The Puffer Forum

This morning before school i heard what sounded like a running shower in my room. i ran in to find that the back of my tank had split from the top to bottom on the back of the tank. I coudnt stop the flow of water so i put a bin underneath the tank to catch the water and began draining water from the tank into my water change buckets. I put a heater and bubbler into one of the five gallon buckets and out my fish into it. im getting another ready to transfer some of the fish into it. i have six neon tetras, two cardinal tetras, two strawberry tetras, four fancy tailed guppies, two glass catfish, a mommy and baby platy, and four ghost shrimp. I'm in a state of panic. i have a twenty gallon tank in the basement but i havent used it before. im thinking ill clean it fill it with water see if it holds, if so set it up and put the fish into it ASAP. is this a good plan? what else should i do? i also have a ten gallon not being used. and i have a seven gallon with a beta fish in it (i could possibly do some fish juggling?) Im not sure what to do. i have three working heaters and two air pumps. two working filters but was is used by the beta. help me please.

Yup, do that. Move the filter & decor over too, in addition to the substrate. How big it the tank?

I hate that sound...

okay. the tank that broke was a 30. one filter is working. im trying to get the other to work. its seems to be having problems. they seem to be okay so far. its kind of hard to see in the bucket though. ill work on getting that twenty ready

I think that if u get the 20 cleaned and move the sand plants and other stuff over to it you come an end. especially if the 30 was a stable tank.

Test the water tonight and do a nice waterchange.

The worst nightmare of evry fishhobbyist. Good luck!

I can't help with this, sorry, but now I'm going to worry about my tank... is there a way to prevent something like this from happening?

edit: This makes me want to waterproof my stand and make some kind of water catcher all around it!

thanks, I hope all goes well. the twenty seems to be holding.

One thing you can do is to never, ever, ever move a tank with ANY water in it.

Pufferpunk wrote:One thing you can do is to never, ever, ever move a tank with ANY water in it.

ok, thanks, but I have done that and it was because I thought the substrate has to stay wet or the good bacteria will die... it was only to the other side of my room, anyway...

Substrate will stay wet if it's just wet. Even moving a few inches can stress the glass.

Pufferpunk wrote:Substrate will stay wet if it's just wet. Even moving a few inches can stress the glass.

ok, thanks, so it should be ok to move a tank with just the substrate in it? or would i have to take that all out of it? sorry about hijacking the topic, but im going to move at the end of the year and i want my tanks and everything to get to a new home safely!

when i move a tank in the same room just a short distance i empty to where it is just the substrate that has water on it and slide the tank and stand together, not lift it off. but if i move from house to house i use rubbermaid tubs and completely empty the tanks including the substrate into a water filled tub. when i moved my 75 that tub was like 100-150 lbs with the substrate in it and a little water... lol luckily i got 45 gal tubs with wheels so i can roll while its on flat ground and just lift over any door frames. luckily there were no steps from the driveway to the kitchen just one the entry way step

My 110gallon scares the crap out of me! I even had a dream the other night (more like nightmare) that I found a huge crack in it!!!! Good luck!

thanks! the twenty gallon is almost fish ready. hopefully they are still holding up okay.

so as if this day cant get any worse. my good filter wasnt working so i asked my dad to look at it. he doesnt know much about fish but he's good at fixing things so i figured it wouldnt hurt. he came back into my room and the filter cartrage looked like new. i asked him why. he rinsed it out. in tap water. chlorinated tap water. what do i do????

not much you can do just use it and keep a really close eye on water parims and get ready incase it want to cycle again, good luck mate im dealing with a cracked tank at mo so feel your pain. regular waterchanges and the like will be up and running in no time.