HELP Bottom of Fish Tank Cracked

[emricson]

I need some advice quickly. As I stated in my subect the bottom of my fish tank cracked tonight and I need some advice on the next steps I should take to ensure the safety of my fish. This is what I have done so far.
Removed all the fish and LR and put then in a tub with the water from the tank. I then put one power head in the tub in the water for circluation and the heater.

My plan is to purchase a new tank and LS (I left the old LS in the cracked tank) and put everything back in the tank tomorrow evening. I think that I can use most of the water that I saved from the old tank so that won't be a problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions or is my plan the best course of action.

Thanks for the help.

 

[zacdl]

Sounds good to me.

The only thing I would do is keep some of your old LS.

When you get your new sand put some of the old in with it. It will help the new sand become live quicker.

Good thing moving it now, once its cracked it will bust open overnight.

 

[arminkropp]

Try to Save as much of your old sand as possible! Even if you could salvage half of it, it would help out alot! That where all the anaerobic bacteria you want is. just seed the new sand with it.

 

[Brenden]

How did your tank crack? Was it hit etc?

 

[emricson]

The funny thing about it is we were just watching TV and heard a cracking noise and the we heard dripping. Nothing was touching it or hit it. I dont understand it myself.

 

[Bearfan]

Definately salvage as much LS as possible.

If you're in Chicagoland, there is a LFS in Lombard called tropi-aquatics (I think) that has the best price on AGA tanks. I've bought 3 from them now.

 

[Elmware]

Where did you get the tank from? I ask because some stores like PetsMart gaurante their tanks and will replace them. You might have to find something to put the fish in for awhile, such as a pail or something.

 

[AndyH5512]

Definitely keep as much of your sand as you can, so you wont have to go through a full cycling. Is it possble the tank was not level? I have read that over time, if a tank is notting sitting level that it will stress and crack. I would look into a guarantee, though. How old is it?

 

[melosu58]

I agree keep some of the old sand for seeding purpose

 

[malkore]

how big a tank? you might look into getting some pink foam insulation, and placing it under the glass, inside the bottom rim/trim, to help spread the weight of the tank evenly.
It sounds like the way the live rock was stacked, that it was putting a lot of pressure on one spot, and eventually, it fractured. It is possible the glass had an imperfection though.

Since I have a 40gallon breeder, it has a larger footprint, roughly 36"x18", and no center brace.
What I did was took that foam insulation, and made little 3"x3" squares, and just staggered them down the center of the tank, and making sure that they were actually about 1/16th inch thinner than the space they filled. This allows the glass to bow a little, which it wants to do naturally, and ensures that i'm not putting extra pressure on a certain part of the tank.
I couldn't get the exact thickness, so that's why I made little supports, rather than one large pad to span the entire 36x18. If I had a hot-knife, I could have done that easily, but I don't.

 

[emricson]

Thanks everyone for you input and help. I have moved everything to the new tank. So now it is just a waiting game to see if everything makes it through OK.

I will update this later in the week to let everyone know how it turned out.

Thanks again.