Poseidon's Reef
Community Member
I thought I would share the worst possible experience of my reef keeping life
I had a 150g (48x24x30) sps dominate reef
this is an end shot of the tank
I had this tank for over a year (most of the livestock i had from a 180g system before that)
One sunday morning I wake up to find water on the floor, not alot, but enough to make the carpet damp, so i check everything only to find that a seam has a pin hole leak in it,
as im watching the leak, unsure how to react a 2nd and a 3rd leak start and panic sets in,
i quickly drained the tank into buckets and totes, putting the corals, rock and fish into the totes as i went along. by the time this was all done is was nearly sunday afternoon and luckily, everything had survived.
So the search for a new tank begins, relativity in a hurry because im not sure how long i could keep my corals alive in the buckets and totes for.
3 days later, I find a classified AD for a BRAND NEW, STILL IN THE BOX 130g bow front aquarium, was rimless and a beAUTiful tank.
So i take the day off work, go pick it up, spend the rest of the day getting it setup, running around buying the proper plumbing etc etc etc.
The tank was going in a different spot so i hadnt tore down my 150g yet so that was being done simultaneously basically.
just starting to fill up the new 130g bow, as you can see its in brand new condition
you can see my cabinet still from the 150 in the right of the pic
So, finally after many hours of work, panic and tedious moving and lifting and risky transferring of livestock, im done... no loses, (besides $$ but hey, that goes without saying lol) and all in all i end up with a beautiful tank upgrade even though i didnt plan for it.
heres some pics of all the livestock happy in their new home.
So you might think, well thats not so bad, everything lived, you basicly just had to spend alot of time and buy a new tank, no biggy...
well heres where it gets interesting folks:
DAY 3 of having my new happy 130g bowfront!
Watching the good ole' leafs game on the tv and suddenly i hear a crazy splashing noise, i look up to see water pouring out of the side of the new tank, not a pin hole leak this time, literally pouring...... the entire seam split and the tank was empty before i had enough buckets to put it all in- (empty in less than 5min)
blame it on w.e. you want, bad tank, manufuture defect (the one i concluded on), unlevel tank, etc etc etc.
So, another good several hours of panic, less than a week after my first leak, i had all the livestock back into buckets and alot of the stuff didnt look so good this time around, was too stressfull between the two moves.
I was out alot $$ and i dare say i was ready to quit.
I managed to put all the sps in my 65g sump tank, with a heater and a powerheads, and i dried up the floor best i could and went to bed.
woke up the next morning to find out the heater had malfunctioned and heated the sump up to a lethal 95 degrees.... so good by all my prized sps...
I have a frag system, i should mention, that is tuned in for sps and softies, so i put all my fish and lps corals into that.
After a good hard thinking session i decided id give it another shot and started looking for another tank, this time i priced out several new ones, but simply could not afford a new one at this time, especially after the drastic loss in finances after the 2nd leak.
About 2 weeks later I found a USED bowfront on kijiji, 150g, had all the proper bracing and was currently setup, so i went and grabbed that, set it all up
and about 2 months later now i have a happy, stabilized lps reef
heres a couple close up pics of my lps and zoas
So, all in all, i ended up with a nice tank and im still able to enjoy this hobby.
If i had to do it all over again, i would probably through in the towel, and many of my fellow reefers on local forums were
very surprised i didnt, but once your addicted its fairly hard to shake this hobby
I just wanted to share my story and maybe shine some light into the darker side of the hobby, im sure others have had worse tales, but i certainly wouldn't wish this on any reefer!
thanks for the read everyone!
I had a 150g (48x24x30) sps dominate reef
this is an end shot of the tank
I had this tank for over a year (most of the livestock i had from a 180g system before that)
One sunday morning I wake up to find water on the floor, not alot, but enough to make the carpet damp, so i check everything only to find that a seam has a pin hole leak in it,
as im watching the leak, unsure how to react a 2nd and a 3rd leak start and panic sets in,
i quickly drained the tank into buckets and totes, putting the corals, rock and fish into the totes as i went along. by the time this was all done is was nearly sunday afternoon and luckily, everything had survived.
So the search for a new tank begins, relativity in a hurry because im not sure how long i could keep my corals alive in the buckets and totes for.
3 days later, I find a classified AD for a BRAND NEW, STILL IN THE BOX 130g bow front aquarium, was rimless and a beAUTiful tank.
So i take the day off work, go pick it up, spend the rest of the day getting it setup, running around buying the proper plumbing etc etc etc.
The tank was going in a different spot so i hadnt tore down my 150g yet so that was being done simultaneously basically.
just starting to fill up the new 130g bow, as you can see its in brand new condition
you can see my cabinet still from the 150 in the right of the pic
So, finally after many hours of work, panic and tedious moving and lifting and risky transferring of livestock, im done... no loses, (besides $$ but hey, that goes without saying lol) and all in all i end up with a beautiful tank upgrade even though i didnt plan for it.
heres some pics of all the livestock happy in their new home.
So you might think, well thats not so bad, everything lived, you basicly just had to spend alot of time and buy a new tank, no biggy...
well heres where it gets interesting folks:
DAY 3 of having my new happy 130g bowfront!
Watching the good ole' leafs game on the tv and suddenly i hear a crazy splashing noise, i look up to see water pouring out of the side of the new tank, not a pin hole leak this time, literally pouring...... the entire seam split and the tank was empty before i had enough buckets to put it all in- (empty in less than 5min)
blame it on w.e. you want, bad tank, manufuture defect (the one i concluded on), unlevel tank, etc etc etc.
So, another good several hours of panic, less than a week after my first leak, i had all the livestock back into buckets and alot of the stuff didnt look so good this time around, was too stressfull between the two moves.
I was out alot $$ and i dare say i was ready to quit.
I managed to put all the sps in my 65g sump tank, with a heater and a powerheads, and i dried up the floor best i could and went to bed.
woke up the next morning to find out the heater had malfunctioned and heated the sump up to a lethal 95 degrees.... so good by all my prized sps...
I have a frag system, i should mention, that is tuned in for sps and softies, so i put all my fish and lps corals into that.
After a good hard thinking session i decided id give it another shot and started looking for another tank, this time i priced out several new ones, but simply could not afford a new one at this time, especially after the drastic loss in finances after the 2nd leak.
About 2 weeks later I found a USED bowfront on kijiji, 150g, had all the proper bracing and was currently setup, so i went and grabbed that, set it all up
and about 2 months later now i have a happy, stabilized lps reef
heres a couple close up pics of my lps and zoas
So, all in all, i ended up with a nice tank and im still able to enjoy this hobby.
If i had to do it all over again, i would probably through in the towel, and many of my fellow reefers on local forums were
very surprised i didnt, but once your addicted its fairly hard to shake this hobby
I just wanted to share my story and maybe shine some light into the darker side of the hobby, im sure others have had worse tales, but i certainly wouldn't wish this on any reefer!
thanks for the read everyone!
