What A Week!

[Noahsfish]

Well I wasn't really sure if I should post this under emergencies as I'm not sure how immediate this threat is....after watching my corydoras getting it's eye stabbed and my mother unknowingly torture a corycat I come home to find water coming out of my aquarium....it's a 10g that does have fish in it right now... No idea what to do the water seems to be coming out of a large area of the tank towards the bottom. Can't see exactly where but the leak is somewhere on the very bottom, as when I feel up on the glass and even the bottom black band it's dry. But there's a leak all right slowly but surely...I had topped off my water about 8 hours before I found out and came home to see about an inch to an inch and a half gone. Fearing for the worst I checked and yep water..so what should I do? I can't make it to the lfs until the day after tomorrow...should I take all my fish out? It was a tank I was treating my harlequins with ich which I took from the 30g. If I were to put them in a 5g bucket with a heater and airstone how long could they go before the ammonia would build up and kill them? There's 6 of them fully grown.

 

[TallTree01]

Get a big bucket and put all fish in there with the old filter you had on the 10 gallon until you can either
A) give fish away
OR
B) get another tank.
Good luck mate.

 

[Noahsfish]

Get a big bucket and put all fish in there with the old filter you had on the 10 gallon until you can either
A) give fish away
OR
B) get another tank.
Good luck mate.

I hope it doesn't come to that . Giving the fish away that is I've had my harlequins for about half a year now. So I don't think the filter will be able to fit on the bucket as it's a hob. I do have a spare air pump and airstone so could I put that in the bucket and somehow balance the media on top of it? I have peat moss and fluval media in a stocking, and also the aqueon filter has this blue plastic that's supposed to catch good bacteria so I might thow it in for the heck of it..but I mean I guess my question is how serious is this? It literally takes hours for even a little bit of water to drain. Do you think it would bust if I keep water in it much longer? Say 2 days?

 

[mike455555]

do you have a bath? you could run the filter in there (long if its clean) and
 
fix the tank?

 

[Noahsfish]

do you have a bath? you could run the filter in there (long if its clean) and
 
fix the tank?

That's a good idea except I think my room ate and girlfriend would kill me because it's the only shower ;(. I've set my alarm every hour and a half to check on the tank and more has started to leak -sigh- so I'm off to switch my harlequins to a 5 gal bucket and setup the heater ghetto filter and uprooting my plants...the really sad thing is that I've had 5 crypts growing in the tank and now they're going to die because I have to uproot them....oh well at least I caught it today rather than coming home to seeing broken glass and dead fish. As for the tank I'm just going to give it away for free saying it has a small crack in it because I'm really done with cheap brands like aqueon. Their filters are crap. Their heaters are crap. Even their tanks it seems . I don't think their will be any but if anybody has any thoughts on what I'm doing or if you have any advice I'd appreciate it. Ok going to go do that now haha..

 

[bikerfish]

Hi I have an emergency tank at mo and it is a 35lt plastic box and lid you can pick up cheap at tesco or range and I have a filter , heater and airstone running and works well as an emergency . hope you get problem sorted
cathy

 

[Wills]

I was going to suggest the plastic tubs as well
 
Personally I would never put them in a bath as you can never be sure it is 100% clean.
 
Could you not put these fish into your larger tank you mentioned?
 
Wills

 

[Noahsfish]

I was going to suggest the plastic tubs as well
 
Personally I would never put them in a bath as you can never be sure it is 100% clean.
 
Could you not put these fish into your larger tank you mentioned?
 
Wills

Well as I said I was treating them for ich. I know you're opposed tomtreat the whole tank but I have loaches in the 30g..and also I only see it on the rasboras. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find a cheap 10g at the fish store or a pet store.

 

[fluttermoth]

You could make a rough and ready filter, if you have an air pump. It's not ideal, but it would tide you over.
 
Get a clean pop/soda bottle. Cut the top off so it'll sit in your bucket, with the top just under the water surface. Make small slits or holes all over the bottom third of the bottle.
 
Put your air line, with an airstone attached, in the bottle, then fill it with the media from your filter. Stick it in your bucket and switch the air pump on. You might need to put a handful of gravel or some stones on top of the media to stop it floating off.

 

[Noahsfish]

That's a really good idea! Right now I actually was just using the sponge filter from the 20g which I'd been cycling for another tank (I have another filter on the 20). I'll definetly do that next time had never even heard of that. Well I'll be getting my tank tomorrow, I'm sure this whole ordeal hasn't helped with my rasboras stress levels though .

 

[fluttermoth]

It's a trick my old fishkeeping mentor, Chicken George, taught me, when I was young and impoverished
 
It's come in very handy for emergency tanks, over the years!
 
Poor rasboras, they're not having a very lucky time. Keep them warm and dark and we'll all keep our fingers crossed for them