Oliver's Tank Gives Way

[waterdrop]

One of the worst days of my life yesterday. Our tank failed last night and began leaking 28 gallons of water onto the floor of my son's room. It was horrible but by sheer luck we didn't have quite yet so at least there were no fish to lose.

 

[stormy78]

One of the worst days of my life yesterday. Our tank failed last night and began leaking 28 gallons of water onto the floor of my son's room. It was horrible but by sheer luck we didn't have quite yet so at least there were no fish to lose.

Sorry to hear that!

 

[Colin_T]

At least you caught it while it was dripping. I have heard of tanks coming apart during the night and people being woken up to find 600litres of water on their loungeroom floor.
One of the workers at the LFS threw a chunk of limestone through a display 10ft tank. 3000litres of water, gravel, plants & discus on the floor. Believe it or not the guy still works there.

How old was the tank waterdrop?

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, it had been our big plant day. I had brought home a big load of plants and planted them and was so happy that the tank would take a big jump toward looking better.

Some of you may remember seeing my fishless cycling threads and we were in sort of the final week of verifying that the cycling was finished as both ammonia and nitrite were dropping to zero as of a week ago. The tank had only had water in it for 70 days.

I've managed to keep "the system" going with 2.5G bucket of the tank water that also has the plants. I think the filter was stopped for maybe 2 hours but the cannister of the filter never lost water. We're of course hoping the bacteria will survive without too much change.

I'm completely drowning trying to make a decision whether to attempt to have Petsmart replace the tank and/or stand "in kind" with exactly the same model tank (which size and shape I was more or less happy with) or whether to seek my money back and use it towards a different tank. I have no idea what their policy will be.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[waterdrop]

At least you caught it while it was dripping. I have heard of tanks coming apart during the night and people being woken up to find 600litres of water on their loungeroom floor.
One of the workers at the LFS threw a chunk of limestone through a display 10ft tank. 3000litres of water, gravel, plants & discus on the floor. Believe it or not the guy still works there.

How old was the tank waterdrop?

Thanks Colin,

The tank/stand/light was a new kit from Petsmart Dec 20, 2007. I'm really torn up over whether to try another instance of the exact same tank again. All the associated equipment is of couse sized for it. Its made worse that its one of those bowfront systems where the little furniture stand matches the tank shape.

I can tell you I think I had dreams of my old "heavy angle iron framed, flagstone bottomed" tanks from the 1960's last night (or maybe I was halfway awake.) Also just intensifies how much I hate not having a place with a cement and drained floor.

It has taken all the self-control I can muster to attempt to calmly run my ammonia and nitrite tests on the bucket and add ammonia to keep the bacteria alive and figure out lighting over the bucket for the plants all floating sideways.

Will the plants die fast with the roots not rooted in gravel you think?

 

[OldMan47]

Unrooted plants should be fine for days without any problems. If you can hang a light above the bucket they should be fine when you get the tank replaced. My recent experience with new tanks has been the need to carefully inspect the tanks s if I were some kind of quality inspector before I lay my money on the table. I have not been impressed with the quality of the construction that is generally available although all of the tanks looked pretty good at a glance. What I have found is uneven silicone applied to the joints and otherwise sloppy construction practices. When I bought my 40 breeder, I first rejected about 5 of them.

 

[Colin_T]

Poor waterdrop, you're not having much luck with fish
2 & 1/2 months to cycle the tank, then it starts leaking. Someone up there is trying to tell you something. The tank should be covered by a warranty, in particular for leaking. Take it back and get another one. Personally I like the old fashioned boring rectangular tanks. They do a nice job and only cost half as much as the curved fronts or weird shaped tanks.

As the OldMan said most aquatic plants can keep growing even if not planted in the gravel. Stuff like the Hygrophillas, Ludwigia & Ambulia will grow across the surface and do really well. Swordplants will get upset as will crypts if they are bare rooted for more than a few days. These can be planted in small pots or plastic containers and then you can move the pots around afterwards.

I would track down a 40litre plastic storage crate for the plants. They are pretty cheap and should be big enough for the plants and filter to live in while you sort out the tank. You can rest the light unit across the top if it is seperate from the hood. Otherwise use a desklamp or even a normal compact fluoro.

 

[waterdrop]

Well, luckily a bunch of it was indeed Hygrophila, but unluckily some of them were swordplants and crypts.

How painful! Just unpotted them and threw away the potting stuff hours before the disaster. They seemed like little pot-shaped plastic grids with something that seemed almost like glass wool packing in the roots.

I wonder what I should invent/do for the roots?

 

[emmsy]

OMG mate, bet you were FRANTIC!

Emma

 

[waterdrop]

OMG mate, bet you were FRANTIC!

Emma

It was a rough scene. One of the best things I had the presence of mind to do was immediately start the Python hose draining it into a bucket placed in the bathroom tub.

I wish I had had more clean buckets, most of the household buckets have been used with cleaning agents.

 

[paul_219]

It once happened with i really hate it.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

oh man, that's my worst nightmare, happened to me once, thank god i was in the room doing some hoovering in the bedroom and saw that the tank was dripping, just a tiny bit. ran downstairs to get a bucket and by the time i got upstairs it was running out about 20 times the speed. had to drastically re-evaluate the bucket needed. thankfully we had a big garden tidy which i kept around as a makeshift tank for emergencies, got everything into that. and even more luckily we had another tank the same dimensions spare in the cellar to transfer everything in to.

but yeah, get the biggest tub you can, get the filter on there and carry on adding your 5ppm for the time being. you may have to kiss goodbye to some of the plants which is always unfortunate but i've found it v hard to keep them alive when they're not in a proper set up.

 

[Colin_T]

waterdrop
dig the pots out of the bin and wash them off. Then use some aquarium gravel and repot the swordplants and crypts.

 

[waterdrop]

thanks all, working on it

 

[tibby25731]

omg poor you! what a nightmare... you have just made me more paranoid than i already am! I hope everything works out in the end