Help! Tank Cracked Overnight

Well, what a morning so far. My 4ft tank cracked from bottom to top and let out 2/3rds of its water. Lots of mopping up. One dead fish - others appear ok but traumatised. I've only got a 2ft tank and managed to salvage some water and put the fish in there. I'm hoping that a store will be open today so we can go and buy a new tank. The problem is I can't leave the fish in the 2ft for long, its extremely crowded. What do you guys think about setting up a new tank and putting the fish straight into it once its warmed up? I can put the water they are in now in the new tank but there's not an awful lot of it.

I've got an external filter which is still full up of the old tank water aswell, do you think this will be enough if I add in easy balance etc?

Did youkeep your mature filter media in the tank water aswell because if you did then the bacteria should be still be alive, keep as much of the old tank water and things should be ok.

Probably should have started with this but sorry to hear about your tank

The filter media is still in the tank water and i've kept as much of the old one as I can but it only fills about 2/3rds of a 2ft tank so thats not a huge amount.

The fish seem to have calmed down and are now feeding - we are off to the fish shop now!

Oh no! That sucks! Any idea what caused it?
As long as you your old media is kept wet (in tank water) then you can just slip it in the new tank and it should be cycled. In essence you'll be cloning your old tank.
Sorry this happened!!

set your old filter up on the 2ft asap, this will keep the bacteria alive until you get another tank and will also help keep things OK while the 2ft is overstocked

Right I went down to the fish store and managed to grab myself a black wood Juwel 260 second hand but in excellent condition. The seller is the guy who runs the fish store so I know who to go to if there are any problems.

I'm really panicky about the whole thing now. I'm concerned even with this tank that i'm going to wake up tomorrow morning with the same mess as I had today. I don't think i'll sleep properly for days.

Anyway, the guy was kind enough to give me four barrels of his tank water from his home aquarium which is fantastic. It filled up half of the juwel tank. I've had the heater on, the filter running and its now up to temperature. The water is really clear and the tests have come back fine. I'm going to put the fish in the new tank in another couple of hours..

Fingers crossed!

P.S. Has anyone had this happen to them? If so do you ever get over the worry about it happening again?

molitor75 said:

P.S. Has anyone had this happen to them? If so do you ever get over the worry about it happening again?

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Well, it's not something that I worry about, but I suppose it's in the back of my mind from time to time. I considered an acrylic tank when I bought my current one, but since the scratch so easily...

Was your tank completely level on the bottom? If it was somehow twisted on an uneven surface this might have caused this, as it was possibly caused by torque stress or poor quality, badly tempered glass.

A long time ago, I had a party one Friday night. By 10PM we were all rather liquored up. A couple of my buddies were tossing a football around in the front room and one of the guys missed catching it, deflecting it straight on to the front of the fish tank. It hit it really hard. I completely freaked, as did the Oscars. The football went back into the closet, and we then resumed drinking beer.

Mmmn. The tank was completely flat and on its original stand.. I'm really not sure what happened. All I remember is hearing very loud claps of thunder and torrential rain which woke us up. We are so glad that it did. I'm sure if it had been any longer the majority of my fish would be dead.

This is now my new tank set up. The fish are a little shy but definitely making use of the full space... I've not got too little fish in the tank but will wait a short while until they have all settled in before getting anymore.

Actually i tell a lie, I ordered 3 Botia last week, they are due in this weekend coming so i'll see how the others are fairing etc and decide whether I can take them or not.

I know just how it feels. The same thing happened to us last June. I din't sleep well for ages and was really tearful. The house stunk of fishy water for ages too!!!! I am so scared with this new tank and havn't really slept 100% since we have had it, but surely it can't happen twice........... can it

Your new tank looks great btw!!!!

Thanks very much Honeybun, I want something colourful and fun..

I think i'm going to be the same, luckily my dining room and kitchen are both tiled so it wasn't quite so bad but i'm going to call my insurance in the morning as the basement ceiling has a few damp patches which I want checking out to be sure.

I really do hope that I get a good nights sleep tonight, I was so upset when I realised my Botia was dead.

Lucky you have tiled floors. Mine was laminate florring so was completely ruined!!! We had dehumidifiers in here for days!!!!

Hopefully you will sleep well, but it is worrying I know!!! Amazingly we only lost one silver shark and that's only because he jumped out of the bucket without us realising. Everything else survived and are living down the road in a lovely huge tank!!!!