Tank sprung a leak!

takitaj

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Well my worst fear just happened. Wife was heading to bed and stopped at the tank and said there was bubbles. So I got up to see what was happening and the return was sucking air. Then I see water dripping from the stand. I first thought maybe it overflowed as I have a throttled durso but the sides of the tank were dry. Then it hit me...the tank was leaking.

I managed to get all the rocks and live stock into a 45 gal tote. Still need to get the sand out and move the tank so we can try to get the salt water off the hard wood floors. Bad night. :mad:

I was already beat from a busy day and was looking forward to a good nights sleep. Tomorrow night we open our haunted trail for the weekend. Ugh! ;Vomit
 

ying yang

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Aw always worse seems to happen at worse possible time ( sods law hey )
Well good you noticed before bed so can try your best to save the livestock and clean up best you can.
Good luck and if haunted trail still goes on,hope you enjoy ^_^
 
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takitaj

takitaj

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@The Camaro Show It was a 90 gallon.

@ying yang We put on the haunted trail. It's a fund raiser for a local community non profit that puts on free festivals, community dinners, fireworks, etc, etc. My fiance' is the founder/president so there's no backing out short of death. :) The show MUST go on!

It wasn't new, maybe 10 years old. Up (for 2nd time) since Aug 2020. A Marineland reef ready I believe. Wasn't expensive as tanks go. (my fiance' gave it to me for a birthday) I'm not shocked really, just sad, disappointed & mad. lol Terrible timming!

It was doing so well. Almost on auto pilot. SPS was just starting to really take off and LPS & Euphilia were thriving. Most everything is in the tote, albeit a little cramped. Lost a ton of dwarf cerths & nasarius snails as they were in the sand. Now to figure out my next move. Not sure we can afford a new tank right now. At least I have everything else I might need. :)
 

Karen00

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Ugh! So sorry to hear this happened! At least the leak was caught before going to bed! I hope all your livestock pulls through and your floors! Murphy's Law dictates things like this are ordained to happen at the worst possible time (usually before bed).
 
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takitaj

takitaj

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Thanks everyone. It was a 90. It was terrible timing but it could have been worse. We were both still awake and caught it early. The lights were still on a little (light schedule shifted later in the day so she gets to see it too) so it was easy to see something was wrong.. If it happened an hour or so later we would have woken up to a lot worse! Only about 5 gallons leaked out.

Bottom right corner popped. Thankfully it had the plastic rim top and bottom. Kept it from totally blowing out.

Now to figure out if I can keep having a tank or a big sale. The only LFS near me is Petco. Will be heading there shortly. It's a pretty decent one but 75 gallon is the biggest they sell. I was looking around locally for a second hand 180 but never found anything. Just everyone trying to sell their old 20 gallon goldfish tanks. lol Maybe I'll be down sizing. :(

@ColoredRock I wish you good luck in your transfer! What did you get for the new tank? I did the same thing. Tank sat sort of dry for a few years.
 

ColoredRock

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@ColoredRock I wish you good luck in your transfer! What did you get for the new tank?
So glad you caught it early.

I pickup up a used redsea xl 300 (1 1/2 old) that was fully stocked immaculately maintained. The previous owner is moving across country and will start over when they get there.

That being said.. what a huge under taking.. when Livestock is involved.

Wish you the best of luck!
 

davidcalgary29

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Thanks everyone. It was a 90. It was terrible timing but it could have been worse. We were both still awake and caught it early. The lights were still on a little (light schedule shifted later in the day so she gets to see it too) so it was easy to see something was wrong.. If it happened an hour or so later we would have woken up to a lot worse! Only about 5 gallons leaked out.

Bottom right corner popped. Thankfully it had the plastic rim top and bottom. Kept it from totally blowing out.

Now to figure out if I can keep having a tank or a big sale. The only LFS near me is Petco. Will be heading there shortly. It's a pretty decent one but 75 gallon is the biggest they sell. I was looking around locally for a second hand 180 but never found anything. Just everyone trying to sell their old 20 gallon goldfish tanks. lol Maybe I'll be down sizing. :(

@ColoredRock I wish you good luck in your transfer! What did you get for the new tank? I did the same thing. Tank sat sort of dry for a few years.
Can you keep your totequarium running for a few months? As long as lighting and water flow is sufficient, you might be able to use your emergency setup as a stopgap until you find the right replacement. There are no rules that state that an aquarium has to have transparent sides!

Perhaps you could even arrange your "aquarium" as a tidepool where the primary visual impact comes from looking down into a build, instead of through the side of one.
 

Little c big D

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Sorry for that tank!. If the stand is still solid I often see 75g and 90g on Craigslist and fb marketplace for dirt cheap. Mostly 75s but they have the same foot print! I wish you luck
 

Rene'

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Well my worst fear just happened. Wife was heading to bed and stopped at the tank and said there was bubbles. So I got up to see what was happening and the return was sucking air. Then I see water dripping from the stand. I first thought maybe it overflowed as I have a throttled durso but the sides of the tank were dry. Then it hit me...the tank was leaking.

I managed to get all the rocks and live stock into a 45 gal tote. Still need to get the sand out and move the tank so we can try to get the salt water off the hard wood floors. Bad night. :mad:

I was already beat from a busy day and was looking forward to a good nights sleep. Tomorrow night we open our haunted trail for the weekend. Ugh! ;Vomit
That's definitely all of our big fears! I hope your haunted trail goes smoothly at least!
 

youcallmenny1

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Very sorry to hear about this. On the other hand, you've given us all a nicely timed Halloween scare. I would seriously suggest calling a water mitigation company about that hardwood. It doesn't handle water well.
 

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