Had a bit of a disaster this last 2 days

I got up early to go to my aunty's to do some jobs for her like mowing lawn, tidying garden and a few other little jobs in the house. I got up early at 7am and drove to her house which is 1.5 hours away on a good trip and more depending on the M25 (mostly its more).

So i got there a 9am and started the jobs and i get a phoe call from my girlfrend in a panic at 10am. My 180g fish tank was emptying and had only about 30% of the water left and there was water everywhere!!!! I calmed her down and got her to look for where it was leaking(i was praying it was the filters and not at the bottom of the tank). It turned out the outlet from my FX5 had come off and had dumped the water next to the tank. My tank is under the stairs and the filters to the left!!!! Luckily for me i had set the filter intake about 5inches from the bottom of the tank just in case of this sort of thing so that the fish would have enough water to live in.

The water was ankle deep in places and my extension lead was resting on the floor so i got her to turn the mains power of and then to turn the extension leads off at the wall. She refilled the tank with water (she added dechlorinator) and got the vax out and sucked up the water from the floor. i worked out there was roughly 130g water on the floor.

So i drive back home to find my house in an absolute state. The carpet in the hallway and living room were soaked (no flooring in the dining room). The door to the kitchen and the kickboards in the kitchen were swollen and ruined and various shoes were in the garden drying.

Now this would normally piss me off, especially the ruined stuff. but i have been here before. About 3 months ago my dishwasher leaked and had already ruined this stuff. I claimed on the insurance but didnt want the carpets replaced straight away as we are having an extension built soon (its currently at the building control stage), which is why we have no carpet in the dining room, we had just finished decorating and about to buy carpet when we decided to put the extension on. Well the insurance company paid me the cash and said get them replaced whenever you want.

The problem with the filter pipe was that it must of worked itself lose. I hadnt used the piece of plastic to hold the pipe in a inverted u shape as it didnt fit my tank(the tank supports where in the way). So i cut the plastic to fit and fixed the filter, ripped up the carpet and took it too the dump. Then i went back to my auntys and got there for 9pm

The next day i get all the jobs done at my auntys and at about 8pm i get another phone call telling me some fish were dead, some fish were gasping at the surface and others were rolling around the bottom and breathing heavily. She couldnt get hold of me so she caught all of them and put them in my 100g. Some were so near death that they offered no resitance when caught. so i rushed back home instead of having a nice evening with my aunty.

What had happened was when she turned the power off the previous day the water in the tank had syphoned back down the airpump tubes and got into the airpump, and i didnt notice it wasnt working. Water didnt leak from it but it didnt work. So by the time she got home today the fish had run out of oxygen. The annoying thing is that i have some spare air pumps!!!!!

Now for the funny overstocking thing.

Stock list for my 100g- 2 7inch oscar, 1 3inch salvini, 1 10" goe brazil, 2 4 inch bristle nose plec and 2 4inch hoplo cats

Surving stock list for my 180g which was also in the 100g. 1 13" jag, 1 14" syphilum, 5 6" SD's, 1 6" severum, 1 10" silver shark, 11 CL's varying in size from 4" to 5", 1 6in double spot acara and a 7"plec

Now that is what you call overstocking
I should of took a picture but i wanted to get them back in their tank in a hurry

The fish i lost were 1 10" silver shark, 1 6" silver dollar, 2 6" fronts and 4 CL's varying in size from 6" to 8"

As you can imagine i am gutted at losing these fish, especially as it was my fault

The lesson to learn from this-

1- Make sure you filter intakes are high enough so that if you get a massive leak, the fish will still be covered with water- if i hadnt done this i would of lost all the fish
2- Keep all electic cables/plugs at least 4 inches off of the floor
3- Check your filter pipes are well connected regularly
4- Make sure you have enough surface agitation
5- Fit one way vales to your air pumps (i will be ebaying these tomorrow)

It 1-30am and i have work tomorrow but i cant go to sleep yet as i want to make sure the fish are ok now they are back in the 180g. I have tested the water and the reading are good, ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is about 20 (this is my base line, my tap water comes out at 23)

The FX5 is a great filter. i dont know how long it was running dry for but it worked a treat when i set it back up!!!!!

I know my stocking levels are too much for both my tanks when the fish are full grown but they are were ok with a 50% water change once a week.

I was planning of moving the salvini and 1 bristle nose to the 180g, and rehoming the silver sharks, 1 front, the plec, either the geo brazil or the severum and some CL's when they got too big (many years away for them)

I am most gutted about losing the fronts and the large CL'S

I currently have the sev, 2 oscars, 2 bristle noses and the 2 hoplos in 100g and the geo brazil, jag, sysnphilum, 5 sd's, 1 silver shark, 1 plec, 1 double spot acara, 11 CL's in the 180g

None of the fish are gasping and all seem well and swimming around except 1 SD's which is hiding in 1 corner and the SD's who have all gone into hiding in the rocks

I hope i dont lose any more fish!!!!!

Mate im gutted for you ...jesus I dont know what to say apart from that sounds like a total nightmare ...im going to learn from this definitely

Totally gutted about the Frontosa they are such a beautiful fish. I had a colony of them before I got into Oscars.

Lucky you have a partner that is capable of sorting things while you are not there.
Hope everything gets back to normal soon buddy chin up

I actually thought at one point 'is it worth all this hassle keeping these fish' but i quickly realised that yes it was.

I am so annoyed with myself, its my fault. If i had sorted the holder for the pipes this wouldnt of happened. If i had had the plug points up high my g-friend wouldnt of had to turn the power off, if i had noticed the air pummp wasnt working i wouldnt had lost the fish and if i had invested in some bloody cheap one way valves i wouldnt of lost the fish

I feel like a proper plonker

But as they say you live and learn and it could of been worse, i could of lost all the fish!!!!!

I still have most of my beautiful fish and will just have to wait for my CL's to get big

What a catastrophe! Don't be too hard on your self, you and your partner did well to salvage such an awful situation. I would have just been so overwhelmed when I got home to the mess and the crisis, most people would not have saved as many as you did, you're only human and you did your best...That was your drama for the year over..Warm wishes, Sharyn

OMG Del.... I am so sorry. This sounds like a freaking mess....

But I have to say your GF is aces!!! She stepped in and did what needed... High five for her!

I have juts found some non return valves on ebay. £5 + £1.75 postage or bid at £4 + £1.75 postage. My bid is in!

This is just one of those things, at least i didnt lose all the fish. Still a nightmare 2 days, and my g-friend was great. I will have to treat her as a thank you!!!!

Quick update

All the fish are swimming around looking happily except the CL's which are still hiding (understandable really) and no gasping at the surface.

I think its time for bed for me now!!!!!

that is a real real nightmare good thing i got like ten one way valves or something lol if i didnt have them i would allready have 50 gallons absorbed into my house lol.

im so sorry for your loss mate.
fortunatly your gf could handle the situation and you could save some fish

that is a huge nightmare - I was hoping I was just having a dream when I read this and would wake up to realize it didn't happen:(