Bizarre Day at the LFS

[TucanSam007]

So here's a story about my odd day. It's my 3rd day working part time at a LFS. Since I'm new I work on the housekeeping and maintenance of the African cichlids and freshwater system. I recently got into reef keeping last year and engulfed all the information I got from on here and elsewhere and so now just I'm an addict:rollface:. So its hard to go back to freshwater plants and fish. But I just got to rekindle the feeling of why I got into aquariums in the first place today, re aqua-scaping the two 180 gallon planted tanks was the most I've ever felt like not really at "work". Anyways so I'm cleaning glass up on the top row and I get to the Angel Fish. Im not sure of the gallons but I'd imagine it was around a 55 or so Oceanic glass tank with two glass dividers which looked professionally done (black silicone was perfect). It's a bare bottom tank with nothing in it except 3 different varieties of angel fish. I cleaned the glass and get ready to siphon out some of the waste on the bottom. As I siphon right above the bottom of the tank I hear a loud snap. I look down and the tempered glass on the bottom just cracked all over and water started gushing out the bottom. The electrical equipment on the bottom tanks where being soaked and I almost had a heart attack. I scooped up the angels and threw em in another tank quick. I wasn't even touching the tank it blew out the bottom:blown:. This tank looked as though in mint condition. I'm one of those weird people who look out for defects like scratches and cracks but after cleaning this tank 3 times I never saw a cracked bottom or anything. I told my boss what happened and he said he has never seen such a thing, and neither have I. Does anyone know how common this is? It was comical afterwards but in the beginning I was freaking out!:p Here's a video of the place I saw someone posted on youtube if you'd like some entertainment :). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clQZ-M7c-MY


Here's some random pics of this Enormous clam we have there, and why not one of my tank :rolleyes:

[carlos413]

Nice tank!!!

[Reef264]

The worst day of work at a Fish Store, beats the best day of Work anywhere else...

[tebstan]

I've seen that happen to empty tanks, but never a full one! That's awful, stressful.

I saw a girl barely *barely* touch a 55, and it shattered. She was so scared she'd get in trouble, but I vouched for her that no way should that have happened. Kids smacking the glass hit tanks harder.


BTW, just watched the vid, your store is sick! :D

[miwoodar]

Do you have a secret that you need to share?

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n231/miwoodar/unbreakable.jpg

[seapug]

I once had a new JBJ HQI tank crack open out of nowhere while I was sitting 10 feet away from it and hadn't touched it in hours. If I wouldn't have been home or sitting right next to it would have completely drained all over the floor. I was lucky enough to have my camera right when it happened. A true aquarium poltergeist moment:
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee318/picklethepug/crack2.jpg

[sporto0]

C'mon, what really happened? Your telling us that the tank cracked right while you were siphoning out water? Were you leaning on it to get better leverage? Sounds a bit fishy to me & no pun intended.

[TucanSam007]

Carlos- Thanks! I'm getting ready to move it all into the 65 once I get a sump worked out. Taking it nice and slow..don't want to rush into emptying my pockets too fast lol.
Reef264-Very true!
tebstan-I like the way they run things too, like only selling live-stock to customers that can actually take care of them. I already turned down a guy who wanted a red-tailed shark for a fishbowl :(.
midwoodar not gonna lie I did for a few moments wondered if maybe I had some kind of laser vision! I wish.
Seapug- That's what I call lucky! especially when things don't break down in the middle of the night :). I was surprised the tempered glass broke on this one though, very very strange. I suppose anything that can happen will right?

[TucanSam007]

Sporto0-I wish I had a better story like I dome smashed the tank from tripping off a ladder, but it was as simple as siphoning out the tank with no pressure on it from me what so ever. The fishy part was I was there working on it so it made me look bad :(, but even some of the guys there said that they've never seen a tank bottom out in such a way because it just crumbled the whole panel so I think they were understanding of a freak accident.

[sporto0]

LOL, Dome smashing would have been better!!! Ok, I believe you, pretty coincidental though.

[TucanSam007]

Yeah I agree...lets just say I'm not touching my tanks for a week till this curse wears off lol

[96p993]

Is this tank in a commercial multiple tank stand? Has anyone checked to see if its level?

[supervdl]

Yeah I agree...lets just say I'm not touching my tanks for a week till this curse wears off lol

Yeah totally !!!!

[TheReeferer]

Next time forget the fish! Get the hell outta there before you get electrocuted!

[SneakyPete]

Next time forget the fish! Get the hell outta there before you get electrocuted!

+1

But believe me, in the heat of the moment, you don't always think of such things. I once had my lights fall into my tank and I dove in after them. After I set them down and realized how dumb that was, I kinda freaked out a bit...

[sporto0]

+1

But believe me, in the heat of the moment, you don't always think of such things. I once had my lights fall into my tank and I dove in after them. After I set them down and realized how dumb that was, I kinda freaked out a bit...

Been there & done that, I was more shook up after I realized what I did, than when it happened. Let's just say I will never do that again, unplug it, duh!!!!!!! I'm glad you weren't hurt Pete, scary stuff.

[zigzag1]

I would suspect a manufacturing defect, or some problem with the tank positioning, level, wracking, or a stand issue. JMTC & GL!

[Reefing Newbie]

Maybe you should put a layer of aquarium silicone over the bottom of the rest of the tanks before they brake too, or just silicone in another glass panel on the bottom. I had a 6 gallon acrylic tank just spring two holes in the bottom and leak. So I am always scared of that happening to my glass tanks...

[sporto0]

Maybe you should put a layer of aquarium silicone over the bottom of the rest of the tanks before they brake too, or just silicone in another glass panel on the bottom. I had a 6 gallon acrylic tank just spring two holes in the bottom and leak. So I am always scared of that happening to my glass tanks...

Shouldn't you be drying your carpet? No wonder your dad is mad.

[Reefing Newbie]

Shouldn't you be drying your carpet? No wonder your dad is mad.

We finished with the carpet cleaner now just to let it dry out... Besides, I can somewhat relate to this being that the water drained out of the angel tank :debi:

[xcastn0shad0wx]

I live on the 11th floor of an apartment building...it's things like this that really scare me.

[ZOKU]

The worst day of work at a Fish Store, beats the best day of Work anywhere else...

amen to this.

[TucanSam007]

I live on the 11th floor of an apartment building...it's things like this that really scare me.

I agree! I was worrying about my tanks at home the whole time after this happened :hammer:

[xcastn0shad0wx]

When I got renters insurance I made them specifically state that it covered any size aquarium failure just to be safe.

[James404]

Wow I was at your store the day after and saw all the tanks empty, was wondering what happened. Thanks for the story.

[James404]

The funniest part of that video was in the beginning when he kept saying all this stuff is for sale, he was looking at the owners tank that nothing is for sale in LOL

[TucanSam007]

James do you know if they emptied out that whole system or just the one tank? I haven't been in since thursday, I hope there wasn't stray voltage lurking around.

[jamey1015]

That's funny I had a rider on my renters insurance too, I set up an 8 foot reef tank in an upper floor apartment once and one day the maintenance guy calls yelling hey you better meet me at your apartment your tanks leaking the lady below called and says she's got water leaking into her apt. (He had seen the tank before) so I raced home opened the door with him standing there and nope tank was perfect not a leak in sight and come to find out her a/c unit drain was plugged up lol. I went from scared to death to very relieved.


When I got renters insurance I made them specifically state that it covered any size aquarium failure just to be safe.

[James404]

Hmm so this happened this thursday? I was there I think a week ago and the whole left wall of the middle aisle was emptied and so was the other side of it, they had moved most of the fish to the last row of tanks (on the same side as the ORA frags). My buddy later told me that they had a tank bust.

[TucanSam007]

Ahh gotcha, that must have been before I started then. Good to hear it wasn't just me busting tanks at random then haha.

[James404]

Ahh gotcha, that must have been before I started then. Good to hear it wasn't just me busting tanks at random then haha.

lol guess they've just been having some bad luck lately.

[Reefing Newbie]

The LFS you work at looks better than any of the LFSs in my area! How big are those coral tanks at the beginning of the video?

[jamey1015]

The LFS you work at looks better than any of the LFSs in my area! How big are those coral tanks at the beginning of the video?

I thought so too, I never see that many full nice colonies although we do have a coral farm in our area and that's an experience all it's own except they don't keep stuff in glass it's all in big flats that you look down into, more like shallow pools.

[Reefing Newbie]

Yeah my LFS keep frags, not actual colonies that they can frag and sell to self sustain in a way. Which if they have enough large DTs that they can grow various coral colonies quickly they would be able to make a large profit, kind of like a built in coral farm in a way.

[TucanSam007]

I'm actually not sure how big they are, but they are massive thats for sure. There's a 600g acrylic tank that someone has to swimming to clean the gravel. I don't know if its in the video, but they have a huge shallow tank that they keep reef sharks in. The owner seems to be ordering in a lot lately which surprises me, I've always thought that keeping sharks was never too successful. Kinda cool though!

[Reefing Newbie]

I actually would love a nice shark tank later when I have the money for them and a properly sized tank. Then there is also the experience factor lol. I am going to go to Long Island just to see that LFS lol! Hope you don't get in trouble when you go in for work next time!

[username in use]

Those coral tanks are all 300g marineland deep dimensions tanks.