Dumbs things I've done to my fish tanks today

[Sum22]

While doing my daily water changes, I set the glass top to my 29g on the ground and guess what? I stepped on it, cracking the glass and grinding slivers into the towel I placed it on.

Sigh, I shouldn't work on my tanks when I'm tired.

Oh and I forgot to add that I keep forgetting to plug in the heater when I'm done, so I'm sure I'll freeze my fish to death at some point this winter.....

 

[Zagz]

I do both of these things. I've had extra glass made so that I have spares on hand.

I make sure I always double check the heater as I have forgotten more than once.

Don't feel dumb, we've all done it.

 

[Sum22]

Thanks for the understanding. Extra glass is probably a good idea.

I went for the full hood. It was all they had at the 3 pet stores I visited. It wasn't all bad though since my light had a short in it and it still didn't work right even after I tested it with another bulb and fuse.

 

[Sum22]

Ooooo, I got a new one. My cat knocked the siphon tube out of the bucket. Guess where 3-4 gallons of water ended up? Hopefully, it wasn't enough to damage the apartment below me......

 

[Zagz]

ROFL sorry I have 5 cats and can relate to that too. I am sure it won't damage the apt below you.

 

[saffikeagan]

Yes, cats can be the bain of a fishtank! I had my hood cattycorner the other day while doing some maintenance and my one cat jumped on the hood to get a drink of water. Yup, everything went everywhere!

 

[korith]

Ooooo, I got a new one. My cat knocked the siphon tube out of the bucket. Guess where 3-4 gallons of water ended up? Hopefully, it wasn't enough to damage the apartment below me......

My downstairs neighbour helped me carry my tank and stand to my apartment, he commented if this thing tips over it'll be raining in his apartment.

After I filled the tank his words kept haunting me, so now the stand is braced onto the wall with 2 heavy duty brackets!

 

[Sombunya]

Built a hood for my 40 gallon unit. Had a nice aquatic light in it, a small night light, fan to ventilate and a set of switches so I could completely control the air pump, filters, lights etc. A masterpiece, I thought.

I sealed the electrical boxes with tub and tile caulk. Waterproof, right? Well I guess I didn't let the stuff set up long enough. I come home the next day and there's a bunch of white stuff on the gravel at the bottom, water kind of cloudy. I freaked. Got two buckets of de-chlored water and put all of my Bluegill and Sculpin in there. Drained the the tank and took it out on the front lawn and spent a half hour cleaning it. Replaced ALL of the media in my Aquacleaar 110 filter and had to cycle it all from the start, with 12 fish in it.

Lucky for me (and the fish) that the stuff was apparantly non-toxic. They're all fine, and I have two pieces of glass on top, for now.

 

[jrp1588]

hmm, I know a lot of tub and tile caulk has anti-mold ingredients in it. Probably not the best thing to be using in an aquarium

 

[marchmaxima]

came home to find the glass top broken into three pieces and laying at the bottom of the aquarium. A water trail led straight to the culprit. One cat (see avatar) with a wet bum.

 

[Sum22]

You have to love cats and their ability to jump on things.

So I should state the goods things that have happened to my tanks. The 10g appears to have cycled - 2 days with 0 ammonia and nitrites.

My 29g is ALMOST there. I was doing daily water changes, but I couldn't get the nitrites low enough. I skipped the wc yesterday and checked it today, 50ppm. 2 days ago it was at 2ppm.

 

[Sum22]

Seriously, I'm having a string of bad fish tank luck. My cycle finished, so I brought home 5 glass catfish. I spent 3 hours acclimating them to the water in the tank. As soon as I pulled the bag out of the water to net the fish so I could add them to the tank, the seam on the bag split and they hit the floor....I picked them up as quickly as possible and tossed them into my tank. Hopefully, they aren't in too much shock from the trip home and their floor experience.

 

[OniTweak]

My cat jumped into my spare tank that I was curing my water in.

 

[fijiwigi]

I have made several dumb mistakes I bought my house 2 years ago it hard hard wood flooring in the kitchen.. that didn't last long after I had a few overflow/skimmer/powerhead issues. I laid some tile to replace the bowing hardwood and haven't had an issue since of course.

 

[reun]

i now have a heavy duty plastic hood on my 29 gallon instead of the glass hood. after the second time my cat jumped on it, broke it and fell in, i decided he wasnt going to learn and i didnt want to keep dropping 40 bucks on a glass cover.

 

[korith]

i now have a heavy duty plastic hood on my 29 gallon instead of the glass hood. after the second time my cat jumped on it, broke it and fell in, i decided he wasnt going to learn and i didnt want to keep dropping 40 bucks on a glass cover.

Time to find a tank to put the cat in.

 

[jdsunflower]

funny!

 

[Ziggy953]

Dumb things I've done...hmmmm....Read through my thread....LOL

As for the heater issue. I have 3 heaters on my system, 2 of them stay submerged all the time. One of them is in my fuge that I usually drain druing PWCs (20g) and I always forget to unplug the heater. So far it hasn't cracked on me but I always kick myself when I check the water level and see that red light and the heater not under water.....

 

[JohnPaul]

Oh and I forgot to add that I keep forgetting to plug in the heater when I'm done, so I'm sure I'll freeze my fish to death at some point this winter.....

I don't know if the Visitherm folks would recommend this as a regular approach, but the Visitherm Stealth heaters are all aluminum encased in a black plastic sheath. If you drain water out of the tank and forget to turn it off, the heater auto shuts off for you, and then when it gets re-submerged, it auto turns back on. Dr. Foster Smith has a big sale on them currently, in case you are interested, every size in the book for $20 or under. That's about half the price you normally see them selling for in most pet stores.