Mysterious Water Disappearance...

[cuticom]

LOL, I ahve no idea waht happaned. Dad just yelled his head off for me to come look at my tanks, as my 200l tank only had bout 50l of water in it. First assumption, the tanks leaking and the recroom must be covered in water. We found maybe 200ml of water in the whole recroom, theres no water outside, under the tables etc, its just dissapeared LOL. Any suggestions? Its gotta be kinda hard to hide 150l of water LOL.

Also wanted to ask would it shock the fish to much to refill the tank? They seriously dont have much water, theres not even enough to run the pump. The fish are two very stunted rescue shubunkins, 2 full grown single tailed fancies (Nymphs) and a small black moor. I know its overstocked but the nymphs and shubs are being moved out very soon, plus apart from the nymphs the fish are under 3 inch.

So any ideas on how 150l of water just dissappears?

 

[Jozlyn]

Nope, just refill with warmed dechlorinated water, all will be well. However, the bacteria colony in your filter may well be dead if they were allowed to dry out and get cold, if that's happened I would assume that you need to do a "with fish cycle" so do daily water tests of amonia, nitirite and nitrate until you're sure that your colony is alive and well.

I would also check that your heater and filter are still working ok as they're not designed to be run without water.

As for where your water went, my first thought was evaporation, but it's too much for that, unless you haven't looked at your tank for a few weeks! Do you use a python for water changes? Did you leave it running, even slightly?

 

[cuticom]

Nope no Python, good old buckets.

The tank dosnt have a heater, its coldwater and we dont get cold temps here so there was no point in getting a heater. The filters designed to have a large catchment area which holds about 12l, as we have frequent blackouts so I'd say the bacteria colonys are still alive. The filter still seems to be running, its also situated so it cant run dry, it just seems to be going really slow

I found a small leak in the tank, as in a drop every few mins, I rebuilt the filter a couple of days ago and didnt notice that one point has a slight overflow. But in 2 days the drip might've supplied the 250ml I found on the floor thats all

The other odd thing is the pump dosnt seem to be working right, it should be pumping 2000l/ph but I honestly cant see the 4 pipes of dribble being 2000l/ph.

I've refilled the tank with a hose, since their was no way I bucketing water back and forth the 30 metres to the closest tap. I moved the fish into a bucket while I did so and am now acclimatising them back to the cold water as its a degree or so colder then what they were in.

I have absolutely no idea as to what caused the water to just disappear, hopefully the goldfish will be fine in their tank as the only other empty one is only 66l and is in the middle of a cycle LOL, though I'm sure it enjoyed all the bacteria from the goldfish tank (I dumped it in there while I checked for cracks)

 

[Jozlyn]

ummm just had another thought, it's not going to account for much water but may account for some.

Do you have any animals that drink the water in the tank? I ask that because my cat is constantly drinking the water out of my Betta's tank, and that combined with evaporation account for at least 1lt of water each day.

 

[cuticom]

Sorry nope no animals drinking water, unless my guinea pigs climbed out of their cage, ran across the floor ran up the side of the tank and dranks some LOL.

Well I got the pump fixed at least, the prefilter I used, had manged to get itself sucked into the pump and well LOl, so pump output was minimum, I cleaned everything up and ahve proper output again