Barncat
Community Member
Sometime in the early morning of December 27th my cat Keplar jumped on the acrylic lid of my Fluval 13.5 aquarium and it got wedged in the glass, which exactly none of my kinsmen noticed as they got up the next morning. In a horrific instance they became aware of the problem however as the glass ruptured catastrophically with a tremendous BANG like a gunshot and I awoke to frantic shouts. My brother J turned off the house's power breakers, ending the immediate threat of fire or electrocution and I hurriedly began evacuating my animals into a bucket after showing my other brother how to work the siphon hose.
After getting my livestock to safety and setting them up with an air pump I quickly salvaged my live rock and sand, taking care to stick the end of the one rock occupied by coral into another bucket, never imagining that it would actually survive (it did!)
Thankfully my brother gave me $100 for Christmas, so with that, my weekly $50 pet needs budget and $40 I got from an odd job I was able to purchase a Marineland 30 gallon aquarium from my LFS.
Lacking money being absolutely flat broke and having loved the common sense AIO aquarium design of my old tank I borrowed $20 from my dad for aquarium silicone then with a spark of inspiration, I sawed the sump compartments out of the old Fluval tank with a serrated kitchen knife (which has since been thoroughly bleached.)
Then, after a brief employment of my dad and his table saw to cut some old acrylic I glued the sump into the new (deeper and wider) tank with the previously mentioned silicone. (I then spent several hours removing the excess silicone although it still looks a bit like smeared snot so I might paint a black stripe - with painter's tape - on the outer glass to hide it.)
It ain't pretty but it works.
The silicone requiring a 24 hour curing period I couldn't add any of the water I had salvaged yet but I still had fun arranging my existing rockwork on the side of the tank which hadn't just suffered my bizarre ingenuity.
The ugly green gunk is the epoxy which previously glued my old tank's rockwork together.
The old Purrling Reef - rest in peace, little tank.
Immediate crisis averted I transferred my livestock into a larger bin with the coral-populated rock and added my smaller, fully submersible Fluval heater on top of the airstone for oxygen and a temperature probe so that I could make sure that everyone was alright still. I offered food but not even the clownfish were interested; not surprising. I covered the bin with towels and fortified it with my mesh cat-proof lid (which I had previously removed from the old aquarium and replaced with the acrylic lid because the water wasn't staying warm enough. This is what led to this disaster.)
Finally confident that my animals were safe and least somewhat comfortable, I let myself do other stuff and relax for the first time in many hours.
The next day I started adding water! (Only to realize that I was pretty much completely out of salt. Insert stress here.) After several hours with my larger heater the water in the new aquarium was finally warm enough to support life so I methodically introduced my livestock after drip acclimating them.
Jewel the yellow tailed damsel wasn't found. Considering that I was able to catch her with my hand the day before and she had been extremely pale with stress I suspected that she was now dead... and the next day I discovered that I was correct.
Above was the best picture that I ever caught of her. I'll always be grateful to her; I swear that she saved my first clownfish Moby from depression in the months before I introduced Moby's black snowflake mate, Cousteau.
Apart from the vast majority of my old reef's massive population of copepods though I managed to save all of my other livestock, including my rasta zoanthid coral! (Yeah I know I said I would never keep zoas but somehow it happened anyway.) I even managed to save the rose bubbletip that I had only had for a week! (AND the bizarre little hitchhiker mussel which I have kept!) This victory is probably more luck than any skill on my part but I'm still proud of it and happy with how I responded to this disaster.
Plus, my animals really seem to like their much bigger new home! Obviously it still needs many things, like a bigger heater, a powerhead, a proper lid and another light, but hopefully I'll get there soon. I managed to get the saltwater deep enough to circulate and my filter pump is mostly submerged so Purrling Reef II is secure for now. Next Friday I will be able to buy more salt with my dad's help and soon I will hopefully be able to buy a couple more fish.
I found my watchman goby Clyde's reaction hilarious when I released her.
"Wh.... where the heck am I?"
"Space... there's so much space!!!"
"HOLY SHRIMP!"
...and with that, she zipped off to explore and claim herself a new den. (It quickly became apparent which rock island was her new home due to the distinct radius of clean sand surrounding it. Earlier today I confirmed the location of her den when I saw her pop out from under it on several occasions.)
Moby (left) and Cousteau (right) also seem extremely happy with their new home!
Even my pair of ridiculous nassarius snails appear happy.
The baby bubbletip Scylla, who is doing just fine despite her ordeal! (No, I don't plan on naming her future descendants.)
Onwards to a brighter future in 2024!
The adorable but terrible perpetrator of this disaster, Keplar, who has largely already been forgiven for his crime.
After getting my livestock to safety and setting them up with an air pump I quickly salvaged my live rock and sand, taking care to stick the end of the one rock occupied by coral into another bucket, never imagining that it would actually survive (it did!)
Thankfully my brother gave me $100 for Christmas, so with that, my weekly $50 pet needs budget and $40 I got from an odd job I was able to purchase a Marineland 30 gallon aquarium from my LFS.
Lacking money being absolutely flat broke and having loved the common sense AIO aquarium design of my old tank I borrowed $20 from my dad for aquarium silicone then with a spark of inspiration, I sawed the sump compartments out of the old Fluval tank with a serrated kitchen knife (which has since been thoroughly bleached.)
Then, after a brief employment of my dad and his table saw to cut some old acrylic I glued the sump into the new (deeper and wider) tank with the previously mentioned silicone. (I then spent several hours removing the excess silicone although it still looks a bit like smeared snot so I might paint a black stripe - with painter's tape - on the outer glass to hide it.)
It ain't pretty but it works.
The silicone requiring a 24 hour curing period I couldn't add any of the water I had salvaged yet but I still had fun arranging my existing rockwork on the side of the tank which hadn't just suffered my bizarre ingenuity.
The old Purrling Reef - rest in peace, little tank.
Immediate crisis averted I transferred my livestock into a larger bin with the coral-populated rock and added my smaller, fully submersible Fluval heater on top of the airstone for oxygen and a temperature probe so that I could make sure that everyone was alright still. I offered food but not even the clownfish were interested; not surprising. I covered the bin with towels and fortified it with my mesh cat-proof lid (which I had previously removed from the old aquarium and replaced with the acrylic lid because the water wasn't staying warm enough. This is what led to this disaster.)
Finally confident that my animals were safe and least somewhat comfortable, I let myself do other stuff and relax for the first time in many hours.
The next day I started adding water! (Only to realize that I was pretty much completely out of salt. Insert stress here.) After several hours with my larger heater the water in the new aquarium was finally warm enough to support life so I methodically introduced my livestock after drip acclimating them.
Jewel the yellow tailed damsel wasn't found. Considering that I was able to catch her with my hand the day before and she had been extremely pale with stress I suspected that she was now dead... and the next day I discovered that I was correct.
Above was the best picture that I ever caught of her. I'll always be grateful to her; I swear that she saved my first clownfish Moby from depression in the months before I introduced Moby's black snowflake mate, Cousteau.
Apart from the vast majority of my old reef's massive population of copepods though I managed to save all of my other livestock, including my rasta zoanthid coral! (Yeah I know I said I would never keep zoas but somehow it happened anyway.) I even managed to save the rose bubbletip that I had only had for a week! (AND the bizarre little hitchhiker mussel which I have kept!) This victory is probably more luck than any skill on my part but I'm still proud of it and happy with how I responded to this disaster.
Plus, my animals really seem to like their much bigger new home! Obviously it still needs many things, like a bigger heater, a powerhead, a proper lid and another light, but hopefully I'll get there soon. I managed to get the saltwater deep enough to circulate and my filter pump is mostly submerged so Purrling Reef II is secure for now. Next Friday I will be able to buy more salt with my dad's help and soon I will hopefully be able to buy a couple more fish.
I found my watchman goby Clyde's reaction hilarious when I released her.
"Wh.... where the heck am I?"
"Space... there's so much space!!!"
...and with that, she zipped off to explore and claim herself a new den. (It quickly became apparent which rock island was her new home due to the distinct radius of clean sand surrounding it. Earlier today I confirmed the location of her den when I saw her pop out from under it on several occasions.)
Moby (left) and Cousteau (right) also seem extremely happy with their new home!
Even my pair of ridiculous nassarius snails appear happy.
The baby bubbletip Scylla, who is doing just fine despite her ordeal! (No, I don't plan on naming her future descendants.)
Onwards to a brighter future in 2024!
The adorable but terrible perpetrator of this disaster, Keplar, who has largely already been forgiven for his crime.
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