Well, I say 'Fish bowl.......'
I Joined this site less than a year ago and it got me really addicted to fish again. My setup at the time was a 4ft tank that already held my 10" Jaguar Cichlid, 12" L001 Pleco, and 5 6" Silver Dollars, so there was no way anything else was going into there!
I started pricing up new larger tanks and spoke to a couple of shops for prices on custom 5'x2'x2' setups (I would have prefered a 6'x2'x2' but i was thinking of my wallet for a change.) I got a couple of quotes when a friend on here suddenly said just before Christmas 'Does anyone here want to buy my old 6'x2'x2'? I need to make space for a new larger tank, make me an offer.' Result! So in January i found myself hiring a van and driving the 200 miles from Norwich to Halifax to pick up a tank, stand, lid, heaters and air pumps, and 4 rare fish i'd also agreed to buy at the same time. I was due to stop half way back at a friends for a break for the night so brought a filter to go in with the fish when i stopped to keep them happy.
I arrived in Halifax, then it all started to go wrong!
It started when i cut a finger very deeply and badly trying to lift the tank into the van. That finger bled for 2 days afterwards! luckily the friend i was staying with on the way back to my house was a military medic and she 'borrowed' some supplys from work ready for when i got there. Sadly, despite my best efforts to keep them comfortable the 4 fish i bought (2x Hampala Barb, 1x Hard Lipped Barb, and 1x Ornate Pim) all died overnight
I got back to my house to find one of my SD's had died during the night while i'd been away too. I made the mistake of thinking 'How could it possibly get any worse?'......................... The guy helping me carry the tank in noticed the tiny chip in the corner i'd cut myself on had grown quite a bit and now an entire corner was missing.
@"£$&!^@:!!!!
Due to the design of the tank i couldn't reach the corner from the inside, so i smiled very very nicely at my girlfriend who agreed to get into the tank with a tube of silicone and patch the hole. First attempt didn't work. (having never tried to fix a tank before we weren't totally sure what we were doing!) So, she climbed in there for a second time, cut away all the silicone around the problem area and found that the chip in the corner made about a 1cm square hole in the tank. Not good. A quick phone call to my dad who works in the offshore survey industry and he advised using a piece of glass covered in silicone to 'cork' the hole then cover the whole lot in more silicone. Brilliant. I doubled up on that idea so the tank was now fixed with bits of broken rum bottle. My girlfriend noticed small crack going around the same corner while we were doing the repair so that got covered in silicone too. We used a different type of silicone on this second attempt which gave off much stronger fumes and i had call off my poor suffering girlfriend about half an hour after i'd taken her home saying her dad had just taken her to the doctors has she had really terrible migrain from it and was having trouble breathing.............Oh S***!
luckily she was ok, i grovelled a lot and promised to make it up to her. we put water into the tank a couple of days later and amazingly it seemed to be holding! the water level was increased and brought up to temperature, one of the 2 new eheim filters was plumbed in and fired up and the fish were moved over. still no sign of a leak a couple of days after that so we went to the LFS to buy some more fish. Got back with the new fish and before I put them in I noticed the towel I'd put under the corner 'just incase' was damp.
(fill space with appropriate swear words)
So, the old tank was re-filled, all the fish were quickly moved back into it, the other new eheim was fitted to it to over filter it due to the now very overstocked level of fish in there. The new tank was drained again. I went to the local B&Q Warehouse for a big tube of sealant nd a calking gun this time, no more tiny tubes of aquarium sealant from Pets at Home! The sealant i found (pic attached), was not anti-mould, and had one other major difference compared to the near identical tube of selant that was entitled 'general purpose' rather than the 'sanitary' i got: Limitations on the general purpose were "not suitable for overpainting, not suitable for use with aquaria." The sanitary limitations list was "not suitable for overpainting." No mention of aquarium use. Result!
There was no way i was letting the girlfriend get back in there after the last time, and as the leak was just a tiny piece of seeping which appeared to be coming from the crack i just lifted up and sealed it on the outside. I decided that if this didn't work then i was going to get help.
It didn't work. but strangly the leak appeared to now be in a different place and there was a drip coming off the frame so just placed a bucket beneath it. It would have taken a couple of months for that bucket to fill, but still, not good! The fish were all moved back over so they'd have more space. Now, just to add to the fun, i'm a single man in the RAF living in a house that occasionally the boss likes to come and inspect. Just as i was thinking 'now would be a really really bad time for a house inspection' I received an email: "There's a house inspection next week."
(more swearing)
So i went to see one of the tank builders i'd spoken to before i went to buy this tank to plead for help. I explained the whole issue, where the hole was, where the crack was, what silicone i had etc etc. He was very good, he gave me a spare plate of glass from a tank he was in the middle of building and gave me very clear instructions on how to fit for maximum strength. The girlfriend got back into the tank again and did all the work in there against all my protests about her getting back in. The big tube of silicone i had didn't give off as many fumes tho so she was ok this time.
It worked! the tank and was filled and the fish moved 2 days before the inspection, the work colleage that helpped me move the tank into the house came and collected my old one for his house (he's paying me a bottle of rum for it later today.) The inspection went well, the boss spent more time looking at the fish than the rest of the house. As soon as he left I went straight over to the B&Q Warehouse again to pick up lots of wood to fill in the metal frame and to build a new lid. The old lid wasn't in the best of conditions and didn't match the rest of my furniture so I stripped it for anything useful and it will soon be on it's way to my parents house and find a use in their wood burner. The frame was filled where it stood with a tank full of water on, not the easiest way to work! The lid could be built away from the tank but i needed help to lift it on when it was finished as it was just too heavy and awkward to do on my own.
So, it's all done now apart from a couple of bits of edging on the wood and cable tidying. There was a couple of times i just felt like giving up on it all (there was another MFK friend with a big tank on standby ready to take all my fish) and letting my girlfriend take a hammer too it, it's put her right off getting a tank of her own! I did think at one point of putting doors on the frame but it does match my tv table i made last year as it is at the moment so i think it's staying as it is.
None of any that happened is the guy that sold me the tanks fault (so stop feeling guilty Tom! I know it held water at yours as there was still some in when i got there!)
My current stock is now:
1x Jaguar Cichlid
1x L001 Pleco
4x Silver Dollars
1x Red Tailed Black Shark
1x Red Devil
1x Green Terror
1x TSN
1x Lima SN
1x Pim Pictus
At the tank in work waiting to go in when they've grown a little more is:
1x Girrafe Nosed Cat Fish
1x Common Pleco
1x Albino pleco
Yes i know some of those fish will out grow that tank, but that's not their home for life. Any comments of 'those fish will out grow that tank' can expect a very sarcastic p*sstake reply. Same goes for anyone that flames Tom for selling me a 'faulty' tank!
Now some progress pics for ya!
1: First repair attempt
2: Sitting Empty while first repair sets
3-5: Second repair attempt
6: Taking water when it looked like it may have been sealed
7: The Jaguar gets to experience his new home for the first time
8: The sealant used for sealing attempts 3 and 4
9: The forth and final seal. Looks a lot better!
10: Finally sealed, both filters working. The temporary lid is on until the inspection is over.
Frame, Lid, and completed pics to appear shortly.
I Joined this site less than a year ago and it got me really addicted to fish again. My setup at the time was a 4ft tank that already held my 10" Jaguar Cichlid, 12" L001 Pleco, and 5 6" Silver Dollars, so there was no way anything else was going into there!
I started pricing up new larger tanks and spoke to a couple of shops for prices on custom 5'x2'x2' setups (I would have prefered a 6'x2'x2' but i was thinking of my wallet for a change.) I got a couple of quotes when a friend on here suddenly said just before Christmas 'Does anyone here want to buy my old 6'x2'x2'? I need to make space for a new larger tank, make me an offer.' Result! So in January i found myself hiring a van and driving the 200 miles from Norwich to Halifax to pick up a tank, stand, lid, heaters and air pumps, and 4 rare fish i'd also agreed to buy at the same time. I was due to stop half way back at a friends for a break for the night so brought a filter to go in with the fish when i stopped to keep them happy.
I arrived in Halifax, then it all started to go wrong!
It started when i cut a finger very deeply and badly trying to lift the tank into the van. That finger bled for 2 days afterwards! luckily the friend i was staying with on the way back to my house was a military medic and she 'borrowed' some supplys from work ready for when i got there. Sadly, despite my best efforts to keep them comfortable the 4 fish i bought (2x Hampala Barb, 1x Hard Lipped Barb, and 1x Ornate Pim) all died overnight
I got back to my house to find one of my SD's had died during the night while i'd been away too. I made the mistake of thinking 'How could it possibly get any worse?'......................... The guy helping me carry the tank in noticed the tiny chip in the corner i'd cut myself on had grown quite a bit and now an entire corner was missing.
@"£$&!^@:!!!!
Due to the design of the tank i couldn't reach the corner from the inside, so i smiled very very nicely at my girlfriend who agreed to get into the tank with a tube of silicone and patch the hole. First attempt didn't work. (having never tried to fix a tank before we weren't totally sure what we were doing!) So, she climbed in there for a second time, cut away all the silicone around the problem area and found that the chip in the corner made about a 1cm square hole in the tank. Not good. A quick phone call to my dad who works in the offshore survey industry and he advised using a piece of glass covered in silicone to 'cork' the hole then cover the whole lot in more silicone. Brilliant. I doubled up on that idea so the tank was now fixed with bits of broken rum bottle. My girlfriend noticed small crack going around the same corner while we were doing the repair so that got covered in silicone too. We used a different type of silicone on this second attempt which gave off much stronger fumes and i had call off my poor suffering girlfriend about half an hour after i'd taken her home saying her dad had just taken her to the doctors has she had really terrible migrain from it and was having trouble breathing.............Oh S***!
luckily she was ok, i grovelled a lot and promised to make it up to her. we put water into the tank a couple of days later and amazingly it seemed to be holding! the water level was increased and brought up to temperature, one of the 2 new eheim filters was plumbed in and fired up and the fish were moved over. still no sign of a leak a couple of days after that so we went to the LFS to buy some more fish. Got back with the new fish and before I put them in I noticed the towel I'd put under the corner 'just incase' was damp.
(fill space with appropriate swear words)
So, the old tank was re-filled, all the fish were quickly moved back into it, the other new eheim was fitted to it to over filter it due to the now very overstocked level of fish in there. The new tank was drained again. I went to the local B&Q Warehouse for a big tube of sealant nd a calking gun this time, no more tiny tubes of aquarium sealant from Pets at Home! The sealant i found (pic attached), was not anti-mould, and had one other major difference compared to the near identical tube of selant that was entitled 'general purpose' rather than the 'sanitary' i got: Limitations on the general purpose were "not suitable for overpainting, not suitable for use with aquaria." The sanitary limitations list was "not suitable for overpainting." No mention of aquarium use. Result!
There was no way i was letting the girlfriend get back in there after the last time, and as the leak was just a tiny piece of seeping which appeared to be coming from the crack i just lifted up and sealed it on the outside. I decided that if this didn't work then i was going to get help.
It didn't work. but strangly the leak appeared to now be in a different place and there was a drip coming off the frame so just placed a bucket beneath it. It would have taken a couple of months for that bucket to fill, but still, not good! The fish were all moved back over so they'd have more space. Now, just to add to the fun, i'm a single man in the RAF living in a house that occasionally the boss likes to come and inspect. Just as i was thinking 'now would be a really really bad time for a house inspection' I received an email: "There's a house inspection next week."
(more swearing)
So i went to see one of the tank builders i'd spoken to before i went to buy this tank to plead for help. I explained the whole issue, where the hole was, where the crack was, what silicone i had etc etc. He was very good, he gave me a spare plate of glass from a tank he was in the middle of building and gave me very clear instructions on how to fit for maximum strength. The girlfriend got back into the tank again and did all the work in there against all my protests about her getting back in. The big tube of silicone i had didn't give off as many fumes tho so she was ok this time.
It worked! the tank and was filled and the fish moved 2 days before the inspection, the work colleage that helpped me move the tank into the house came and collected my old one for his house (he's paying me a bottle of rum for it later today.) The inspection went well, the boss spent more time looking at the fish than the rest of the house. As soon as he left I went straight over to the B&Q Warehouse again to pick up lots of wood to fill in the metal frame and to build a new lid. The old lid wasn't in the best of conditions and didn't match the rest of my furniture so I stripped it for anything useful and it will soon be on it's way to my parents house and find a use in their wood burner. The frame was filled where it stood with a tank full of water on, not the easiest way to work! The lid could be built away from the tank but i needed help to lift it on when it was finished as it was just too heavy and awkward to do on my own.
So, it's all done now apart from a couple of bits of edging on the wood and cable tidying. There was a couple of times i just felt like giving up on it all (there was another MFK friend with a big tank on standby ready to take all my fish) and letting my girlfriend take a hammer too it, it's put her right off getting a tank of her own! I did think at one point of putting doors on the frame but it does match my tv table i made last year as it is at the moment so i think it's staying as it is.
None of any that happened is the guy that sold me the tanks fault (so stop feeling guilty Tom! I know it held water at yours as there was still some in when i got there!)
My current stock is now:
1x Jaguar Cichlid
1x L001 Pleco
4x Silver Dollars
1x Red Tailed Black Shark
1x Red Devil
1x Green Terror
1x TSN
1x Lima SN
1x Pim Pictus
At the tank in work waiting to go in when they've grown a little more is:
1x Girrafe Nosed Cat Fish
1x Common Pleco
1x Albino pleco
Yes i know some of those fish will out grow that tank, but that's not their home for life. Any comments of 'those fish will out grow that tank' can expect a very sarcastic p*sstake reply. Same goes for anyone that flames Tom for selling me a 'faulty' tank!
Now some progress pics for ya!
1: First repair attempt
2: Sitting Empty while first repair sets
3-5: Second repair attempt
6: Taking water when it looked like it may have been sealed
7: The Jaguar gets to experience his new home for the first time
8: The sealant used for sealing attempts 3 and 4
9: The forth and final seal. Looks a lot better!
10: Finally sealed, both filters working. The temporary lid is on until the inspection is over.
Frame, Lid, and completed pics to appear shortly.
)
