OMG - My old 65 gallon plexi tank shattered

[Tanked]

about 10 mintes after feeding my fishes this morning and the back of the tank blew out. it was over 20 years old. fortunatly all of my fishes were at the bottom picking at the gravel and none got sucked out, but 70% of the water is gone. Until I get my new tank (god I hope I get my bonus check today) my fishes are in a 25 gallon that a freind rushed over. over stocked for a 25 gallon but it has a 80 gallon pump driving the UGF a 55 gallon pump driving the bubble wand and my emporer 400 on full flow. the emp 400 looks really mean on a little tank.but now I have to cycle all over again

 

[nikkidee2003]

oh my goddddddddddddd...........

how scared were you ??? well done on saving all the fish!!

 

[Tanked]

pretty darn scared and living room is flooded with 50 plus gallons of water. I have towels all over and fans blowing accross it. I am at work now though. not home to monitor. it looks like we get our bonus today but I have not seen mine yet. If so I am going to get my new glass 55 gallon after work.

 

[Pondlady]

I feel for you

18 mo ago I came home to a strange sound. It was my powerheads running dry. I was gone for 3 days and apparently a seal let loose on the 55. The water level dropped down to the powerheads, which were angled upward, and they pumped out all but 3 inches of water. My poor little fishies were struggling across the gravel. I scooped them into a bucket and tried to suck up as much water as possible with the shop vac to no avail. I had brand new plush carpet with the extra thick pad, now a swampy mess. A lot of the water poured through the floor into the basement and down the drain. I was so upset I even yelled at my best friend when she came over to help

I gave the fish to the lfs since it was going to be 2 months before the insurance would come through and recarpet my living room. $900 dollar disaster. Luckily they still had some of the same carpet and didn't have to do the hall and bedroom too.

Two months ago I finally got the courage to buy a new tank and start again. I'm still paranoid, I keep looking under the cabinet and feeling for leaks.

As long as you have the gravel and some "seed water" from the old tank, cycling shouldn't be too bad.

 

[EddieW]

I really do feel bad for you Tanked - glad to hear that you have managed to save everyone so far.

I was just thinking about this sort of emergency the other day - I live in a first floor flat (2nd floor apartment for those across the pond) and I am concerned about my tanks giving out and dumping all of the water on the person in the flat below.

So I am now in the process of getting additional contents insurance which specifically covers me for liability to third parties for damages caused by leaking or broken fish tank(s). It is normally covered to a certain extent but with almost 250 litres in a small flat it is a bit above the normal amount they would cover. It is going to add a bit to the premiums but not as bad as I thought.

For those out there who live above someone else I would check what your insurance covers you for if you have several or large tanks. Having worked at an insurance company before I can defintely say that some of them are experts at getting out or or reducing payouts as much as they can.

Hope all of your fish make it through - good luck.

Eddie

 

[Tanked]

I had about 12 gallons of water left in the tank which I siphoned to the 25 gallon along with all of the gravel. I am planning on putting new gravel (not black) in the new tank i will put about 1/2 and inch of the old black gravel as a base layer though in the new tank as well as all of the water from the 25.

 

[LesGerber]

Great job Tanked on saving them all. Just be careful to watch your water with them all in the small tank

Good luck M8

Les

 

[Redbled]

Good thing you were home when this happened. I may be wrong here, but if there is no to little glass in the gravel, wouldn't that aid in the cycling of the new tank if you used the same gravel? Using some of the same water I thought would have helped as well. Is there something I'm missing with this thinking?

 

[cichlidmaster]

I feel for ya tanked,

Several years ago after a 50%water change in one of my 135 gallon tanks, my wife went downstairs to do laundry.

I was upstairs relaxing when she yelled for me to "come here QUICK"!!

I went downstairs to the sound of rushing water. Yep back seam gave way and there was only 2" of water left in the tank!!

The tank housed 13 adult (8"+) turquoise severums, a 15" distochodus sexfasciatus, 3 Paratilapia polleni and several adult jack dempsey.

Well as luck would have it I had 3 empty 70 gallon tanks waiting to go up and several large rubbermaid containers (45 gallon size).

My wife and I started siphoning water from every tank we had to fill the 70's and the rubbermaid containers.

We managed to save every fish.

These tanks had no gravel and brand new filters in them and still no problems from cycling.

The only casualty was the sexfasciatus came down with lateral line disease which took over a year to cure, but I finally did.

The severums pic can be seen in the members pic forum and Les can attest to the sexfasciatus and polleni.

The tank is still awaiting a new siliconing job which I will get to one of these days!!

Good luck with your new 55 and hope all goes well.

CM