tank sprung a leak..what to do

sir_dudeguy

Active member
ok so my 55 sprung a leak or something and water is about 5 or 10 gallons low...water all over floor and got into electrical stuff and its all fried. So i've gotta take the 55 apart asap.

I've got a 40 breeder thats been cycled for a while now and has 2 black clowns in it, so i dont want to put my other clown pair with it. But will the sixline be fine in the 40 breeder? I'm hoping so.

My brother has also got a 29g tank that the clown pair and about 25 lbs of rock will be going to.

But i've still got a diamond gobie that i dont know what to do with. The 40 breeder has like 4 inches of live sand and the rock is not touching the bottom. He'd cause a rockslide in a heartbeat. The 29 has just enough sand to cover the bottom so he wouldnt be able to burrow or eat anything in the sand...would he still be ok in there? I'm really unsure on that one.

Or maybe if someone wants him for like 15 bucks..idk..I need some suggestions on what to do with him.

All the corals will be going into my 40 breeder btw.

Thanks in advance all,
 
Sorry to hear about the leak. I think that's my number 2 fear, right after my teeth falling out, lol.

Sorry I don't have advice about the diamond goby, I'm not familiar with them.
 
not sure, if I didn't just setup my qtank for the zoo's I'd offer that to you. bad news tho, is it an acrylic or glass tank? and where's the leak? if its glass I can help you fix that if its not on the seams
 
yeah can we have a little more info on what happened. Sorry to hear about it im just down the road if you need some help.
 
hey I have a acrylic 55 with a stand and canopy I can sell you for $100. If you don't have the money right now you can pay me later but come get it asap so you don't lose anything.
 
Dude, just keep fish that will kill each other out of the same tank. Remember, these guys live in bags and then LFSs for quite some time in conditions that don't match their natural condition. Just throw in some PVC or anything they can hide in/behind. The goby should be able to live a couple of days without eating---they have to to make it from ocean to distributer to LFS to you. ALSO--you could take some sort of large tupperware container, load it with sand from the leaking tank, and slowly lower it to wherever you keep him. If you get a big one that's 4 inches or larger, he can dig into the sand. Good luck!
 
yeah can we have a little more info on what happened. Sorry to hear about it im just down the road if you need some help.

ya srry bout the lack of info. I was kinda rushin around trying to get stuff transfered. But as of right now...i'm pretty confused about what happened too. I mean, yesterday the tank was fine, and then i go in there a few hours ago (hadnt checked on it before then today tho, so it might have even started while i was at school or something..who knows)...but when i checked it a few hours ago, the water was like 5 inches too low, and i could smell burned plastic. So i look by the surge/power strip deally and that was completely fried, so water got into it i'm assuming. From that point on tho...i got no clue what happened lol. My heater cable along with one of my powerhead cables are completely melted to the power strip, and the wall behind the power strip is actually blackened, so i guess i'm pretty lucky the thing didnt catch fire...My room is detached from the house, so the house wouldnt have burned down, but still lol..

hey I have a acrylic 55 with a stand and canopy I can sell you for $100. If you don't have the money right now you can pay me later but come get it asap so you don't lose anything.

hey, thanks for the offer. I may take you up on that, but idk...i just gotta see how things turn out. I havent lost anything that i can tell...i've almost got all my corals over to the 40, and they're actually looking better (healthwise) in there than they ever did in the 55.

The clowns are just finishing acclimating to my brothers 29, so they'll be in there in a few minutes here..

The sixline...i'm thinkin he'll be kinda cool in the 40 anyways, so he's gonna start acclimating to that in a few minutes also. I guess the diamond gobie will have to stay in the rubbermaid with sand and a few rocks for a few days till i can find out what to do w/him. I do NOT wanna put him in my 40 or 29...he makes a damsel look VERY easy to catch...no joke, this thing is prolly the fastest (well at least the quickest moving) fish i've ever seen...that and he can fly for a few feet lol. He's pretty good sized too...maybe 5 inches..

I'm kinda seeing a good (if you can call it that) side of this tho. The 55 has been giving me a bit of trouble lately, so i'm thinking that by simplifying everything and just having the 40 breeder, it'll be a bit easier for now. I do plan to eventually get the 55 back up (probably the one from you jp) and starting it again, tho i dont know when. It'd give me a chance to start over with the tank (since i wasnt too pleased with how it was turning out lately), and to actually do it right and not the "cheap" way.

Thanks all for the advice and everything. I'm thinking that for now, the only thing left to do is to find out what to do with the diamond gobie, so if anyone wants him...make me an offer (or trade for...anything lol)

jp, i'll get back to you in a while about that tank...i still gotta figure out if mine is repairable or not. If not, then i'll more than likely get that tank from you.

thanks
 
A tupperware with holes drilled in it makes a handy cage. I use those plastic critter cages with a rock in them to keep them on the bottom.
 
oh, and you actually have it in the tank still? Like if i were to get a small one (how small could i get?? 2 gallons? Again, just temporary) And filled it with sand, a rock to burrow under, and then just put it in my 40 and make it sink....is that what you mean? That way the diamond gobie gets better water and everything, but i dont have to worry bout catching him from my main tank.
 
Ok so tomorrow i'll probably get that. Maybe tonight if i get everything in their tanks..if not, he'll be in a rubbermaid w/sand and rock for the night.
 
Make sure you put a powerhead in the rubbermaid.

No worries about the tank. Let me know when you are ready. I will wait til I hear from you to put it up.
 
ok i got everything in its tanks now...sixline in the 40, clown pair in 29, all corals in 40 along with a couple pieces of rock, and all the rest of the live rock is in the 29.
So now the gobie is in the rubbermaid with a powerhead and a few pieces of lace rock that are prolly live by now...had em for 5 months or so and some sand.

Also in the rubbermaid is a crab that i found while taking the rock out...and i'm thinkin he's bad. I dont have a pic of him right now cuz he hurried into a hole in the rock, but i'm pretty sure i've seen that crab in my button polyps, and now that i'm thinking about it, when i first saw him was about the time that the polyps started falling off and losing color.

The crab is about the size and shape of an emerald crab, only he doesnt have fuzzy legs, and he looked kinda reddish/brown from the 2 seconds i saw him...any ideas on what he is?

jp, thanks thats cool. I will more than likely be getting that one from you, i just gotta find out for sure..i should know by the end of this weekend at the latest. Is that tank drilled by any chance? no biggie if its not, as the one i got isnt..just curious. I'm pretty sure i'd do a sump on this one (one thing i'm mad i didnt do in my 55), so i'll just get a HOB if its not drilled.

So if anyone wants a 5 or so inch diamond gobie, lmk...otherwise i'm just gonna have to take him back to the lfs and get like 5 bucks for him lol. I just really dont think he's right for the 40 and/or 29 (and i'm not gonna take those 2 tanks apart to catch him..those tanks actually came out looking pretty good now)
 
jp, thanks thats cool. I will more than likely be getting that one from you, i just gotta find out for sure..i should know by the end of this weekend at the latest. Is that tank drilled by any chance? no biggie if its not, as the one i got isnt..just curious. I'm pretty sure i'd do a sump on this one (one thing i'm mad i didnt do in my 55), so i'll just get a HOB if its not drilled.
You can drill acrylic yourself
 
I've been considering a Diamond Goby so maybe I can buy or trade for this one. Where are you in Mesa (I'm in Chandler)? How much does it burrow? How well does it 'clean' your sand?
 
the diamond goby was in a 1.5-2 inch (2 would be the max tho) sand bed. For the most part, he just picked one rock to burrow under..it was the rock that he went to when i put him in there...so idk..maybe if you've got a spot that you think would be cool for him you could put him in in that area of the tank lol. I dont know if that really works, but thats what he did. As far as cleaning the sand, its amazing. my sand was having a really bad algae outbreak which is the main reason i got him. The first few days he didnt really do much..just kinda hid under his hole. But then the next morning i checked it out and half of the sand was now clean. The next day, the other half was. He seemed to clean it later in the day...maybe like he was waiting for it to build up as much as it would or something.

As of right now tho, someone else has already claimed it, but if that falls thru i'll let you know. But my crossroads are stapley and the 60.
 
well i'm an idiot...

all was good and everything was still living. All the corals are doing fine (tho the xenia still isnt opening all the way..but thats always been really touchy anyways). All the fish took the transfer perfectly fine...EXCEPT my sixline. He did fine with the transfer..then i was feeding the tank and he chased a piece of the flake...right up a powerhead intake. So needless to say, his head got pretty banged up and hes gone now.

But does anyone have the little cover things that go over a maxijet powerhead intake so i can prevent this from happening again?? I went to aquarium arts and they dont have them...i'd have to buy a whole new pump just to get that one little piece.
 
I have the whole package that came with a Maxi Jet and it has both of the covers if you want it.
 
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