TANK LEAK! Need advice.

[hypergeek]

Scenario:
10 gallon tank. 4 danios, a pleco, two bumble bees, 1 neon, 2 mollies.

Event:
Went downstairs at 2:30am to say "goodnight" to guinea pigs and fish. Stepped into 3 gallons of water - swam to the other side of the living room. (j/k)

Actions Taken:
Emptied 1/2 of water into plastic basin. Placed all sealife into basin.

Emptied other 1/2 of water between two buckets, placed red rock into one, but the water seemed cloudy since it was towards the bottom of the tank (and gravel).

Woke up this morning to find my pleco, a danio, and a bumblebee on the floor - amazingly enough... the pleco was alive and kicking when I went to pick it up - so it went into the bucket with the red rock - the two other fish were discarded, poor guys. The three jumped out during the night, very surprised the pleco survived the fall from the table. Hopefully he'll be fine tonight when I return home with an new tank.

I've covered the basin and bucket with makeshift covers to avoid any more jump-outs.

Questions:

1. I'm VERY new to aquariums - this is only the third month I've had one, and about a month a a half of having one with fish (after the cycle). How did I handle this situation and could I have done anything better besides covering the basin?

2. How the HECK could this have happened? The tank was fine for three months and was never handled abrasively. Is this a common event in aquarium keeping?!?

3. Was it smart to save the water? I did so because I was afraid of the fish dying from uncycled water once I got the new tank. (Did add some conditioned water to the cloudy bucket and it seemed to help a bit.)

4. Is there something I can do to AVOID this from happening again? I even tested the tank when I first got it.

5. Should I add anything to the water when I set the new tank up? Can I just place everything in the new tank - fish & saved water - or do I need to do anything else? Maybe add some stress coat or MelaFix?

MAN, this sucked! I was up for two hours saving fish, transferring water, mopping, and slowly dipping into madness.

Any advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

- Steve (on three hours sleep)

 

[gadazobe]

Buy a new tank - this time bigger. You did well saving as much as the water as you could. And no, it's not a regular event in fishkeeping - most tanks are built to last years, not months. You will have to cycle the new tank, but it should be much quicker if you can use some of the water from the old tank, the same ornaments and filter media (you do have a filter don't you?) You should get the new tank set up as quickly as possible and then hopefully you won't have lost too much beneficial bacteria.

 

[hypergeek]

Buy a new tank - this time bigger.

How much bigger?

 

[Phase2]

Feeling for you Stevo....you did well to do what you did......make sure the heaters in the bucket too.....new tank needed now I think......then flush out the old one and get it resealed.....(any glazier should be able to do this) then u got 2 tanks. What a nightmare for you.....dont let it put u off!......its one of them things and a rare occurance. You could ask you lfs to stock your fish whilst you get sorted out and your new tank cycled....they might...good luck.....

 

[gadazobe]

The biggest you can afford. Your plec will grow to about 18" (if he's a common, everyday plec) and your neon could do with some mates - they're shoaling fish and the more you have they happier they will be.

 

[hypergeek]

The biggest you can afford. Your plec will grow to about 18".

Holy crap! But he's such a small guy right now... only about 3". I may have to find someone to adopt him.

I feel so bad for my bumblebee. They're SO cool even though they don't do much. They're like little garbage men wrapped in caution strips.

 

[gadazobe]

When I first got mine he was about 1.5" and nobody told me that he would get to be so big. He lived in a small tank which he quickly outgrew and now he lives in a 5' tank and is at least 10" long.

 

[hypergeek]

When I first got mine he was about 1.5" and nobody told me that he would get to be so big. He lived in a small tank which he quickly outgrew and now he lives in a 5' tank and is at least 10" long.

How long did it take for him to get that big? If I wait, let's say, three months until I get a larger tank (at least a 25 gallon - which, at this point, is inevitable since I'm "hooked" - no pun intended) will that be fast enough?

It amazes me of how alert he seems, much moreso than the other fish, of humans outside the tank. I like him alot and would hate to get rid of him.

 

[gadazobe]

I've had mine about 3 years now - so on average about 2-3" a year. You should be fine for 3 months. By the way - I'm glad you like him coz not only do they grow big, they also live long - with good conditions anything up to 15 years. Just think of him as the family pet

 

[Alien Anna]

I'd say get a 3 ft tank, but if you can get one that is deeper than average, and wider than average, you could get about 40 US gallons of water in it, no trouble. That way you'd have a lot of scope for development and bigger tanks are much easier to maintain. I've never heard of a catastrophic leak like you had, actually. I have a tank that's sprung a very tiny leak but that's because I dislodged some sealant near the top.

You can re-seal old tanks with some silicone sealant and a lot of patience so if you want some more bubblebee gobies, maybe that's something for the future. Bumble bee gobies really shouldn't be kept in a community tank and are brackish water fish anyway.

My oldest tank is about 14 years old and doesn't leak.

 

[hypergeek]

brackish water fish

I was told, for them and the mollies, to put just a few teaspoons of sea salt into the tank and that it wouldn't hurt the other fish - but it would optimize the living conditions for those that need it.

Is this true? I was always under the impression that salt are salt and fresh are fresh.

 

[semper fi]

did the tank break or leak? if it was a leak, scrape off the old silicone with out fish or water in it. for the residue left on the glass, use white vinegar and clean the area where the vinegar was very thoroughly. reseal with 100% silicone, available at any hardware store. cut a pie chaped peice out of a peice of plastic, butter dish lids work well, and on the pointy end take a penny and trace the outline of it. cut out the curve to make a tool to get the silicone in the joint. run a bead of silicone along the edge and with your "tool", go back over the bead smoothing it and removing any excess. wait for 72 hours for the silicone to cure. test the joint with water to make sure the joint is sealed. wash the silicone and refill the tank.

if it was a break, the break will tell you how it happened. a crack that goes from one corner to another means the tank became twisted or unlevel. the lowest point of the break will point to the corner that is lower than the other corners of the tank.

learned about this the hard way also. i have an old house (80+ years). i used the front bedroom on the main floor as the fish room. had two tanks in there on the same wall. the floors are uneven and i did not think that leveling the tank would matter that much. one tank was an 80 with a dovii in it. too mean to put with the rest of the fish. the other tank, a 120, had various centrals with my red devil in it. the dovii and devil hated eachother. would ram the glass at eachother. one night that my husband was away on business, my daughter starts screaming from the bedroom. go in and find her being dowsed with water from a break in the 80. took about 2 hours to clean up. almost got it cleaned up and the wet floors must have caused the other tank to become unlevel. which also broke. five hours of cleaning up water, two hours of relocating fish and about 8,000 dollars worth of damage later, learned my lesson to check the level of the tanks. the water not only was in the bedroom but also went into the basement. wrecked the drywall, flooring, furniture, pics on wall, everything! so, don't feel bad we all make mistakes.

 

[ketyana]

Oh my God, what a nightmare!!!

Both those stories would be enough to put me off fish keeping forever it if ever happened to me!!

 

[MizPlaya692003]

Ok ! First of all get a new tank. And no tanks never really leak. It just depends on the way they were built. BUT.. dont buy another tank from the same company of your broken one. Put new water and some water conditioner. You can never tell if a tank will leak. Good Luck !

 

[MizPlaya692003]

CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME WITH MY FISH PROBLEMS AND LET OTHER PEOPLE NO ABOUT THEM. MY TOPIC IS IN THE LIVEBREEDERS ROOM !!!! HELP