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I haven't seen a thread on this(might of missed it) and wanted to hear some stories on some of the dark side of fish keeping. Namely The Tank Breaks!!

Open to all stories, like things of how you noticed, what it ruined, the first thought or word that popped out when you noticed(if it can be said appropriately ,lesson(s) learned, and good things that came from it.

My story:

I had just bought a 10 gallon tank to put my shark in to temporary to do an over haul on the 20 he was in. I bought the tank and had 2 places to put it. 1 was under the 20 on an actual fish stank the was stable and level or a book shelf that leaned backwards. Any guess which I picked. Yes I picked the leaning tower of bookshelf.(Reason: To avoid having a messy room with fish stuff lying around for all of a week.) (well I know I wouldn't of minded that now) I set It up and transferred the shark that night. The next morning around 7 I woke up to a loud pop. Jumped up and then...went back to sleep. Got up maybe an hour later looked at the tank and noticed the water level somewhat low. Thought "oh must be evaporation no biggie." An hour and a half later came back in my room and noticed nearly half the water gone. Went behind the shelf took a towel and wiped and notice the water came right back. First word out my mouth, a four letter word that can be also used for poop. Then a whole slew of others that all don't have that simple of an explanation. Got a bucket and so on so forth fish rescue things. I absorbed most of the water with towels and figure all I had was wet carpet and a messed up bookshelf top. NOT... a month later I wanted a movie from the book shelf and all the VHS boxes were stuck together. So I had to rip a lot of covers and replace the tapes from water damage.

Lesson: don't mind a messy room for a week for the sake of nearly your entire movie collection.
Don't put a tank on an un level surface unless all precautions are taken.

Good things: Got most of my tapes on DVD now / Down side of the good: Burned a fat hole in my pocket


Okay everyone what cha got???

tigermom

When you have dozens to hundreds of vhs it's much cheaper to just put them on dvds yourself. Before water damage of course. $70 for a vhs to analog converter and already had a computer with a dvd burner. After that the cost to move a vhs to a dvd is only the cost of the blank dvd rw. Oh don't forget the $.10 sharpie to write the name on the burnt dvds.

I did have a 10g sitting around on a bowed bookshelf for about 3months. The edges were sturdy the middle just curved down even when there was no weight on it so the middle of the 10g wasn't supported. Lucky me I got away with it and then one day while looking at how the middle of the shelf was a half inch below the bottom of the tank I finally decided to move it.

never broken a tank, but about 100 betta bowls have dropped and well.. glass breaks..

I had a REALLY old 29 gal several years ago. The silicone holding the front panel to the side panels stretched out and ripped a bit, and the whole front glass panel bowed out nearly an inch over the course of a few months. I ended up using big C-Clamps to hold the front and back panels in place while I saved up money to buy a new tank ($50 on a 14 y/o's budget was a lot back then). I ended up giving the tank to someone... don't even remember who it was...

My 2.5 gal tank has a three inch long crack on one of the sides, but it's still structurally sound, so I just took a piece of scotch tape and put it over the crack so it wouldn't leak. The tank held water for two years after it cracked, without any problems at all... I even picked it up while the tank was 3/4 full of water on several occasions without any problem (not recommending it, but I did it)...

One of my friends got a used 10 gal and set it up on top of his stereo rack, where it started leaking several hours after we set it up. We only lost about a gallon of water to the rack and the floor... and there was no permanent damage to anything. We ended up taking the tank apart and using the glass to make tops for other tanks...

Lesson learned: Old tanks fall apart and leak!!!

My 4ft tank cracked at the bottom causing a lot of damage, furniture, carpet and books. The total insurance went into several thousand dollars this did not include the tank. I paid the extra and upgraded to the 5ft tank in fact I wish I had gone to a 6ft I had the space (HAD) is the word.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

oh man my brothers tank broke last night!

he pointed out a crack and I was wary about it and told him so and the darn thing cracked in a differant area completely!

kitchen/living room area got flooded.

all his fish are in my tanks now. Hope they will be ok.

Only had one tank break on me, I was moving when i was in england and it broke during the move. Luckily there wasn't much water in it, but the car stunk for months afterwards LOLOL.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

I had a bad break when I was about 12, my very first tank actually. I had a 10 gal full of Tetras and my younger sister and I were arguing over something (as siblings often do). Apparently I said something that got her really mad and she threw a shoe at me (can you see where this one's going). Anyway I moved out of the way and the shoe hit the front of the tank, there were Tetras everywhere. We were only able to save a few but we have a good laugh about it now.

I've had 4 busted tanks over the years...

The least note-worthy was an empty 3 gallon that randomly cracked - still not sure how...

Slightly more spectacular was a 20 gallon that cracked across the base, luckily it was in the bathroom, so other than the fish i lost it wasn't too bad.

3rd was a tank at work that i put my knee into the top edge of...

and most recently & by far most dramatic - a ladder i was on at work broke, putting me through a tank behind me. Sliced my arm open & have had to have 2 rounds of surgery to try & fix it. ...for those who wanna see here are a couple of (post surgery, so all back in 1 piece ) piccies

piccie 1

piccie 2

Sin

I was wondering when you'd pop into this thread, Sin.

It's good to see ya.

Joe Potato

Hey Joe ...what can i say, any excuse to make people cringe simply must be taken advantage of!

Sin

I got a story to add to this fabulous thread.

My brother inlaw; who is somewhat of a famous celebrity which I won't mention who, had a nice fish tank over 4ft. in length. He is also a good golfer and is always practicing. I hope you see were I'm going with this.

One day he was on a conference call and he was practicing his swing with a golf club that helps you create the perfect swing, well the club broke and the part that broke off went through the tank. Gallons of water and fish came streaming out. After all said and done he was only able to save 1 fish. But the bigger problem was that this was salt water and the tank was on the second floor and the water traveled down corroded the electric wires underneath on the first floor. He had to call an electrition to repair the damage. He has never replaced the tank.

Got a tank break happening right now!!!

50g african peacock cichlid tank... appears that these silly fish have undermined the rocks and cracked the bottom... (why didn't I put eggcrate underneath??? hindsight is always 20/20)

Water all over the floor.... currently shuffling fish around as fast as I can so I can move the peacocks out and drain the tank before it collapses.

Update soon

G_T




Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

-UPDATE-

Well... seems like we salvaged things without too much damage.

The sparkling gourami fry that were growing out in the 23 gal tank have been moved in with the shrimp in a 10g and are gleefully devouring all the copepods they can find... I've never seen the fry so fat.

The 12x peacock cichlids have been moved into the 23 gal as an emergency measure but we will be looking at alternative options in the very near future (ie the next 24-48 hours)... Our LFS is going to love us!!

So... the fish are OK for the moment, the filter has been placed on the 180gal to try to maintain at least some of the bacteria colony and the floor is almost dry.... things are looking better than they did just a few hours ago. I hope the fish forgive us for juggling them around so much, with more to come over the next few days.

I'm going to sleep now, it's been a long evening!

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.