My wife and I have a bow-front 70 gallon fish tank, the largest bow-front they make. Have had it for a long time and never had any issues out of it. Last night I had to clean up around 10 gallons of water on my hardwood floors. I have a industrial floor dryer going on the top and I'll drag the other one under the house later today. The stupid air pump we use for aeration somehow got back flowed and was puking water under the fish tank until my wife got up to use the bathroom at 4:30am and stepped in water. Stupid cats didn't do a Lassie and tell us something was wrong! I've never had a air pump back flow before and puke out water on the floor. What fish tank adventures have you had?
Fish tanks, who messes with them?
- Thread starter sc00ter
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fauconnier
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- Canada
il Munduato
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- USA
I had a 155g bow front for many a year before they stopped making them. Sold it with a leak for almost what I paid for it as I didn't trust myself to do a proper repair and being recently discontinued it was in demand.
As the previous post suggested, yes a check valve on your air pump.
That and place the air pump above the water line when possible.
As the previous post suggested, yes a check valve on your air pump.
That and place the air pump above the water line when possible.
il Munduato
Active Member
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- USA
I'll also add there's a slew of water/leak detection available now a days that can be tied into home automation for audible and cellular notification.
My setups are continuous water drip to handle water changes and this is what I'm using that is 25+ year old tech which has worked flawlessly.
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My setups are continuous water drip to handle water changes and this is what I'm using that is 25+ year old tech which has worked flawlessly.
. I realized I had the check valve on a disconnected air line! Live and learn (the hard way). This isn't the first time I've had water problems l. Major roof leak during a hurricane flooded the same floor. Dropping a 5 gallon water bucket once on the same floor a year later. The one thing I did learn you ask? Keep 2 industrial floor dryers on stand-by! And don't trip while carrying a 5 gallon bucket of water!
Il Munduato, that tank looked nice! I tried sand before but it was so much trouble. I've never fully tried salt water. I'm obsessed with sea horses though! One day I'll give salt a try so I can have sea horses. I have normal fish right now. I'll get a picture up later of my tank.
BlackHand
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- USA
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- Western WA
I stopped keeping fish when kids came along, but had several misadventures with aquariums over the years.
In grad school we woke up on Thanksgiving morning to find my saltwater tank empty and the carpet soaked. I think that was a 38g or 45g. We moved the tank out on the 45F cold porch and spent a couple hours dealing the apartment. Eventually got around to cleaning the tank later that day and was amazed that a blenny started squirming when I picked him up! We dumped Lazarus into my roommate's little 10g quarantine tank and he made himself right at home.
The second incarnation of that tank faced an extinction level event about a year later when we lost electricity for about 10 days from a hurricane.
The third incarnation successful. Lots of coralline algae and polyps, mushrooms and feather dusters. Was sad to break it down when I moved away.
kevinmccune
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- USA
when you get older you start thinking about never acquiring anything that eats,needs paint,watering etc,i had to fish a dead floater out of my absentees daughter fish tank the other day,then watching the the 3 acres of grass starting to need trimming again after the protracted rains,makes me understand the concept of downsizing- funny thing at my casa there have been a lot of different snakes lately( at least they required no maintenance-had to relocate a black rattlesnake i almost stepped on,so it goes) what kind of fish you all keep? i suppose the chickens are attracting rodents, which are attracting snakes,i never kill a snake these days either relocate or shoo away,was snakebit once and apparently there was so little venom injected it only looked like a blood bruise.it sucks to have a flooded house my grandson has flooded my house at least twice( as granny said"love to see them come,love to see them go"-adios
We had normal fresh water fish at first in a 45 gallon hexagon tank. Somehow a cichlid ended up in the tank and we up sized to the 70 gallon for the cichlids. Then the cichlids got HUGE and we surrendered them to a local fish only pet store and have normal fresh water fish again. I personally love fish tanks and find them very relaxing. But I sometimes curse them and just want to walk away.
Grandson flooding the house, let me tell you a quick story. Forgive me if this sounds awful but I'm gonna put it out there. My wife's sister lives near us and has had her grandson get dumped on her all the time because the parents are lazy bums. The grandson has autism and his thing is yelling splash! He would clog the toilet and flush it, flooding grandmas house a bunch of times. I was like "I'd beat his a$$ and make him think twice about flooding next time!" but everyone got mad at me saying he has a disability and he doesn't know what he's doing. Then I told grandma I'd make the bum parents leave a $1000 cash deposit every time they dumped this kid on her to cover damage. You get the $1000 back if no damage occurs. She could never do that! She tolerated this kid "splashing" way to many times until the parents and the kid moved across the country. The kid is older now but he came over to our house with grandma to visit recently. My wife saw him look at our fish tank and she flat out said if he touches it she will shoot him. He understood that and resisted touching it during his visit.
Bonus about this kid. His parents bought this 2 story house in a decent neighborhood and the kid flooded the upstairs so bad water was coming down EVERY wall inside the house! It not only caused mold issues but electrical issues, and they were only in the house like 3 months! Then, icing on the cake, the kid pushed a lawnmower in the in-ground swimming pool, destroying the lining of the pool. The parents wanted me to ask a friend to reline the pool (friend owns a business re-lining swimming pools, I'll help him during the busy season) but I refused. The kids parents are bums and would find a way to weasel out of paying him. Anyways, I still think a few stiff beatings would have fixed this problem awhile ago but everyone said I'm insensitive and cruel. Whatever....
Sorry so long!
kevinmccune
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- Region
- USA
no need to apologize,my little hero has tasted the "switch" a time or two,he seems to respond to that smacking on the butt seems to bother him very little,he has a genius for disassembling anything mechanical am hoping when the terrible twos pass i can get him in order,he is going to be something due to his fathers dna he seems to have double strength on the moms side is where the smarts come from apparently- my nickname is
'pa-pop" and he is due to show up today(have to take the handles off the tub faucet) just installed a key lock on my closet( he would love to be in there) and a pass lock on one of the exterior doors.
kevinmccune
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- Region
- USA
makes you understand why some remain childless.
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