aquatastrophe 09!!!

[ajack]

ever come home and find this?

our buddy went away for work for a few weeks and left his wife to care for his tank. she came home from work on his first day away and most of the water from the aquarium was on the floor - presumably through the giant crack pictured below. he gave me and jt a call and we raced over to save what we could. 2 of 3 apistogrammas, 5 shrimp, some white clouds, and some little catfish guys were among the refugees that were brought back with us to a temporary tank, also pictured. along with some assorted plants that survived the carnage they are awaiting the return of their master so that he might rebuild them a new home. truly a disaster.

although the tank leaked all over some power strips and doused the wood floor, there is no visible major damage to their house so far.

anybody have any aquarium disaster stories to share so that we can assure our friend that it could've been worse?

 

[bibbels]

Wow that really sucks. Any theories as to the cause?

 

[ajack]

well, he has a hyperactive dog and a wife who wasn't looking forward to taking care of the tank in his absence. she was supposedly at work and there was already a bit of a seemingly innocuous blemish on the front, so my money is on the dog. i never was a conspiracy theorist.

 

[VaughnH]

I hope you realize that you have probably caused many of us to have nightmares for a week! I manage to do that about once a month as it is. I hesitate to even mention that I haven't had this type of problem ..... knock on wood...

 

[tedr108]

ajack,

Your buddy is lucky to have some good friends!

 

[aquabillpers]

We had a rocking chair in front of a 29 gallon tank, with the front facing into the room and the back facing the aquarium.

We also had an English bulldog.

One day while we were out the bulldog decided to sit in the chair. It rocked backward and Crash! When we came home most of one side of the aquarium was on the floor and about three inches of water was left in the tank, the rest on the carpet on in the basement.

We saved most of the plants and livestock and sold the bulldog to a restaurant.

No, that's not true. He lived out his allotted years in happiness. The rocking chair was sold to a restaurant.

Bill

 

[SuperColey1]

I got a phone call at work from my wife last summer!!!

My 3 year old son had decided to 'do what Dad does' and dose the tank. (He didn't wake anyone up and went downstairs on his own.) He has been a master of gates and suchlike since 14 months old and with modern 'human rights' laws it is illegal to lock children in bedrooms (even if it is for their own safety.)

I must add that I am now breaking the law on a daily (and nightly ) basis

Dosing wouldn't have been too much of a problem apart from the fact he decided washing up liquid was a good substitute for the macros/micros which were locked away under the tank!!!

Needless to say all livestock (plecs, rams, tetras, Otos, Shrimps) were dead. The Trumpet snails survived as always.

AC

 

[ajack]

that's pretty hilarious/tragic on both stories! we should all take a lesson from them and remember to sell all our rocking chairs and lock our children behind doors!! also, the tank my buddy was using was an old tank that had been sitting around in the yard for three years until he decided to test it out and put it back into service, so you can sleep easy again vaughn, since the tanks integrity was possibly in question anyway. thanks for sharing your disaster stories - they're the sort of things that are crappy when they happen but grow a more humorous slant with time. of course, i hope to never have my own. that being said - more stories are welcome from anyone unfortunate to have one! bill, coley - cheers.

 

[shoggoth43]

I lost my antique tank to a random crack. It was one of the old glass pane tanks with the stainless steel frame and slate bottoms. Nice tank. Just up and cracked on the front without warning. I just happened to be in the room and *CRACK* from across the room. I put a smaller tank inside it that was kind of leaky until I could replace them both. The slate was certainly strong enough to hold it.