Ayla of Duluth
05-16-2015, 03:53 PM
I need to vent. You all remember that huge lobster tank I had, right? I thought it was 75 gallons...turns out its 100 gallons. Anyways, I'm on the second story of a really old apartment complex. Built in the early 1900s. When I got the tank, it was 500 pounds on its own. 1" acrylic on all sides. I've put around $500 into this tank now, in substrate, plants, filters, decorations, fish, and lighting. I had finally gotten the perfect tank for all my shubunkin to live in, and I was also finally getting the hang of maintaining it. I had even started to paint the edges because they got kind of torn up from moving such a heavy item.
So the other day I went to clean the canister filter, and I noticed a wet spot underneath it. I thought it was just because when I unhook the hoses that feed in and out of the tank from the filter, it leaks a bunch of water, and maybe my towel hadn't caught it all. So I soaked it up with a towel and went to bed later. When I woke up, the whole carpet was soaking wet around the aquarium. So it wasn't from the filter. I checked underneath the tank, and lo and behold, there's a big puddle of water and its dripping down the sides.
This is where I start to panic. A leaky aquarium has always been a huge fear of mine. I don't have renters insurance so the thought of it bursting one day and all that water running down the stairs and damaging all the other apartments haunted me every day. But I was starting to get comfortable with the aquarium and that that would probably not happen. So I'm furiously laying down every towel I own and they're getting drenched and I'm running out of clean towels to use.
You know what's worse? I have to go to work in less than half an hour. Thank god my boss is an aquariast as well, I called him up and he was like "O shit, no get yourself a new tank pronto. We'll cover for you here." I haven't showered, no makeup, threw on what I'm pretty sure was really dirty laundry covered in pet hair. I start siphoning water out of the tank and call my dad and I'm like "EMERGENCY COME GET ME" so he brings me to petco where I JUST MISSED THE DOLLAR PER GALLON SALE SO INSTEAD OF GETTING A 55 GALLON FOR 55 DOLLARS I HAD TO PAY 150 -pant pant-
That wasn't even the end of my adventure. There's really only one spot in my apartment where a largeish aquarium can go, and the 100 gallon beast is there. So I put the new smaller tank off to the side and put all my fish in it with some tank water and get them settled in...shit. how am I gonna move this tank once I deal with the big one? -sigh- one step at a time. I'm an hour late for work but I've got the big one emptied out so I'll deal with it when I get home.
I decided to rent a carpet cleaner because a few years ago when the city flooded, I suggested a carpet cleaner because they're built to suck up water and it worked like a dream (until my dad sucked up too much and burnt out the motor.) so I grab one on my way home from work and its hilarious looking. It's professional grade, doesn't even look like a carpet shampooer. I go home and plug it in and start sucking up water when I realize that the brush underneath it doesn't make as much contact with the floor around the aquarium as it does with the rest of the floor. Upon inspection...yep. The leak has softened the plywood thats under the carpet, and the colossal weight made a dip. F***. -runs downstairs to the empty apartment below me- Sure enough, in their bathroom right underneath where my aquarium is, there's a noticeable dip in their ceiling. -re enter panic mode- I desperately need to move this thing to a spot where the floor is dry, but there's nowhere else that can support so much weight safely for an indefinite amount of time. Also, I'm alone because my roommate is at work. So it's still sitting there with god knows how much water underneath it that I couldn't soak up. My carpet is nice and clean again though, so that's nice.
The 55 gallon I have isn't big enough for the 12 fish I have. So I'm bringing my large koi to petco to have them give it a new home. One of the fish is the tiniest guppy so I don't really count him as a fish. And now that I have a canister filter for a 100 gallon tank that's being used in a 55 gallon, I'm not too worried about ammonia poisoning or anything. There's also the issue that I bought 5 bags of substrate, 22 pounds each. The directions said one bag per 20 gallons, so I'm about 44 pounds of substrate over what I should have. Which also means my fish are swimming in about 40 gallons of water instead of 55.
I don't have a stand for the aquarium either, and my dog for some reason is absolutely obsessed with my fish. Every time he walks by the tank (which is on the floor) he peers over the top of it and pats at the water to try and get them, or he'll try and bite them through the tank. So what was yesterday a shiny new tank now has doggy snot slobber marks all over it.
I have a friend who wants to take the tank and use it as a tank for his reptiles, so there's that. I'm just really really bummed because I poured so much time and effort and money into a tank that was finally the way I wanted it to be, and then I had to tear it down and get a tank half the size to cram everything into. It's like looking at a broken dream or something. ugh.
I need a pizza.
So the other day I went to clean the canister filter, and I noticed a wet spot underneath it. I thought it was just because when I unhook the hoses that feed in and out of the tank from the filter, it leaks a bunch of water, and maybe my towel hadn't caught it all. So I soaked it up with a towel and went to bed later. When I woke up, the whole carpet was soaking wet around the aquarium. So it wasn't from the filter. I checked underneath the tank, and lo and behold, there's a big puddle of water and its dripping down the sides.
This is where I start to panic. A leaky aquarium has always been a huge fear of mine. I don't have renters insurance so the thought of it bursting one day and all that water running down the stairs and damaging all the other apartments haunted me every day. But I was starting to get comfortable with the aquarium and that that would probably not happen. So I'm furiously laying down every towel I own and they're getting drenched and I'm running out of clean towels to use.
You know what's worse? I have to go to work in less than half an hour. Thank god my boss is an aquariast as well, I called him up and he was like "O shit, no get yourself a new tank pronto. We'll cover for you here." I haven't showered, no makeup, threw on what I'm pretty sure was really dirty laundry covered in pet hair. I start siphoning water out of the tank and call my dad and I'm like "EMERGENCY COME GET ME" so he brings me to petco where I JUST MISSED THE DOLLAR PER GALLON SALE SO INSTEAD OF GETTING A 55 GALLON FOR 55 DOLLARS I HAD TO PAY 150 -pant pant-
That wasn't even the end of my adventure. There's really only one spot in my apartment where a largeish aquarium can go, and the 100 gallon beast is there. So I put the new smaller tank off to the side and put all my fish in it with some tank water and get them settled in...shit. how am I gonna move this tank once I deal with the big one? -sigh- one step at a time. I'm an hour late for work but I've got the big one emptied out so I'll deal with it when I get home.
I decided to rent a carpet cleaner because a few years ago when the city flooded, I suggested a carpet cleaner because they're built to suck up water and it worked like a dream (until my dad sucked up too much and burnt out the motor.) so I grab one on my way home from work and its hilarious looking. It's professional grade, doesn't even look like a carpet shampooer. I go home and plug it in and start sucking up water when I realize that the brush underneath it doesn't make as much contact with the floor around the aquarium as it does with the rest of the floor. Upon inspection...yep. The leak has softened the plywood thats under the carpet, and the colossal weight made a dip. F***. -runs downstairs to the empty apartment below me- Sure enough, in their bathroom right underneath where my aquarium is, there's a noticeable dip in their ceiling. -re enter panic mode- I desperately need to move this thing to a spot where the floor is dry, but there's nowhere else that can support so much weight safely for an indefinite amount of time. Also, I'm alone because my roommate is at work. So it's still sitting there with god knows how much water underneath it that I couldn't soak up. My carpet is nice and clean again though, so that's nice.
The 55 gallon I have isn't big enough for the 12 fish I have. So I'm bringing my large koi to petco to have them give it a new home. One of the fish is the tiniest guppy so I don't really count him as a fish. And now that I have a canister filter for a 100 gallon tank that's being used in a 55 gallon, I'm not too worried about ammonia poisoning or anything. There's also the issue that I bought 5 bags of substrate, 22 pounds each. The directions said one bag per 20 gallons, so I'm about 44 pounds of substrate over what I should have. Which also means my fish are swimming in about 40 gallons of water instead of 55.
I don't have a stand for the aquarium either, and my dog for some reason is absolutely obsessed with my fish. Every time he walks by the tank (which is on the floor) he peers over the top of it and pats at the water to try and get them, or he'll try and bite them through the tank. So what was yesterday a shiny new tank now has doggy snot slobber marks all over it.
I have a friend who wants to take the tank and use it as a tank for his reptiles, so there's that. I'm just really really bummed because I poured so much time and effort and money into a tank that was finally the way I wanted it to be, and then I had to tear it down and get a tank half the size to cram everything into. It's like looking at a broken dream or something. ugh.
I need a pizza.