Your Best Aquarium Stories Featured Monthly!

flower

flower

Well-Known Member
I knew Siptang won...I thought you already announced it.
Okay...the funny landlady story:
Some have heard this story before….but I submit it here for the telling because folks want to hear it. I call it the mystery leak. This is the story of my 30g long freshwater tanks, that I had 25 years ago.
I lived in Chicago in an apartment building. One night when I got home from work I noticed something was wrong with my 30g long fish tanks. I had two, each stacked on top of the other… resting on one of those metal frame stands. The top tank was half full, and the bottom tank was filled to the brim and almost splashing over the rim. The floor was dry, I couldn’t find the leak. I refilled the upper tank and watched…nothing…no leak. It had to have leaked and went to the bottom tank but how???? Also why didn’t the bottom tank overflow??? I thought maybe the water on the floor evaporated through the day…if it happened early enough after I left for work…maybe. Needless to say the fish got ich, I lost a few…I had to treat them. I would wake up in the middle of the night and check the tank…still full and running smoothly.
3 months go by…and it happened again! Just like the first time….. Still no water on the floor, the bottom tank almost overflowed, and the top tank half full. The fish would just die…not all of them but quite a few. I couldn’t afford another tank, and why 3 months before it happened again? Was it the HOB filter?...No, I checked and rechecked…I was going crazy trying to figure it out…what was doing it?
This weird cycle went on for the two years I lived in that place. Sometimes it would go 5 months before the half tank syndrome would strike again, and I just couldn’t figure it out. I lost so many fish, I was about to give up a few times.
Then the day came for us to move….I broke down the top tank, certain that I would find the answer to my mystery leak with it empty…. but I didn’t see any cracks, nothing to explain why it would leak and only once in a blue moon…
Then, as I continued on to break down the lower tank, I hear my elderly land lady running down the stairs…she was in such a rush she nearly fell…. and she was shouting to me….”don’t throw out the fish water! It makes my berries grow so beautiful!” That’s right folks…the old lady was stealing my fish water, and she was too old to replenish the top tank, so she filled the lower one to the brim. Being old was her only defense and it saved her life at that moment.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Limpid http:///t/388649/your-best-aquarium-stories-featured-monthly/140#post_3458555
Oh flower that is too funny and not at the same time.
Oh the sleepless nights thinking my tank leaked. If we ever have a swap your crazy landlord stories...I can top them all. This lady was not the only crazy I had dealt with over the years. LOL
I had one more worse than her, but it didn't involve a fish tank. The grand prize goes to an old man who wasn't bothered by me using the toilet that I was sitting on as he came into the bathroom to do some repairs on the dryer located in there. I told him it bothered me! But he just continued...my sister came in to see what I was yelling about and she couldn't get him out either. He didn't leave until she threatened him with calling the police. All the while they argued...there I was sitting on the pot, exposed to all....He owned the building and insisted he had a right to just enter and needed to fix the dryer.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Siptang http:///t/388649/your-best-aquarium-stories-featured-monthly/160#post_3458798
Or judge Judy lol.
LOL...Judge Judy ... The only problem is that even though it was a great story and I was clearly wronged...I had no damages. Freshwater fish..although worth a kings ransom to me, comes out to about $40.00 worth of fish and the ich meds about $20.00. Not worth going to court for. Freshwater fish if it costs more than $5.00 back then was concidered expensive. The most I ever spent on any fish was a pair of breeder angelfish...$25.00 each. If memory serves... all I had in those tanks were 4 black mollys, 2 swordfish, a betta and some neons.
LOL..the least I ever spent on a saltwater fish was $19.99..now if someone messed with my SW tanks...I would have some damages...but then, her berries would be dead from spreading salt on them. I don't like to rent...I prefer to own my home, and not deal with landlords.
 
tirtza

tirtza

Member
Oh my.....what a great story Flower! I agree, I don't even want to imagine how crazy I'd go if someone messed with my SW tank. It's such an expensive hobby, but more than that it's much more complex. Most importantly, I feel a connection to my saltwater babies (fish and inverts alike) that I never felt for my freshwater fish. It's probably one of the reasons I'm a little overly cautious (or paranoid) with my little piece of ocean.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
LOL...I'm surprised nobody commented on the crazy old man who came in and wanted to fix the dryer while I sat on the toilet.
he was way worse than the fish water thief. That landlord rented a two story house to me and my sister, she had one child and I had three. We were seperated from our men back then, and went together to make ends meet. After renting to us, about 4 months later he shows up and wanted to move in upstairs, he said we didn't need the whole house for ourselves.
We moved out.
 
mr. limpid

mr. limpid

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/388649/your-best-aquarium-stories-featured-monthly/160#post_3458937
LOL...I'm surprised nobody commented on the crazy old man who came in and wanted to fix the dryer while I sat on the toilet.
he was way worse than the fish water thief. That landlord rented a two story house to me and my sister, she had one child and I had three. We were seperated from our men back then, and went together to make ends meet. After renting to us, about 4 months later he shows up and wanted to move in upstairs, he said we didn't need the whole house for ourselves.
We moved out.
My comment about the peoples court was about the over handy handy man. You now every story needs pictures, just kidding.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Siptang http:///t/388649/your-best-aquarium-stories-featured-monthly/160#post_3459115
What a sick turd.. trying to prey on women like that..
He was a sick turd but not a predator. He really believed what he was doing was right. No amount of arguing could convince him, but he was afraid of the police, and if we threatened him with calling the cops he would get all upset and leave....only if we actually was acting like we were dialing to call.
In Chicago you get all kinds of wierdos, they are funtional crazies, but crazy nontheless. Those that owned houses would rent but always felt they could just walk in and take or do whatever they want. The crazy lady taking my fish water really thought she had the right to do so as well. They seemed normal enough when I first rented form them. However AFTER money has changed hands, all you ever get from them is "it's thier house" they didn't understand that once it was rented it was MY house and they needed permission to enter... WHILE I was there to supervise. I really like owning my own place.
 
S

siptang

Guest
Never had to go through that, thank god.
That's why I like Florida and most of southern hospitality. :)
 
tirtza

tirtza

Member
I agree with Sip! I really want to read some more stories! This is one of my favorite threads. I wish I had a good story but I'm to new to the hobby (aka 'the addiction') to have anything interesting to tell.
 
S

siptang

Guest
New month, new story.
This is when I first got my 72g bow front.
This was when I just graduated from University of Florida and decided to move back down to my parent's house to save me some money to stabilize myself before venturing out on my own.
I got this as second hand and I knew very little to nothing when it came to anything that had to do with hardware of this beast. Plumbing, sump, overflow box, pump etc, it was all new to me. I was coming from penguin hob filter so you can see I was overwhelmed very quickly.
It was a display tank at my buddy's lfs and I picked it up as it was gently transported with u haul and made it to my house and filled it with salt, water, rocks and the whole work.
All was swell and all was well. Everything worked as it should wasn't too loud, cloudiness dissipated within a day and I was happy. 3rd or 4th night, power decided to go out in the middle of the night. I was sleeping, unaware of such thing and continued to sleep my night away.
Around 7 in the morning I hear a LOUD shriek and profanity with my name mixed in between. I quickly woke up and went to the source of the hostility and lo and behold.
Tank's return pipe did not have hole or valve and about 10-15 gallons of water was on my parent's living room floor. Their Persian rug soaked, wood furniture soaked, my mom's feet all wet and my dog all wet playing with water and my return pump gurgling EXTREMELY LOUD due to lack of water.
I sighed, took a deep breath, grabbed my bucket and mop and started to clean up the mess. Took me about 5 hours and $200 bucks for dry cleaning to restore the carpets, house where it was before and learned when I went to the fish store that I should drill a small hole on the return pipe's head so that it wouldn't drip back the water the way it did when the power went out... They just never had one because they had a generator hooked in to it.. My parents were thinking of 150g tank when I moved out but this changed their mind permanently and they are completely content with my old 29g hex tall tank.
Well, thanks for reading and hopefully many more good stories will come forth. ;)
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Okay...new story:
This one is about my first "coral"
I had found a LFS and was handpicking the rocks I wanted. The owner of the store picked up my choice of rock and said..."oh look a little button anemone...looks like you get a freebee" I didn't know an anemone was an invert, I thought it was a coral. I was so happy and showed my husband. We were so proud of our little guy...then he split and became two and then he split yet again and became three. I figured we must be doing something right. Our little "coral" was growing and spreading....we were thrilled.
The next thing I purchased was a chocolate chip starfish from a different store, that the LFS guy swore was reef safe. Not 10 minutes after we put the star in the tank it headed for my three little corals. They leaned way over like they were trying to get away but couldn't then the starfish covered each one, and ate them.
I was furious, I took the star back and the manager admitted that the kid who sold it was wrong, it was not reef safe. I not only demanded my money back on the star, but I wanted to be reimbursed for the coral it killed. The manager wanted to know what we lost. I told her a button coral somethiong, not remembering the word anemone....I discribed it but she just looked at me stupid. No coral she ever heard of matched what I discribed. It had a stalk, it was tan and it closed up into a little button if you got too close to it...it had longish little bulbs on top, like a flower with a mouth in the center. The manager would not pay me for a coral I couldn't even identify.
Some months later I found out the name of my little freebee...it was called a Majano anemone. Yep, that's right...how embarrassing. That particular LFS were I got the rock from was selling them for $1.00 for a small one, and $2.00 for the large ones...and people were buying them. When I mentioned what I had learned about them, he said that if people were dumb enough to buy them...he would sell them. LOL...at least mine was free, I don't know if I could own up to the story if I had paid for one.
 
S

siptang

Guest
Lol, you told me of this story before and it's even better on second time hearing it! I'm sure many of us can relate to you. I had an same incident when I first started this hobby in my 10g tank and with aiptasia. Like you, me and my wife were fascinated and were very happy about it lol. Ahhhhhhh silly times lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top