Our teenager saved the day! Or rather… the night… and the fish too!
It is no secret that we hear in the “little crunchy” home are mostly night owls. The Daddy of the house would be too if only he wasn’t busy being in the military and getting up before the sun to run in snow storms and the like! Sometimes though we get looked down upon by others for our late night hours. I had one waldorf “teacher” push very hard to get everyone she knew to live by certain hours and while there is merit in early birds, if not for our late night owl of a teenager our home might have burned to the ground tonight!
50 Gallon Fish Tank Sprang a Leak!
Some how the seam on the bottom of the tank sprang a leak in the middle of the night. If our daughter had not heard it and alerted me the 50 gallons, all of it, would have drained out onto our living room floor. If you can see in the photo we wisely though unsightly have the fish tank power needs raised up high on the wall however the TV, blue ray, wiiU, have a power strip on the floor just feet away from the tank. We had it on the wall before as well but housing came in and changed our power strip for their energy efficient one (that was a mess and on the floor) we had to get another power cord to replace that one and it stayed on the floor where the housing one had been. If it had gotten wet, it could have started a fire, it could have done a lot of harm.
Instead though our HopePixie saved us all! And the fish! I thought at first maybe duct tape might work to seal the leak but then thought it wouldn’t because of the water. I woke Husband up and he thought my idea might hold more water than I did so he tried it. It didn’t. I think we might have made it worse some how. So then we saved the fish and started hosing out the water into buckets. My Dad got me this tank almost 20 years ago for Christmas and I have always loved it. I had it on a table rather than it’s stand though (that is in another state but that was coming in just a week or so!) So I wanted to move the tank then anyway and move it to a different area of the house. Between it being old and on a table and not it’s stand I think it just gave out. I am wondering though if the tank can be repaired? I am also wondering how long the glow fish can live in a kitchen pot without heater, filter, air pump!
Will the fish survive the great leak of 2013?
Stay Tuned!
OMGOSH, this just happened to us. I thought it was an isolated incident Kim. We have Cichilds. I had been sitting admiring my little fish and about 20 minutes later the tank was almost empty. We quickly scooped our pets into a tiny tank we had saved from a Beta fish my daughter owned years ago and saved their little lives. My hubby wrote about it on his blog. Please email me at LeslieVeg @gmail so I can give you details. I am so sorry for all you are going through but so glad you saved your fish. I’d like to know what brand of tank you had. The companies we worked with were very helpful and sent us some products to help us. Ours was a 60 gallon tank. Ours was Marineland tank.
Hugs to you.
Leslie Mayorga
Leslie Loves Veggies
xo
Oh my! I had never heard of this happening till it happened to us and now I keep hearing about it happening to others! I can’t even guess who made the tank though it has to be on it some place right? I will check when we get the rocks and plants out of it and dry it out today! Can you comment back with a link to your husbands blog post about what happened with you guys?
All the Best,
Kimberly
Hi Kimberly, you must maintain the temp of the water for the tropical fish ASAP. They also need air bubbles in the water. Those are immediate needs. Within a few days you need to get filtering going to remove toxins. May I make suggestion: get a cheap10-20 gallon tank to save the fish. Set it up with the filter, air, and heater from your large tank until you get a repair or replacement. Tanks are expected to last 15-20 years the most. You got a good life out of it. Repair is possible but cost would be almost same as new. I had a 37 gallon tall tank leak the same way although mine was <2 years old. Save your fish .
Thank you so much for the advice! I did give them an air stone last night but couldn’t figure out how to keep the water warm without it being too warm so sadly they have been much colder than normal. I ordered a small tank online but it will be a few days (over the weekend) before it gets here. Thank you for explaining tank life to me! I have a friend who thinks it could be repaired but I just keep thinking about how the fish might have died and the house might have burned down had it not been noticed right away. 50 Gallons of water on the floor is no small thing!