Anyone keep a spare tank? I did.

[Devaji]

sorry to hear post a few pic of your planted tanks...I am setting up my very 1st FW planted tank.

anyway I have 2X 40br
a 20L
29H
60P
10 gal
Oh and a soon to be empty 18.5 peninsula nano

soooo I think I am covered.

somehow I have a 2 tank up and running rule. not sure how that happened but here we are.

 

[Reefjockey]

Sounds like you have a great plan in place. Having a hospital tank standing by is a good idea.

By the way, I don't suppose you could get your wife to introduce my wife to Mrs. Claus. I'm really hoping they'd hit it off.

I'm sure they would!

 

[ohiomike]

I keep (kept) a 125 reef, 125 FW planted and 20 planted tanks. So, Thursday morning as I was just leaving for work, I noticed the 125 FW tank was about 4" low. I turned on the light to discover water dribbling all around the base. OH NO!! At the rate it was coming out, it couldn't have been leaking for more than an hour or two. Needless to say, I didn't go to work on Thursday.

Anyway, when I set up the reef and took down a 93 gallon cube, I decided to keep the cube as an spare tank. I bought a large HOB filter and new heater and kept everything I'd need to set it up in a hurry. Fast forward 4.5 years, and the spare tank is doing its job. It took about an hour and a half to get everything transferred, the 125 out, and clean up underway. All fish and plants are alive and well. The carpet is even mostly dry. If the leak had occurred in the reef tank, the rescue attempt would have been much more involved, but I'm fairly confident I could save my livestock.

Now it's decision time. The cube looks really good where it's sitting, and I really don't want to invest in a new 125 gallon FW tank. Might just try to find a used tank to keep as a spare. I've got plenty of time to make up my mind as long as I don't have another disaster soon. Regardless, I'm glad I kept the cube. It took up a lot of room in the shop, and I've considered selling it a dozen times. I'm SO glad I didn't.

Does anyone else have a contingency plan already in place for an emergency tank swap?

That's a familiar situation. I had a 75 mixed reef with a small 15 gallon sump running after 2 moves to our hopefully, forever earthly home. The tank was running for almost 4 years bullet proof where we are now. I realized that the tank was going through an awful lot of top off water. And this tank was setup on the floor catty cornered with the sump behind it. I started noticing water dripping in the basement right below the tank. That's when I did a close inspection and found the water on the floor by the sump. I knew one of them was leaking, just my luck, it wasn't the sump. But it wasn't a real fast leak and I could setup a day and plan. I had a 39g tall cube empty that was the recipient of most all that was in the 75 DT . It is my living room tank as I write this and is running with a 10g sump. All is fine and my fish and all inhabitants transplanted well .
So yes, I do keep tanks around just in case . Now I'm going to reseal the 75 and I am thinking of using it in the basement as a chaeto algae nutrient export for the 39g. Still up in the air on that. It will be resealed and used again one way or the other. I think everyone that can should have back up plans whether it be tanks or persons on stand-by that can house livestock if an emergency arises. Especially for the person with a very large system that a spare tank lying around will not do in an emergency.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Shop vac is much better than towels. When my 30g leaked, I started with towels.... not too efficient.... My husband brought over his shop vac, the noise was awful, but it sucked all the water in no time. Placed fish and rocks in buckets (I have tons) and ran to Petco for a new tank. Save the fish, (don't have corals). The transfers from tank to buckets back to tank was too stressful for my firefish, and I lost it a few days later. My starry blenny took it in stride and I sold it back to LFS, months later as I was getting ready to start macro in the tank.