallons-worth-of-disaster#post_3323576
Maybe Flower's old fish water stealing neighbor moved into the neighborhood?
LOL...I thought to say the same thing...Completely drained like that can only be a bottom leak. Even if you scoop out water some remains in the sand.
Corey, all I can think to do is refill the tank with water and add the sand too, outside and see if the weight and pressure will recreate the stress and find out what happened. what a freaky thng to happen.
 
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