splix Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 I work mostly from home so I'm always around my tank. For the past week or so I've been hearing these little poping sounds coming from my tank. Nothing loud enough to warrant any worry. I was joking with my friend that I must have a pistole shrimp as a hitchhiker somewhere. Well Friday about 2pm I hear a loud pop, much louder than any animal inside the tank can make. I get up and go look at the tank and I notice the black panel around the edges is cracked in all corners, as well as I can now see water inside the silicon in one of the corners. I immediately go into freak out mode and text everyone tank related I know will immediately reply. They all said not good, Jeremy said drain it ASAP it's about to be really bad. I get my two large 40g water change bins, fill those up. I run to my friends house who has a 100g rubbermade and I transfer all live rock into that, fill that up about 3/4 way and transfer all livestock into it and another 40g bin. I get the tank drained in a matter of an hour. Usually I would take this opportunity to upgrade into something nice. I dont have that option this round since we're leaving for vacation this Friday. I have to find a tank and get it running stable for a few days so I know it'll be ok without any supervision for a week after. I find a tank on craigslist (no other options in my time rush) that is similar size (6' 125g) and now have that and my old tank in my garage by 8pm. The new tank isnt drilled and needs a really good cleaning, so thats what I'll be doing this morning. I'm hoping to have the new tank filled by tonight. I'm not going to rush it, but I'm going to get things done today haha. I'll post updates today and tomorrow as I make progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splix Posted February 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Here is how I am as of 8am this morning. Both tanks in the garage. I need to get the new one out and drill it, then clean it. Then I can start moving the stand and tank into the house and start setting it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Msr224 Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Good luck. That really stinks but glad that it happened BEFORE vacation and not during..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBugmaster Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 That stinks. Glad you were there and did not come home ta a empty tank and dead livestock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefer82 Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 I have a 150g stock tank you can use if you need to. Even have a spare metal halide setup you could toss over it if you don't have time to get everything completed on the 125. I've dealt with a failed seam. It sucks, I ran over to a room with water spraying out of my old 44g pentagon. It was a disaster but kind of funny to see it like a fountain. Lol. Luckily I was planning a tank upgrade and already had it in place, though wasn't planning to do that at 8pm in the middle of the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splix Posted February 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 I'm strongly considering slowing down and taking this time to do a basement sump project that I've been wanting to do for some time now. The fish are ok in the tote, which they'll probably stay in for about 2 weeks. I'll setup my apex and ATO on the tote and basically treat it like a full aquarium temporarily. I'm taking my SPS to modern for him to house while I'm going through all of this. Drilling and cleaning this tank and getting the basement work area setup will be the goal for today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatO Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 man. that sucks good plan with the stock tank. that would be my plan, just use the stock tank like a regular tank till you get you new one. stuff is already stressed from one swap. just make a little platform for a skimmer, maybe block off the intake so small fish/snails cant get in. you could even use a small trash can inside the stock tank to sit the skimmer in and have it overflow into the stock tank. that way the water level stays constant also. you can feed it with a maxijet. it keeps fish out, and most snails out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted February 6, 2016 Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 Good catch on the seam . I hope your new build goes smooth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splix Posted February 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 I'm thinking about not running a skimmer in the temp tank for the 2 weeks. I'll have carbon and GFO running to help keep the water clean. Is this a good idea or do I need to get to work on making a skimmer fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splix Posted February 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2016 My awesome 100g reef haha. I have my apex and ATO on it. Old tank completely out, new stand in. Going to start building the sump stand and get ready to figure out what all plumbing I need to run everything into the basement right below it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splix Posted February 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2016 Wow what a couple of days it's been. All plumbing done with the basement sump. All live rock is in the new tank. It's about 1/2 full with water, just enough to keep the live rock under. I was hoping to have the fish in it since now the rubbermade tote is live rock'less but the water isnt heating up fast enough. Hopefully everyone will be OK until the morning when the water will be warm enough for them to go into the new tank without creating ammonia like they are in the tote. edit: moved a few large pieces of live rock into the tote to give them something. They're now about pound for gallon of live rock in the tote. They will be good until the morning. Only casulities so far: melanarus wrasse. I can tell my green mandarin isnt doing so well. I doubt he'll make it very long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryansweet Posted February 9, 2016 Report Share Posted February 9, 2016 I just saw this thread. Glad you caught it before it busted. One of my biggest fears (especially living in a 3rd floor condo). Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splix Posted February 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2016 Thanks Ryan. I'm to the point that everything is 99% finished. As of last night the tank is up and running. I just have a few odds and ends to finish up like putting the dosers and auto-feeder on. Wiring isnt the greatest since I was in a rush but I can clean that up now that I have a few minutes. Everyone seems happy. Good news is that I found my melanurus wrasse! He didnt die after all. I forgot they burried in the sand. I had a couple tupperwares with sand in the temp tank for the inverts and sand star. He must have buried in there when I took out all the live rock to transfer into the large tank. The worst thing of the whole ordeal happened in the new tank. I think I had some rocks shift when the Kole Tang was trying to hide in them and now he's scratched and beaten up very badly. He's out and swimming but you can tell he's probably hurting bad since his swim motion isnt perfect and he's not darting around like normal. I believe he should be able to make it through though. With me deciding to make the move over to the basement sump this has been basically an entire new tank setup with all new plumbing and everything. 1 star rating, would not recommend doing it days before you leave on vacation. The tank is silent now though which is awesome. Now to clean up the mess I made....haha 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke33 Posted February 10, 2016 Report Share Posted February 10, 2016 Looks good! That looked like a lot of work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamC00 Posted February 10, 2016 Report Share Posted February 10, 2016 Looks Nice. Do you have any pictures of how the basement sump turned out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splix Posted February 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 Here is my quick and dirty basement sump setup. I'll expand on it a lot more later, but I had to get something setup asap. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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