# Disaster Aquarium!



## Beowulf1976 (Aug 2, 2008)

My partner bought a 5ft, 93 Gallon tank with hood and had it delivered to the stand (as in the chappy helped him bring it in and put it on the stand) and yes, the price did reflect the quality, there were chips all over the place, one at the bottom in the middle front of the tank had me worried but I was reassured by him that it wouldn't be a problem. Anyway, he set it all up and all was fine, then on the Friday (a week ago last Friday) the fish arrived so he put them in, 6 pulchra (dwarf snakeheads).

Friday night or early Saturday morning (a week ago) we had disaster, the tank, exactly where the chip was cracked from one side of the tank to the other and needless to say our downstairs was a bit sodden. My partner dragged me out of bed rather early to help him mop up the mess (charming!) and he managed to save 3 of the pulchra, the other three having "drowned" (perhaps suffocated would be a better word as they breathe air also) in wet sand, sand in their gills and not able to be saved. Luckily we have a 4ft tank which is the one he upgraded from to get said pulchras as the 4ft wasn't big enough :rolleyes5: Upon checking the base he had made was not level, and we all know that a tank has to be 100% on the level, especially one that big, it bowed upwards *ouch*

He was going to fix the tank with a piece of perspex but I said no way hosé
was he going to put ANY water back in the tank, the floor wouldn't survive another 93 gallons, I'm surprised that it's survived it in the first place, well judging by the under stairs cupboard, the cement has become rather soggy and clumpy top level :yikes: I'm just hoping that the central heating dries it out quickly and we don't end up with mould growing because that would mean we'd have to take the floor up and probably put new flooring down (it's rented property too!) and we can't afford that and next door said the insurance won't cover it as it's classed as pets. :yikes: again she says

Anyway, I'm digressing, back to the story, I agreed to purchase him another tank with hood from someone who offered him one for £150, and I gave him £30 petrol to get there (lucky I had a bit of money in then eh?) and yesterday he drove all the way to Lancashire to get said tank, it's in the car at the moment as it is raining buckets as I type this :rolleyes5:

He has checked, double checked and triple checked the base, and even checked it some more, it is level in every aspect that it could possibly be level now.

Once it has stopped raining and next door has come back, they will get the tank into the house and onto the base, then my partner needs to go to Argos to get more kiddy play sand (yes it can be used as well as aquarium sand and is a darn sight cheaper). He saved the plants from the busted aquarium so he just has to put in sand, put in some water and replant the tank (250 singular plants will take some time!) and then on Friday he will be receiving another 6 pulchra to put in, he will put them in the cycled tank until he can cycle the new one, I've bought him some safe start at £16.75 for a bottle  and he's been told that given time for the filter to glug the safe start, then the fish can go straight in as they are hardy buggers.

So there we go, the story of our aquarium experience :lol:


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## viseversa (Oct 10, 2008)

Ouch.....

That sounds like a right nightmare, all i can say is that "in a nice way" im glad it was you not me, you sound quite relaxed about it though, my Mrs would of gone spare at me and i dont think id be having any more fish for a long time :001_rolleyes: I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on this one :biggrin:


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## SeaThreePeeO (Sep 15, 2008)

Do you have accidental damage on your household insurance? Unless otherwise stated in your policy it should cover damage caused by pets. It would be worth checking out.

We had a leak in a 70L tank, not quite 93 Gasllons, but it was enough to turn the surrounding laminate flooring black. We mopped up the excess water and left the laminate to slowly dry out. The black discolouration went and to look at the floor now you wouldn't know anything happened.


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## Beowulf1976 (Aug 2, 2008)

viseversa said:


> Ouch.....
> 
> That sounds like a right nightmare, all i can say is that "in a nice way" im glad it was you not me, you sound quite relaxed about it though, my Mrs would of gone spare at me and i dont think id be having any more fish for a long time :001_rolleyes: I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on this one :biggrin:


I wasn't in the remotest angry, I was actually sorry for him for losing three fish and having the disaster in the first place, there was no point being piffed with him because it wasn't his fault anyway, I didn't even bother with the "I told you so" because his heart was broken enough as it was.

I'm cool as a cucumber me, I think it's the amount of meds I am on to be honest, he takes advantage of that (no, not in that way!) by having 12 tarantulas, 3 scorpions and a horned frog and various millipedes IN THE BEDROOM :lol:

Heaven help me/him if I ever get better :lol:


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