Waaaaay back in January, New Year's day to be exact, and after a long night of celebration, I woke at 6:00am to the sound of water. I listened to it for a while trying to figure out what it was. "Is that one of our fountains? No, it's Zak splashing in his water bowl. Wow, he's really splashing a lot." I tought. "And so rhthmically". "Wait a second...something isn't right." I jump out of bed and open the door to the room where the sound is coming from. The same room that has my two aquariums set up. One is a 30 gallon and the other a 60 gallon. My first step into the room was a wet one. I know immediately what's happening- aquarium leak! I'm not ready to deal with this considering the previous night's activities. But trouble doesn't usually come when you're ready for it. So I flip on the light and luckily there's only about a quart of water on the tile floor. I'm thankful for two things at this point even though my mind is still a little fuzzy from the Southern Comfort. Thing one: we have very little carpet in our home. Thing two: we were home when this happened.
I run downstairs and out to the garage. I grab two five gallon buckets (very handy to keep around) and head back up. Very luckily, the water was dripping (flowing is more like it at this point) in a way that I was able to catch the water in the bucket. The leak was getting worse and the water coming out faster. There was nothing to do really except go downstairs and make coffee. I spent the rest of the morning letting it drain out and emptying the buckets when they were full. Towards the end I kept one bucket of water and transfered the fish into it. They were donated the next day to one of the local pet stores. The 30 gallon tank found itself on the curb and is now part of the landfill.
Here's the interesting part to me. First of all, I don't recommend ever having an aquarium on the second floor of a home. If that tank had drained out while we were away that would have been a major disaster for the first floor ceiling and walls. Probably would have cost thousands to repair. Second, just the day before this tank began to leak, I had set up my big 60 gallon tank. After the close call of the first leak I decided it was a sign that I shouldn't have 90 gallons of potential destruction set up to blow. So I drained that tank with a vacuum tube out the window and put that tank up for sale at the same local pet store. No more fish in our house.
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8 comments:
whoah! Have had fish all my life, and despite being worried about a leak like you describe, I have never had one. (knocking on lots of wood).
Beefcakes, I wandered over here today after reading your comment on Kal's blog. I love your lay out and I did read this post here. However, I guess I must be getting old at 46 because the size of the font and the blue background has me squinting, despite my glasses on my nose.
Sounds like quite an experience you had there!
I was picturing the whole incident in my head as I was reading it! Priceless!!
LOL @ Beefcake's response to Voila's comment. Big and bright - that ought to do it! LOL
Beefcakes, did you change this just for me? How sweet! I can read it now! Thank you! :-)
Viola,
Yes, after your comment I thought, "You know, she's right. My font is small" So I just started playing around with it and found all those neto colors- which will be changed some soon. My wife's comment was, "It hurts my eyes and makes me want to vomit."
Beefcakes, thank you so much! And you have now won me over to come over after I check Kal's blog and read yours.
With a comment like that, I like your wife already!
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