What a way to spend my saturday night

[ALittleSalty]

Lets say this past month has been one crazy month for my freshwater tank. First Ick shows up and kill my two angel fish, then tonight happens. I spent the afternoon finishing up the final paint on my diy hood for my 20 long. Its about 8:30pm when my fiancee comes home and we are in the room talking about dinner, when she decides to start doing a baton twirl with some extra PVC pipe I have laying around.............never do this in a room containing a fish tank!!


So now I am faced with the dilema of getting another 20L or finding something bigger, since I was in the process of switching to my first planted tank. Hmmm................she also offered to buy my replacement tank for me, plus the stand. At least I had my 5.5 gallon nearby to set up as a temporary home for my fish. I just finished the hood and looks like now I might not need it after all . The stand in toast too, all the wood is bubbled and wet. I spent the last 4 hours wet vacumming the carpet (almost 12 gallons on the floor) I am letting a fan running tonigt, and will re wet vac tomorrow, then prolly gonna shampoo the carpet tomorrow as well. Looks like I get to start my shopping early for my planted tank Jon

 

[Regen311]

Wow... all I can say is good luck with that! What a nightmare!

 

[lyquidphyre]

To find something positive- if you were to upgrade your tank, what if you got something bigger but taller- that way you might be able to use the hood you built =o)

 

[BrianNY]

Yikes, I feel your pain Jon.

 

[Ketso]

Sorry to hear about the accident.

Keep the guilt trip going and go for a larger tank!

 

[ALittleSalty]

And the final picture she made me take.

 

[Fish Kid]

i have one question..... are the fish okay?..............

dont think they could be but i was wondering.....

 

[SparKy697]

Ouch!

I think that she secretely wanted you to have a bigger tank and knew that this was the only way to get you to do it

It sure makes a mess, but you guys seem to be able to keep your sense of humor about it. At least it didn't happen a month from now when you had plants and fish fully stocked (may I suggest a lock on the door when you get to that point )

 

[ALittleSalty]

Actually I didn't lose one fish. I keep all of my maintenance supplies in the room, so I was able to get about 8 gallons of water into my buckets. Michelle kept her hand on the hole to keep the fish from being sucked out. I am still trying to dry the carpet all the way, but the fish are okay in 5.5 gallon on my desk for the time being. Any ideas on the best way to make sure the carpet is okay?? I ran a fan blowing across the floor all night, and am still using the wet vac, but it is still damp a little. We rent this place and the carpet is brand new,so I really dont want to ruin it too much. In my 8 years of fish keeping this would be my first tank bust. Jon

 

[Zagz]

Sorry to hear about the tank. Glad your fish are ok.

As far as the carpet goes, don't think there is much more that you can do than you already are.

 

[newfound77951]

what if you got something bigger but taller

I agree....I think 20 longs are 30" x12"? That's the same footprint as a 29 and I've seen a lot of people with nice planted 29s.

Or just say what the heck and get a 75!

Sorry about the mess......I'm sure that was a heart-stopping moment. Not sure what you can do for the carpet except keep vaccuming it to get as much water out as you can and also to keep airflow through there to prevent mildew....and be glad you didn't have a saltwater tank!

 

[Sicklid]

Oww... That's beat, she probably feels terrible.

 

[friend4fugu]

a 37 gallon also has the same footprint as a 20l

 

[SparKy697]

a suggestion on the carpet.

You might want to visit the local tool rental place and ask them if they have a fan for drying carpets. It looks something like this

You pull up a corner of the carpet and place this thing under it. It blows air under the carpet and really helps dry out the pad and wood under it. It's also a good idea to pull the carpet up on the other end of the room so that the air can escape and give you good flow.

It's important to get this thing dried out so it does not mold. This is quite a bit different than cleaning your carpet in that you have totally soaked the pad underneath.

HTH

 

[happygirl65]

a suggestion on the carpet.

You might want to visit the local tool rental place and ask them if they have a fan for drying carpets. It looks something like this

You pull up a corner of the carpet and place this thing under it. It blows air under the carpet and really helps dry out the pad and wood under it. It's also a good idea to pull the carpet up on the other end of the room so that the air can escape and give you good flow.

It's important to get this thing dried out so it does not mold. This is quite a bit different than cleaning your carpet in that you have totally soaked the pad underneath.


DITO....our house flooded one time in the back section of the house and after extracting all the water they could, the pro's pulled up the carpet on the wetest end and stuck that fan under it. It has to dry the pad as well or you will have a mold problem which is a whole other can of worms.

You can probably rent the fan and pull the carpet off the tack strip at the edge of the room to get the fan under there.

Good luck!

HTH

 

[plecoperson]

GEEZ! Three disaster posts! This one ended best, obviously, as your fish are OK and now you can get that 75....

I. Love. The. Photo. Documentation!

 

[guppy12]

I cant imagin my brothers tank getting a hole in it- it is a 180 gallon.
Talk about a floood

 

[jbarr]

Aw what a sweetheart. You guys are great, even kept a photolog of such a disaster. You'll fit in great here, haha.

 

[ALittleSalty]

Just thought I would post an update on the tank situation. I finally picked up a 29 gallon from petsmart. (at least my hood and stand will still work) It was in brown trim, but that was easily fixed. I spent friday night painting the background and the botttom trim peice with some Rustoleum gloss black latex paint. After about 8 coats with a foam roller it came out pretty damn good. Then on saturday I started rinsing out my new substrate, I chose to use on bag of seachem flourite and mix it with my old black gravel I had. (couldn't wait for the eco complete to arrive, cuz the fish were pretty stressed out in the 5.5)

I have a good 2-2.5" bed in the tank now. I am running an XP1 filter with the spray bar and am running two lights at 20 watts a peice with aquaglow bulbs. I have added a peice of artificial driftwood along with my artificial tree root to make a nice center peice in the thanl. For right now I have my plastic plants back in, because I wanted the fish to feel a little more comfortable in the new tank. I am awaiting the cyle to occur before I put the fish back in. I will post some pics as soon as the cameras batteries recharge. Jon