massive(150L) water leak please HELP!!!

[millym]

HELP!!!!
our 4ft 37 uk gal( about 150L) tropical tank leaked today.......ohmegawd what a nightmare. leak doesnt quite describe it - it was a major flood even worse we live in a first floor flat.

i noticed a pool of water at about 10am within minutes the water was hosing out of the tank onto our floor. called other half, bucket mop towels sheets sweatshirts you name it it was on the floor....other half came in rushed off for more buckets from B&Q ( hardware shop).
anyway to cut a long sorry & traumatic tale short - er. we saved approx 40L tank water and managed to get all our fish into our tiny hosp tank. other half bolted off to buy new tank. i kept mopping furiously!!!!

anyway we got our old gravel & the 3 & a half buckets of water into the tank, added a couple of more buckets with tapsafe added and have added the fish. we were worried about filling the tank completely up with new water.
we have rigged up the filter,airstones & a heater to run with the tank half full.
the old tank seal had ruptured (at the back of the tank bottom- couldnt have been a worse place)

6 hours later, completely knackered we're desperate for any advice as what to do next. can we fill it up straight away? or shall we add a bucket or 2 of water every day until its full??? the water level at the moment is just over half way up.

all our fish are still alive & now settled in new tank with lights out. we know we may well have casualties due to the stress that has happened to them but we want to do our best to help our fish as much as we can
please anyone, any advice MOST helpful
sorry about the long long long post!

 

[EddieW]

Hi millym,

Sorry to hear of your problems, sounds like a traumatic day! I also have the problem of living in a first floor flat - I ended up taking out additional insurance to specifically cover me against damages caused to the downstairs flat if a tank burst.

You should be Ok to top up the tanks with fresh water - the vast majority of your benficial bacteria are in the gravel, filter, etc.

make sure you treat it for chlorine/chloramine as normal, and try to get the temperature as close to (but below) the current tank water temp. You can do this by sticking a heater in the bucket and/or adding hot water from the kettle. If you use water from the kettle you need to be careful of limescale. I would also syphon the water into the tank using a bit of airline and m ake sure it goes into a good flow area so that it mixes quickly.

HTH, Eddie

 

[G_Sharky]

Sorry to hear that disaster, It kinda reminds me of the movie I saw last night Deuce Bigolo Male Gigolo where Rob Schneider accidentally destroys a reef tank with a lion fish on it and have to put all the fish on buckets, blenders, it's kinda funny but i would have a heart attack if that happens to me....

 

[babyfish]

All you will basically do by filling the tank now is do a 70% water change,
make sure you dechlorinate the water and try to get it as close as possible to the tank temp. All of your beneficial bacteria is in the filter and the top 1 inch of gravel so if you kept your filter running and your gravel wet you shouldn't have much of a cycle with the new water. Might be worth making sure you have some melafix handy in case any of your fish get sick due to the stress.
Monitor your water carefully over the next 2-3 weeks and cut down feeding to once every other day until you are sure the tank is settled again

 

[millym]

so far so good all our fish are alive. & we've seen 4 of our shrimps. our danios, neons,cardinals,corys are acting like nothing happened(although the danios looked quite happy squashed in our 1 ft long hosp tank with 30 other fish yesterday during the disaster) one yoyo is a little stressed (bit grey)
the others ok. our tiger barbs are hiding in the caves - occasionally one wanders out & they all follow but as soon as they see something like me moving they all scoot back under cover! our red eyes look a little nervous but ok & i havent seen our hillstream loach this am but fingers crossed hes around somewhere.

THANKS everyone for replying so quickly.

 

[Carolinesugar]

hiya, all advice given sounds good 2 me, if ur still abit worried abt the stress, nip dwn to the aquatic shop, and buy sum melafix 4 if they get ill, and sum stress coat to make the water safer 4 them,. and it also stops the fish gettin stressed out.

glad to hear that u managed 2 save all of ur fish!


Gud luck!