Tank Horror Story! post em...

[darwin]

Heres mine, ......
It was a nice Friday Late Night, roughly 10:45p.m. Sitting there watching my lil ocean. My lady friend tells me shes going to bed and asked me. When are you going to sleep? I said, ...Idunno..... in a lil' bit probly.
So iam watchin the lil green emerald crab eatin & dancin across the rocks, having a good time. The staghorn hemits chillen, cleaning himself and surveying at the Tank Summit after what seemd to be a lifetime climb. haha.....its funny watching him carry around that kickstand coral hes got. The other 2 lil' hermits are just being their, Roomba A.D.D. selfs. My cortez star is just kickin back topside, full from his silverside he ate the other day. In a sweeet spot to watch! Now my frogfish angler is just so cool to watch, he loves fishin.....even though he only catches his 1 silverside every few days. LOL anyway....hes having a blast, no pun intended... swimin in the current, fishing all his hot spots, hiding in his cave.
By this time. its now, ...funny it was this time last night about 1:50a.m. ......... CRICK! CRICK! ? .....................CREEK!? what the heck is that noise? is it the house? floors? Its winter here so those noises are normal, but not this one.....CRICK! CRICK!....CRICK! I thought, is that my chair? So iam wiggilin in my chair to see if maybe it was loose.? Nope......
O' Well back to watchin......
And then! CRICK! CREEK! CRACK! What the &()@$ is that?......... as iam checking around the tank edges, i catch a glimpse of my stand! IAM WATCHING A CRACK START CRACKING right before my eyes!!!!!!! OH NO.... what am i gonna do?????????.......
My stand was 3 roman like pillers with a thick glass table top. Come to find out their not heavy and sturdy like my ex claimed when she got em to setup a computer desk. They are soild plaster with hallow tops and bases i only knocked on the solid middle.....
So the left side piller is failing fast!!! A chip came flyin off, and was starting to sink....I jumped into Action, Panic, mode. iam holding the one side up as the piller is falling into itself, iam tryin to take up as much weight as i could. SCREAMING for my lady friend to HURRY COME HELP BRING THE BUCKETS!!!!!! HELPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!! She came running upstairs still half asleep with the buckets thinking someone in the tank died, and i was trying to point it out to her.......After some VERY tense moments & ALOT!! of bad words, she was able to get the syphoon going..... Holy crap what are we gonna do???? I got all the goods in buckets with pumps & heat. So after proping the side of the tank, we haul a$$ to where???? of course... Wally World (walmart) to get a emergency E.R. tank since i didnt already have one......dum me....and a stand!... Come to find out they dont carry a 55gal. stand,.... UGH! So i get the lil 10gal E.R., get it home, put my frog in.
needless to say its now about 4:30a.m. iam exhausted....... I woke up at 7:00a.m. this morning LPS dont open till 8:00a.m. that felt like forever & a day waiting for them to open....so here iam 1st customer to brake the bank on THE BEST stand i can get and all they got is a stand that looked like it was made from base-board..n..staples!!!!! $169.00 hell no! maybe that stand for freahwater but no way my salt,sand,LR,critters,star, and fish are gonna sit on that, and go through this again....I dont think so.
So i gotta wait till my LFS opens at 10:00a.m..........................
Finally BOOM! doors open. I go runnin right to the consignment area. woo hoo!!! 3 to pick from... So i get the nice tall oak one with doors. $100.... Deal!
Gettin everything set back up,.........look over at my frog and hes splashin about the top of the E.R. ....... Oh NO......whats going on with him? as i observe him, i can see hes breathing abnormal! So i quickly transfer him back to his tank, and now hes trying to relax in his cave but is still breathing eratic???.......man I hope everything works out.....
So the moral of the story is, Take your time, Love your ocean it loves you back and dont shortcut your tank and think oh i dont need that i got something else i could use. Cause 9 outta 10 if it wasent designed for it, it probly wont work! And always have a backup plan ready! Dont think ahhh,,,, i will deal with it,..... IF? i need to.
I.E. Buckets, Pumps, Heaters, Hospital Tank, their was alot of good info in the 101 post for me to listen to but was to hard headed to wait.
well thats my story lets hear yours.............
P.S. I would like to say Sorry to my lady friend Julie, for being such a, "beep beep". If it wasent for your quick response everything would have been on the floor
P.S.S. I need some sleep, hope everyones ok in the morning.

 

[gill again68]

Wow crap. So this happened yesterday?
My story. I wake up early like always and head to get my coffee and start the day. Gonna breeze by the tank and see who is up. Well it doesnt take long to find water on the floor headed over to the 46" and all the power strips on the floor behind that cabinet. Now its on, baby where are all the bleeping towels. Well we get the water up and now we are looking for the source. Main tank has 0 water on stand, or any part of the tank. Check the sump. Its a repurposed 29 gallon. Start checking everything and cant find any leak. Watching the water level in the sump though you can watch it slowly falling. Meaning more water is hitting the floor and is under that massive stand and tank. 90 Gal tank that is. Crap, what is leaking? Finally I see the issue. There is a 1/2 moon shaped crack in the bottom of the sump. She could blow out at any minute and there is probably still 20 gallons or so left in there. So the tank is shut down and I start pumping water out of the sump and that my friend is why I dont use acrylic baffles in my sump anymore. From what I could see I had made the baffles to tight and about 6 months later they had swollen enough to crack the glass. Well its off to the drug store of pets to pick up a new tank. $130.00 bucks later and I have a 40 gallon breeder tank. Back to the house. Now I cant just put that under there without baffles and I sure aint gonna put acrylic in it so I put a big tote bin under there with everything in it.<stupid thing just happened as I typed this. I heard a POP POP POP, so I ran in to check the tank. I think everything is ok but the skimmer needs some help.> Now back to the story. I get all that going and everybody in the tank is still happy. Now for the sump. I have to wait till Monday to come to order glass cut for the baffles. I get that done, put it all together and then its 24 hours for the silicone to cure. Thats done and now its Wednesday. Water test and let that sit for 12 hours. So Thursday the sump goes back under the tank where it has been and doing well since.

 

[darwin]

Wow yeah it's a scary feeling thinking everything could just be a loss. Yeah this just happened to me friday night. My frog Darwin seems to be breathing better today, and everybody else is doing ok.