Stupid Mistake

[Uberhoust]

Today when feeding my angel fry I noticed on my 60 gallon what appeared to be water coming out from the bottom of the tank. Of course my mind filled with images of a broken glass on the bottom or a blown seal, especially because a couple of days ago when cleaning the tank I had a rock fall over. I was thinking that I would be spending my evening draining the tank, setting up another tank temporarily, then fixing the damaged one. I started cleaning up the accumulated water looking for any hint that would give me an idea of where the problem was.

It was during the cleaning of the water that I found the source of the problem. The day before I purchased a number of different varieties of floating plants and had built a floating corral to keep them where I wanted them under the lights. To anchor the floating corral I tied a piece of jute cord to the device and jammed the loose end under one of the glass covers. The jute was hanging over the side, it was pulling water through capillary processes out of the tank and dropping it along the side of the tank and onto the floor.

A number of fibrous materials will pull water out of a container, I knew this but just took the first material I had access to to secure my floaters corral. I thought if if pulled any water out it would be a small amount and in reality it was, but you only need to have a small amount of water to damage a floor or to damage a stand that is made of particle board. I estimate only 100 to 200 ml left the tank via the jute but if left it would have caused a much more serious issue.

 

[Sgooosh]

oh no!
are the fry ok?
i dont really understand a lot of it, theres a lot of technical stuff
but
we need a grimace reaction mods!!!

 

[Uberhoust]

No, no fish were hurt. And my fry are in a different tank, I have 5 tanks setup currently. The 60 gallon is my main tank in the family room. The point is you can effectively siphon, though through a different process, water from a tank using almost any type of material that soaks up water. In this case it was just a piece of garden jute used to tie up your peas in the garden. It could have been any type of fabric that is not water repellant. I was just surprised how much water got transported out of the tank by a piece of string in only 18 hours.

 

[itiwhetu]

Done the same thing myself several times over the years, make sure everything is in the tank!!

 

[Circus]

At least you noticed the water before it became a problem. I got feeding rings for some of my floating plants, and they work so-so.

 

[Uberhoust]

After all of that the floater corral is not really working well. The previously present water lettuce circles around on either side of the filter but is now backed up and never ends up in the light. Back to the drawing board.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Lesson learned, but still, better than cracked glass or a blown seal.

 

[PorshaF]

At least the seal wasn't broken! What a scare! One time I left a gravel hose hanging out, thinking since I didn't start the suction-it wouldn't pull out water haha

 

[Sgooosh]

At least you noticed the water before it became a problem. I got feeding rings for some of my floating plants, and they work so-so.

you can make em out of air tubing or bendy straws.
yeah....
duckweed is too small lol
they can make their runnners out there...

 

[Fishfinder1973]

Being a roofer,I deal with water all the time,and how it can act never fails to surprise me.
I once had an emergency repair to fix,in Manchester.
The leak was on the roof of a big shop,a flat felted roof.I searched for 3 days trying to find the source of where the water was getting in.We got a guy in with a “leak detector” and though he found some pin hole issues that I fixed,the water was still getting into the shop,not just a drip either,it was pouring in.
Turned out the parapet wall was the culprit.The wall was covered in moss and through carpillary action,the moss was sucking up the puddles on the roof and into the wall,and then through gravity,down into the shop.