What is your worst tank tragedy or disaster?
- Thread starter rdefino
- Start date
A friend of mine had a 15 gallon tank that he said I was welcome to have. So I grabbed a bucket that my wife told me was clean, and drove to his house. After picking up the fish(6in pleco, a few over fed tiger barbs, and some sword tails) and putting them in the bucket, I put it in the car first. Then I went back and grabbed the tank and headed home. Everything was dead except the pleco by the time I got home. Turns out that my wife's definition of clean and mine are two different things. The pleco survived the ammonia contaminated bucket some how. Lesson learned.
I had a 75 gallon leak from the silicone bottom glass back seal. But it was under warranty so i paid the difference and got a 90 gallon. Bad news was the wet floor was never the same.
Getting woke up at 3am by a loud cracking sound. Check the bedroom tank and there's a 12" outer surface crack. The tank held a breeding pair of carpintis 'escondido' with 300+ fry. Luckily I was in the middle of setting up a new tank in the living room, so it just needed to be filled. Nothing like spending 2 hours draining the tank, catching the fish then their fry and getting them settled in the other tank.
The worst ones I had was a fried decided to clean the algae for me while I was on vacation during college.. Used a fresh sponge from under the kitchen sink.. Some chemical in the sponge killed every fish within minutes according to him. Those were the last fish I think I had as we moved shortly after and sold the old tanks. Building a new house and are going to put a tank in, won't be letting that friend clean this tank.
Guess I've been pretty lucky. The worst thing for me was an involantary twitch while sprinkling food straight out of an 8oz canister of food sending the better part of it into the tank. Tip: Never feed right out of the canister when you're half asleep, especially after an 8 hour FPS marthon gaming session.
the worst i have had was a 6x2x2 bottom glass cracking from one corner to the other , lucky there was no fish in as it was still cycling ,the whole tank emptied into my front room while i was at work, the lfs where i bought it tried to say it was my stand ,and then came up with ,it might be because your using 1" poly under it i think that is too much, however after a bit of a battle and getting another lfs to check the tank admitted it was not built square, he replace the tank but refused to pay for any damage , luckily i had house contents insurance that payed up , they paid for a new stand ,sofa ,carpets wallpaper and fire surround , needless to say the wife was none too pleased , esp. when after 6 months i said i think i might get a bigger tank
I had a 94 gallon Mbuna tank with about 30 3-5" fish. My 2 year old decided to feed them after I went to work(THE WHOLE BAG OF PELLETS!!!) and then proceeded to turn of my power strip. Needless to say when I got home the next morning most of my fish were dead and you could barely see 1" into the tank!! I guess it was my fault because I let him feed them with me.
Oh yeah and by most I mean all but 1 of my fish were dead. The only survivor was my Yellow Lab.....THE SMALLEST OF THE BUNCH!!
Oh yeah and by most I mean all but 1 of my fish were dead. The only survivor was my Yellow Lab.....THE SMALLEST OF THE BUNCH!!
Not a tank but a outdoor pond...
It was about 1996, at Yarrow Bay above Kirkland Wa.
I worked as a general day-laborer for a home builder and was hired to help a different company build a outdoor pond infront of a new home.
(So I was really working for a builder who lent me out to a pond company for a few days.)
The pond they made was about 25 feet long, about 10 feet wide and at most about 4 foot deep.
The day before the house was sold and the new owners moved their stuff in I saw the pond people working on the pond.
I saw they drained the pond and cleaned it, then added new water.
The pond really looked good the day the new owners took over the keys.
But 24 hours later I noticed that about 1/2 the water in the pond was missing?
My boss also noticed and so he told me to run a hose over and fill it up.
My boss was also upset at the pond builder for not filling the pond all the way up with water the day before for some reason?
2 days later on December 24th, (Christmas eve) I received a phone call about 6:00 at night from my boss.
My boss was out of the state but had received a message that the new owners of the home with the pond were saying that they were right in the middle of their Christmas with a home filled with people when water started to enter their basement!
My boss said he could not get a hold of anyone who worked for the company who built the pond so he wanted me to take a wet/dry shop vac over to that house and suck up any water getting into the basement.
I went over with my shop vac and the people there took me down to their basement.
Thats where I saw what was going on.
'OH MY GAUD!"
The Christmas tree was laied out on it's side, the many gifts on the floor showed signs on their wrapping paper that they had been under water.
The people had ripped up the room's carpet and the whole house smelled of a wet dog.
I did what I could with my little vac, but there was WAY too much water flowing into the basement for me to stop.
After 2 hours I gave up , I had done what I could but there was no sign of the water ever stopping.
The people thanked me for helping them and I left the shaop vac for the people to use on their own.
Im told they didnt sleep for about the next 72 hours fighting the flood.
Later I saw that the pond was filled in with dirt and was a flower garden now.
I asked my boss why?
The problem turned out to be the bottom drain.
It had been working well, but we think the people who had cleaned the pond just days before the house was moved into had cracked something underground.
It may have been a pipe under the pond, or a fitting that was not glued right, or perhaps something else, but whatever it was it meant that this pond would never be able to hold water.
Or if it did hold water, it could never really be trusted 100% in the future.
This is why I am against pond bottom drains on ponds that are close to homes or a property line....
It was about 1996, at Yarrow Bay above Kirkland Wa.
I worked as a general day-laborer for a home builder and was hired to help a different company build a outdoor pond infront of a new home.
(So I was really working for a builder who lent me out to a pond company for a few days.)
The pond they made was about 25 feet long, about 10 feet wide and at most about 4 foot deep.
The day before the house was sold and the new owners moved their stuff in I saw the pond people working on the pond.
I saw they drained the pond and cleaned it, then added new water.
The pond really looked good the day the new owners took over the keys.
But 24 hours later I noticed that about 1/2 the water in the pond was missing?
My boss also noticed and so he told me to run a hose over and fill it up.
My boss was also upset at the pond builder for not filling the pond all the way up with water the day before for some reason?
2 days later on December 24th, (Christmas eve) I received a phone call about 6:00 at night from my boss.
My boss was out of the state but had received a message that the new owners of the home with the pond were saying that they were right in the middle of their Christmas with a home filled with people when water started to enter their basement!
My boss said he could not get a hold of anyone who worked for the company who built the pond so he wanted me to take a wet/dry shop vac over to that house and suck up any water getting into the basement.
I went over with my shop vac and the people there took me down to their basement.
Thats where I saw what was going on.
'OH MY GAUD!"
The Christmas tree was laied out on it's side, the many gifts on the floor showed signs on their wrapping paper that they had been under water.
The people had ripped up the room's carpet and the whole house smelled of a wet dog.
I did what I could with my little vac, but there was WAY too much water flowing into the basement for me to stop.
After 2 hours I gave up , I had done what I could but there was no sign of the water ever stopping.
The people thanked me for helping them and I left the shaop vac for the people to use on their own.
Im told they didnt sleep for about the next 72 hours fighting the flood.
Later I saw that the pond was filled in with dirt and was a flower garden now.
I asked my boss why?
The problem turned out to be the bottom drain.
It had been working well, but we think the people who had cleaned the pond just days before the house was moved into had cracked something underground.
It may have been a pipe under the pond, or a fitting that was not glued right, or perhaps something else, but whatever it was it meant that this pond would never be able to hold water.
Or if it did hold water, it could never really be trusted 100% in the future.
This is why I am against pond bottom drains on ponds that are close to homes or a property line....