Every reef keepers worst nightmare happened to me...

[nina&noah]

Saturday morning, my husband and I went for a walk with our son to the park. We were having a lovely morning until we returned to the house. I walked into the front door and found a steady stream of water coming down the wall under my tank. My tank that is built into the wall was LEAKING!!!!!

I couldn't see the leak because we have a frame built around it so I didn't know where it was coming from. Talk about a nightmare!!!
I called my LFS who immediatly sent over the owners husband who builds tanks. After they removed the frame we immediatly saw a pin sized whole in the silicone that was leaking at a pretty steady pace. We drained the tank and put all my fish, rock, and corals into 2 garbage cans. That is where they are now. They have been there since Saturday. We had to let the new silicone dry. Everything is getting put back together this evening. Keep you fingers crossed that I don't lose anything!
I am very thankful that if this had to happen, it happened while I was home. If it had happened last weekend I would have been out of town, and 90 gallons of water would be in my house. That would be the end of my hobby. My husband is already threatening to turn it into a planter!!!
For all of you South Florida people. The famous aquarium store on Bird road was great. They didn't charge me anything to come out and help me with this!
Sep if you are reading this, would you take advantage of this and quaranteen all of the fish? I haven't bought the qt yet because I thought I had plenty of time. I would have to run out and get a qt and put all of the fish in it uncycled. I am afraid this will stress out the fish even more. They have been through so much already. The LFS people who came over said that it was a waste of time. They said that it is impossible to get ich out of your system. What do you think?

 

[veni vidi vici]

Why do you think your tank sprung a leak?Do you think it is stand related?
BTW sorry for your delema.I hope it was just a faulty seal and not a high or low spot on your stand that caused it to fail.

 

[nina&noah]

The guy who fixed it said he thinks it was an air bubble in the silicone. He said that he didn't see a problem with the way the tank was mounted. He has over 20 years of experience with building tanks, so I hope I can trust him.
I'm now going to be nervous all the time that this could happen when I am not home.

 

[veni vidi vici]

Originally Posted by nina&noah
http:///forum/post/2900249
The guy who fixed it said he thinks it was an air bubble in the silicone. He said that he didn't see a problem with the way the tank was mounted. He has over 20 years of experience with building tanks, so I hope I can trust him.
I'm now going to be nervous all the time that this could happen when I am not home.
It sounds like a reasonable explanation.He must have seen a hollow spot in the silicone seal.
Hope you can sleep well lol,i know the feeling, when my house caught fire recently i had a hard time sleeping for awhile.

 

[morval]

i had a similar event happen last night: my GF and i go out to dinner and i come home and as soon as i walk in the door i notice a puddle around my tank stand. i open the stand to see the return pump shooting water into the air and out of the sump. my pvc return line got knocked loose somehow (im thinking the dog did it) luckily only about 2 gallons got out but the floor this morning was a little warped. need less to say im switching to flex tubing today

 

[keith burn]

hope all will be ok with the fish

 

[kas2247]

I've always been terrified that the tubing to my return will be knocked loose, too. My cats figured out how to open the stand doors and like to play in the sump water, so I had to put childproof locks on the stand so that they can't open it anymore. I was really scared they'd swat at that return and knock something off. Darn cats.

 

[usirchchris]

Wow that really stinks. How awesome is it though, that your LFS popped right over to help out. That is just really cool

.

 

[jrod4u]

Geez, sorry to hear about that, fortunately all of you were home or close to home when it happened. I will be watching my tank very closely tonight, hehe

 

[nina&noah]

Ok, everything is put back together again. Everything looks ok for now. Xenia has already opened up again. Tongue coral has some damaged spots. All of the fish are out and swimming around except for my yellow wrasse. Anems look pathetic, but I'm giving them time. Looks like I was lucky....knock on wood.
I cannot say enough about my LFS. They really saved me with this one. I had no clue what to do! They were at my house in 30 minutes with everything they needed to help me. I'm a loyal customer, so they took care of me. You don't see that much anymore!
Needless to say, I feel better now that my reef is put back together. Seeing everything in garbage cans was making me anxious!
I had to use 2 bags of new live sand. Is this going to cause a problem?

 

[keith burn]

Originally Posted by nina&noah
http:///forum/post/2900507
Ok, everything is put back together again. Everything looks ok for now. Xenia has already opened up again. Tongue coral has some damaged spots. All of the fish are out and swimming around except for my yellow wrasse. Anems look pathetic, but I'm giving them time. Looks like I was lucky....knock on wood.
I cannot say enough about my LFS. They really saved me with this one. I had no clue what to do! They were at my house in 30 minutes with everything they needed to help me. I'm a loyal customer, so they took care of me. You don't see that much anymore!
Needless to say, I feel better now that my reef is put back together. Seeing everything in garbage cans was making me anxious!
I had to use 2 bags of new live sand. Is this going to cause a problem?
did you add to what you have are is all of it new?

 

[sepulatian]

Ah, I am so sorry for your misfortune! I am very glad that your store came to help you right away. That is so great!!
Sep if you are reading this, would you take advantage of this and quaranteen all of the fish? I haven't bought the qt yet because I thought I had plenty of time. I would have to run out and get a qt and put all of the fish in it uncycled. I am afraid this will stress out the fish even more. They have been through so much already. The LFS people who came over said that it was a waste of time. They said that it is impossible to get ich out of your system. What do you think?
I wouldn't have put them all into an uncycled tank. Although it would have been a great time being that they were all out, an uncycled tank is worse than ich for fish sometimes.
I know that ich is not impossible to get out of your tank. Do you know how I know that? Because I have personally done it. Many people have the misconception that ich is always there. It is NOT. My LFS would have told me the same thing. They have told me that vitamins are no good for fish because they will not touch the food with them on there. I beg to differ. They are good people but come from, shall we say, "old salt". They know what they know and are not up on advances in the hobby.

 

[adee]

glad to hear there is another "good" shop in south florida!!!
Thank goodness you were home!!! I hope everything gets up and running safely and quickly for you!

 

[reifermadness]

I thought I was lucky when I came home to find my 50g hot water heater running down the driveway. I couldn't imagine my tank.
Glad you caught it.

 

[hammerhed7]

Glad to hear everything is back in order. This is a perfect example why we need to support our good LFS's, especially in this economy. While we could buy everything at the big chains (insert most hated chain name here). Would ***** have sent their room temperature IQ fish manager to help you? ***Disclaimer*** The use of the store name was for illustrative purposes only, don't turn this into another ***** Bash thread please.

 

[nina&noah]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2900905
Ah, I am so sorry for your misfortune! I am very glad that your store came to help you right away. That is so great!!
I wouldn't have put them all into an uncycled tank. Although it would have been a great time being that they were all out, an uncycled tank is worse than ich for fish sometimes.
I know that ich is not impossible to get out of your tank. Do you know how I know that? Because I have personally done it. Many people have the misconception that ich is always there. It is NOT. My LFS would have told me the same thing. They have told me that vitamins are no good for fish because they will not touch the food with them on there. I beg to differ. They are good people but come from, shall we say, "old salt". They know what they know and are not up on advances in the hobby.

Ok, I'm glad I did what you would have done. I just wanted to get them back to their home. They hadn't eaten for a while and I was starting to get worried. Especially about the Blue Hippo. I fed them mysis with garlic last night and everyone seems to be doing well.
The "old salt" idea is probably correct. We are talking about people who have been doing this 20+ years. I am going to go with our original plan of QT new members and get them healthy and eating before putting them in the DT. Now I need to buy the QT. I am going to wait a little while though. My husband is still annoyed by the leak. I need to give him some time to forget about it before I spend more money on my
"stupid fish tank."

 

[nina&noah]

Originally Posted by keith burn
http:///forum/post/2900879
did you add to what you have are is all of it new?
80% was new. The guy who came to help me sucked out almost of the sand in a wet vac. Nobody could reach the bottom to save it. Do you think I will have a problem?

 

[keith burn]

The old will help the new.
Questions???
L/r. ? lbs?
Skimmer ?
Fuge ?
Did you keep old s/w?
may have to go into a cycle...not good but test it dayly
Mix new s/w now you will need it soon.
But you will be ok with all the old l/r and 20% of thr l/s
Just test it.

 

[nina&noah]

Originally Posted by keith burn
http:///forum/post/2901811
The old will help the new.
Questions???
L/r. ? lbs?
Skimmer ?
Fuge ?
Did you keep old s/w?
may have to go into a cycle...not good but test it dayly
Mix new s/w now you will need it soon.
But you will be ok with all the old l/r and 20% of thr l/s
Just test it.

I do have LR, but I don't know how many lbs. I do not have a skimmer, but I do have a fuge. All but 10 gallons of the water is old. I use natural sea water, so I will have to go pick some up tomorrow. Everything is testing fine for now, but I will start testing daily just in case.