Alenya
Active Member
My fish should be dead.
A few weeks ago my partner came upstairs looking anxious and said the words we all dread: "Sweetie, there's a leak in the tank! What do we do?"
A quick trip downstairs and my fears were confirmed, my Red Sea 250 had the bottom seam let go and water was spritzing onto the living room floor. Thankfully the gargling noise that heralds a time to top up the RO had sent us downstairs, though this time it had a been a more nefarious cause.
We quickly emptied the tank, and moved water to a spare 200l tank right next to the failing one. Rock went next and then our fish, though many made a scene, disgruntled about the sudden evacuation. Our chief fish, Puff Daddy, actually co-operated for once and sat in his jet plane civilly, a hastily repurposed ice cream container.
As we mopped up the mess, I realised that if this had happened during the week the tank would have let go and we would have lost all of our fish. Now I was lucky to watch them gossiping in the new tank. Puff Daddy, the Queen my marine betta both we have had since we started this journey years ago. It made me realise how attached we get to our little friends.
It was pretty clear we would need another tank. I put the bat signal out to the local community to get word of any tanks coming for sale. I could not justify $5k for a new one, as we were very skinny on funds after no work and changing jobs. I hoped someone had a system going for a good price.
After a little back and forth I secured a second hand CADE 1500 S1. A local reefer had bought a whole system to get the yellow tang. Yellow tangs used to be $100 in Australia but with the restrictions they have blown out to $1000, so he bought the system and them parted out the rest. I had dealt with him before so after a nice catchup, admiring his main tank and checking the CADE out we agreed on $700 for the tank with its return pump and the wave pumps and pump controllers. It has a few chips but nothing major, and he held it full of water so it's as good as it goes.
My plan right now is to get the tank moved to the new home (moving house is happening at the same time) and then work to get it ready to setup as a new tank. My fish will be moved to the new house and resign themselves to living in their condo until it's ready to go!
A few weeks ago my partner came upstairs looking anxious and said the words we all dread: "Sweetie, there's a leak in the tank! What do we do?"
A quick trip downstairs and my fears were confirmed, my Red Sea 250 had the bottom seam let go and water was spritzing onto the living room floor. Thankfully the gargling noise that heralds a time to top up the RO had sent us downstairs, though this time it had a been a more nefarious cause.
We quickly emptied the tank, and moved water to a spare 200l tank right next to the failing one. Rock went next and then our fish, though many made a scene, disgruntled about the sudden evacuation. Our chief fish, Puff Daddy, actually co-operated for once and sat in his jet plane civilly, a hastily repurposed ice cream container.
As we mopped up the mess, I realised that if this had happened during the week the tank would have let go and we would have lost all of our fish. Now I was lucky to watch them gossiping in the new tank. Puff Daddy, the Queen my marine betta both we have had since we started this journey years ago. It made me realise how attached we get to our little friends.
It was pretty clear we would need another tank. I put the bat signal out to the local community to get word of any tanks coming for sale. I could not justify $5k for a new one, as we were very skinny on funds after no work and changing jobs. I hoped someone had a system going for a good price.
After a little back and forth I secured a second hand CADE 1500 S1. A local reefer had bought a whole system to get the yellow tang. Yellow tangs used to be $100 in Australia but with the restrictions they have blown out to $1000, so he bought the system and them parted out the rest. I had dealt with him before so after a nice catchup, admiring his main tank and checking the CADE out we agreed on $700 for the tank with its return pump and the wave pumps and pump controllers. It has a few chips but nothing major, and he held it full of water so it's as good as it goes.
My plan right now is to get the tank moved to the new home (moving house is happening at the same time) and then work to get it ready to setup as a new tank. My fish will be moved to the new house and resign themselves to living in their condo until it's ready to go!
