These last few days have been some of the toughest I've experienced in the hobby; they've been both good and bad. About a week ago, after doing maintenance on my 55g RBP tank, I noticed that the brace that runs front-to-back at the top-middle of the tank was cracking and trying to pull apart. It looked like it could give at any moment. The tank sat on the second floor of my house in my master bedroom. This just happened to be directly above my (new) furnace on the first floor. In other words, the WORST ufking place for 50 gallons of water to seep into. The only logical solution was to spend ~$600 on a new tank ASAP; the alternative was to wait for the tank to burst and spend closer to $6,000 on water damage and (possibly) a new furnace. I called all the LFSs and soon realized that Perfecto aquariums were on sale. Long-story-shorter.... I ended up getting a brand new Perfecto 75g with oak stand, lights, lids, and matching canopy for $530. The tank is now up and running and the RBPs have a little more room. I chose to put the new tank on the other side of the room so any future leaks will do minimal damage (knock on wood).
So... as soon as I got done with the new 75, I decided I would do some work on my 220g. I needed to clean my Mag350 and do a large water change. Everything was going great until I went to start the filter back up. The in- and out-takes were in place and I had just gone to start the filter when I saw the rubber seal ring floating inside the filter. Like a dumb ass I took the lid off to fish it out and physics did the rest. I probably dumped over 5 gallons into my stand's storage area and the surrounding carpet before I got the "siphons" out of the water and stopped the flow (5 gallons doesn't sound like much, and yes it could have been worse, but it's still 5 gallons of pure liquid pain-in-the-ass). I have had to wash almost all of the towels in my house. I have vowed never to use a Magnum again. It was my own stupidity, but I'm spoiled with the flow stop valves on my Fluvals and Eheims.
I still have to get the empty 55g into my car and over to the LFS. I'll probably manage to fall with the tank on top of me and be cut to shreds by the thing I love. Such is life.
PIC OF NEW 75
So... as soon as I got done with the new 75, I decided I would do some work on my 220g. I needed to clean my Mag350 and do a large water change. Everything was going great until I went to start the filter back up. The in- and out-takes were in place and I had just gone to start the filter when I saw the rubber seal ring floating inside the filter. Like a dumb ass I took the lid off to fish it out and physics did the rest. I probably dumped over 5 gallons into my stand's storage area and the surrounding carpet before I got the "siphons" out of the water and stopped the flow (5 gallons doesn't sound like much, and yes it could have been worse, but it's still 5 gallons of pure liquid pain-in-the-ass). I have had to wash almost all of the towels in my house. I have vowed never to use a Magnum again. It was my own stupidity, but I'm spoiled with the flow stop valves on my Fluvals and Eheims.
I still have to get the empty 55g into my car and over to the LFS. I'll probably manage to fall with the tank on top of me and be cut to shreds by the thing I love. Such is life.
PIC OF NEW 75
