D'oh!

[Becca]

I'm jinxed, I swear it.

For the past couple of months I've had a beautiful 75-Gallon Oak Perfecto setup in my front room full of some lovely African Cichlids...I love the tank. Last night - we *JUST* finally purchased Green Spotted Puffers for my old 30-Gallon. (They're teeny tiny babies at the moment, all of MAYBE an inch. )

Anyway, I woke up this morning and I heard running water and my first reaction was "Who left my fountain on?" and then I realized it was turned off. So then I noticed the water level on my tank was down a few inches and I thought, "What the hell, are my Aquaclears leaking?" Well, something was leaking, but it wasn't the filter.

There's a nice stress crack along the back of my tank, starting in the lower left hand corner and running all the way to the upper right hand corner.

Fortunately fast actions and a few hours later, I think (other than the mess I have yet to clean up) everything will be fine. I need to get in touch with Perfecto and have the tank replaced, but it is drained and all the cichlids are divided up between two 10-Gallons for now. I know, I know - it's crowded, but (hopefully) it should only be a couple of days until they're moved back to the 75. Fortunately, none of my cichlids are full-grown yet, so it shouldn't be too hard on them.

 

[sinistral]

Gee Becca, you've had some rough lately with the tanks. Hope this gets sorted out and that you get a run of good fortune coming your way~

 

[cometcattle]

Sorry to hear that. I was just thinking of you the other day when I saw a cracked tank at Petco.

At least it didn't burst.

You might want to consider acrylic when you buy the 180g.

 

[Becca]

Good news, I just talked to Perfecto and they're replacing the tank and stand as soon as they verify with my LFS that I did purchase it there. Fortunately, I was able to save most of the filter media (I don't think it sat out long enough to kill off any good bacteria) and I've now got two individual 10-Gallons running as emergency homes (thank god for hospital tanks, hey?)

The down side to all of this is my Yellow Lab (aka Electric Yellow) - she was carrying around fry in her mouth, and as most of you probably know, when a mouth brooder is stressed, they'll spit out the fry.

Well...she spat. And I didn't realize that any of the babies were left in the puddles of water in the 75. I found one, just out of pure luck. I was estatic! My fish successfully spawned! YAY! I had a baby fish!! I had no clue what to do, no where else to put her (both hospitals are serving as emergency homes for the bigger guys) and she was probably too small to fit in my plastic breeder (she'd be able to fit through the grates at the bottom)

So, I thought. Well, my lab's a mouth brooder, maybe the mama will recognize her baby and take her in. We hadn't planned to keep any fry, so if we lost her, no biggie.

My husband drops the baby in and in a fraction of a second, one of the Demasoni came up and took a big gulp. No more baby lab.

But you know what, if I end up getting through this with losing just a baby lab, then I'd have to say I'm doing pretty well.

 

[canarsie11]

What the hell is going on with perfecto tanks!

First let me say good job on catching that b4 it burst, that would have been hell of a clean up.

Second WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH PERFECTO!

You know what really makes me suspicious of them. Most companies if thier product fails they put you through so much hassle, to replace it. Perfecto replaces items so fast, but is it cause they are great company or because they know they are selling junk. Just my thought!

Almost everyone who says thier tank broke, 99% of them are perfectos (I want to say 100%, but another companies tank must have broke somewhere)

They really have cool looking tanks and when I started I was going to purchase one my self, but glad I purchased my all glass.

If I were you when they send you that new tank, I would trade it for All Glass or Oceanic

 

[Becca]

According to the research I did before I bought my tank, I thought All-Glass owned Oceanic and then Oceanic bought Perfecto, if I'm not mistaken. Bottom line being, I think all three companies are, more or less, the same.

As for what's going on with Perfecto...*shrug* I dunno. But, I do know that I bought my tank from Perfecto mostly because of the 20 year warranty. I'm more impressed by the company because they're not giving me a huge hassle about getting it replaced. They asked a few questions and had to verify some info, such as:

1) Where was the tank purchased (needed store name and number)
2) Product ID tags from the tank and stand to verify it's their equiment
3) What happened...and when I relayed that it looked like a stress crack, she verified that my floors were even, the tank was sitting on their stand, I didn't have anything heavy sitting on the tank, etc.

Once those questions were answered, the call was logged and she had to put a call into the store to verify the purchase. Fortunately, I'm on a first name basis with the store owner and the manager. I stopped in this afternoon, relayed what happened, and I'm sure I'll have my replacement tank by the end of the week.

Overall, yeah it sucks that my tank got a crack in it...but I can't ask for this to be handled any better than it is.

Oh! And, apparently the baby lab that I dropped into the 10-Gallon is alive! Mama is still sporting babies in her mouth...but I walked over to check up on one of the 10-Gallons, and Mr. Baby Lab is alive and doing well, he's just extremely fast and very adept at hiding. When the Demasoni came in for a chomp, I think he grabbed something else (there was bits of extra food in the water that the baby was poured in with) and the baby swam to the cave, where he hangs out. Every now and then he ventures out of the cave for a 5 or 10 minute sojourn and then goes back and hangs out by my King Tiger pleco. Gotta say, he picked a pretty good body guard. All of my Cichlids leave my plecos alone.

 

[Puffer_freak]

I'm so glad your baby/babies are O.K!

Thats great news. Good luck with your future tank!

 

[lougotzz]

I have a fish room with a lot of tanks in it.

 

[canarsie11]

I have a fish room with a lot of tanks in it.

Why the hell are you telling us that? Right here anyway?

 

[Tropjunky]

sorry about ur tank little advice if u can get some acrylic and just add an exta layer to ur glass and have u go any think in between the tank and the stand ur crack could be caused by an unevan stand so some styrofoam pads should help.

 

[karrihug]

it's weird, before i bought my perfecto i did a bunch of research, and never heard of any problems. since it exploded in the middle of the night, it seems like everyone is having problems. at least they are good about taking care of it. they actually replaced my carpet.

good luck with the new one, i think maybe they got a batch of bad glass or something. but my new one is fine.

 

[Becca]

Puffer_freak - love the name, finally got a couple of puffers for a Brackish setup, that I hope to convert to all saltwater later. Just trying my hand at salt in my old 30-Gallon now. I gotta say, I love my cichlids, but my Puffers are awful attaching. My LFS has a porupine puffer that I've fell in love with since the first day I walked into the place! Too bad he's about $150, and already sold. (A guy here on business bought him and asked that they hold him till he can leave and go back home...he has no tank here.)

Tropjunky - thanks for the tips about the layer of acrylic. As for the stand, no I had nothing in between the tank and the stand...and the floor the stand was on is straight, so that isn't it either. I have no idea why teh stress crack formed. I did notice on the labels that the tank was made in May of 2004, so perhaps they just had a bad batch go through. *shrug* Honestly, as long as Perfecto replaces their stuff, I'll be happy. And, of course, if they pay to replace my carpeting (woo hoo?) or any equipment that was damaged from the flood, I'll be even more happy!

karrihug - Thanks for your post! Knowing that they replaced yours helps to make things easier to swallow. Boy, am I glad I got a good warranty with this tank!!