RobberyinCSharp
Fish Crazy
I'm sure all of us, at some point, have been through a fish tank disaster before. Well, my full-blown disaster has finally come about, and I thought I'd share the story with everyone here (and by share, I also mean vent).
I have a 20 gallon aquarium with live plants and fish. My sparkling gouramis passed away from old age shortly before this happened, so I was already bummed out. At that point, I had nothing but one German Blue Ram, 2 Koi Angelfish and an Ottocat to keep my diatom problem under control. The tank was currently in my dorm in Philadelphia, and I was headed back home to CT.
Because I was leaving for two weeks, I decided to do a serious deep-clean to make sure my water parameters were pristine for my trip, and the automated feeder had been programmed. I began to siphon close to the the sand, pulling up some of the planting substrate in the process. In a (stupid) attempt to remove the stuck pieces in the tube, the gravel shot across the tank.
I kept siphoning, thinking that nothing bad had happened. Suddenly, I hear a large amount of dripping.......and you know exactly where this is going.
I look underneath my fish tank stand.....water is pouring out EVERYWHERE. It's on the rug, on the walls, and I begin to panic. If I caused water damage, I was certainly going to be responsible for paying the damage costs and I would likely be kicked out of the dorm. I run for every towel in the place, surrounding my tank and trying to dry the walls. I then quickly pull out some water and scoop my poor fish out into my only other bucket....
Only having a 1-gallon water container left, I siphoned all the water from my tank, one gallon at a time. About an hour later, the tank was empty and the flooding stopped.
Luckily, I was smart and carried aquarium sealant with me in case of a fish tank emergency like this one. I saw no cracks at the bottom whatsoever, and there was so much water underneath the tank I could find no clear leak area. So I decided to just re-seal every seam on the tank as a safety precaution.
Now - At this point, is was about 1AM, and I was being picked up by a taxi at 4am to catch my train. So I obviously the 48-hr probation period for adding water was far out of my reach - and I was in trouble. I decided the only thing I could do was pack my fish in plastic bags with the remaining water, take them on the train and add them to the tank I had in CT. I even tried to push my limits and add some water to the tank, thinking I could get away with it....nope.
So I put the soaking wet towels, now dripping fish water all over my carpet and clean floor, into my shower to release some of the water. I then hung them up to dry over break, even though they'll need to be washed once again when I go back in January.
The only thing left to do was pack the fish up in bags and pray. I grab a few bags and go to put my fish in them individually. When I got back, I found them all dead. Both angelfish, and the ram. No ottocat to even be seen. It was 2AM. I cried, and went to bed.
So now, I begin my Christmas with a completely empty 20 gallon tank, that's cracked, a filter whose bacteria is now dead and will require re-cycling, and all my fish are dead.
I have a 20 gallon aquarium with live plants and fish. My sparkling gouramis passed away from old age shortly before this happened, so I was already bummed out. At that point, I had nothing but one German Blue Ram, 2 Koi Angelfish and an Ottocat to keep my diatom problem under control. The tank was currently in my dorm in Philadelphia, and I was headed back home to CT.
Because I was leaving for two weeks, I decided to do a serious deep-clean to make sure my water parameters were pristine for my trip, and the automated feeder had been programmed. I began to siphon close to the the sand, pulling up some of the planting substrate in the process. In a (stupid) attempt to remove the stuck pieces in the tube, the gravel shot across the tank.
I kept siphoning, thinking that nothing bad had happened. Suddenly, I hear a large amount of dripping.......and you know exactly where this is going.
I look underneath my fish tank stand.....water is pouring out EVERYWHERE. It's on the rug, on the walls, and I begin to panic. If I caused water damage, I was certainly going to be responsible for paying the damage costs and I would likely be kicked out of the dorm. I run for every towel in the place, surrounding my tank and trying to dry the walls. I then quickly pull out some water and scoop my poor fish out into my only other bucket....
Only having a 1-gallon water container left, I siphoned all the water from my tank, one gallon at a time. About an hour later, the tank was empty and the flooding stopped.
Luckily, I was smart and carried aquarium sealant with me in case of a fish tank emergency like this one. I saw no cracks at the bottom whatsoever, and there was so much water underneath the tank I could find no clear leak area. So I decided to just re-seal every seam on the tank as a safety precaution.
Now - At this point, is was about 1AM, and I was being picked up by a taxi at 4am to catch my train. So I obviously the 48-hr probation period for adding water was far out of my reach - and I was in trouble. I decided the only thing I could do was pack my fish in plastic bags with the remaining water, take them on the train and add them to the tank I had in CT. I even tried to push my limits and add some water to the tank, thinking I could get away with it....nope.
So I put the soaking wet towels, now dripping fish water all over my carpet and clean floor, into my shower to release some of the water. I then hung them up to dry over break, even though they'll need to be washed once again when I go back in January.
The only thing left to do was pack the fish up in bags and pray. I grab a few bags and go to put my fish in them individually. When I got back, I found them all dead. Both angelfish, and the ram. No ottocat to even be seen. It was 2AM. I cried, and went to bed.
So now, I begin my Christmas with a completely empty 20 gallon tank, that's cracked, a filter whose bacteria is now dead and will require re-cycling, and all my fish are dead.
