My wife Lynn and I turned off the lights in the house, kissed our daughter good night, and closed our bedroom door to watch TV. We dosed off, and were fast asleep. Suddenly and wthout warning, an ear piercing high pitched squeel of a smoke alarm. Yeicks. This whole episode had happend to us before-- or so I thought-- basically because the 9 volt batteries in one of the smoke detectors had gotten old. When one battery goes, it tends to send the whole system into a frenzy. Loud, loud, loud. It is an especially unwelcome noise after being blissfully asleep for a couple of hours. Moments prior, the house was completely silent. I knew what I had to do-- identify the offending alarm, replace the battery, and voila. Noise goes away, and I get to go back to sleep. Not this time..
As I rounded the corner of the staircase, I expected to see the lovely 135 gallon tank I had just cleaned and pruned. (The plants in the tank grew inches in a week-- lots of light, CO2, and Flourite substrate will produce quick growth.) I always got tremendous satisfaction caring for my tank. Every week for more than six years, I religiously drained half the 135 gallon tank, carefully treated the new water, and refilled. I scraped algae when required, fed the fish twice daily, trimed the plants and changed out 50% of the water weekely. Truly, labors of love. To me, the tank always looked terrific. (I am pretty sure my wife got tired of hearing me crow about my aquarium-- to her, I suppose the tank took time from "real" work I could be doing around the house. I do think she basically enjoyed looking at the tank too, but not nearly as much as I did.) To see the aquatic world I nurtured for over six years flourish was always an edifying source of pride.
But, this night was different.
Instead of seeing the lovely, flouishing, comforting image of the little world I had nurtured for years, I saw the horifying sight of wet carpet, a fast leaking aquarium dumping water onto my first floor family room, and doomed fishes meeting their end. My tank's inhabitants were minutes from death, the extensive plant collection was doomed. I had no where to put all the livestock. I was devastated.
The front glass of the brand new all glass aquarium had separated from the other walls of the tank. (So much for the 20 year warranty on the tank-- that warrantee was not worth more than the paper it was printed on!) Catastrophe. Shock. Disbelief. Within two minutes of discovering the cause of the shreiking fire alarm, my tank was completely empty. All I could really do is watch. Those poor fish.
My living room floor was a mess, soaked in aquarium water. The smoke alarms were blaring. Deafening alarm screeches arising from all over the house. The basement smoke detector had shorted out because the aquarium water had seeped through the living room floor, into my finished basement. The basement ceiling was completely soaked. This caused the entire smoke alarm system to go berserk.
Fearful of a scenario like the one unfolding before my eyes, I had six months earlier replaced a five and a half year old tank with a brand new one. I took the opportunity to replant everything as well, to rid my tank of a beard algae problem for good. Everything had been cleaned and refurbished. Now, my fish and other livestock were doomed. There was just too much to save, and I was in a state of shock, and angry. A few other little discoveries also added to the night's horror:
What a mess!
I have always preferred the look of a glass tank to that of an acrylic tank. Glass tanks are easier to keep scratch free. I never imagined that they could fail as catastrophically as mine did. In my case, the tank glass separated-- my diagnosis: the silicone cement was the issue. On the other hand, the tank maker claimed the stand I was using was defective. The stand was made by All Glass aquarium. It was never damaged or unstable. Frankly, I never believed the tank maker. We should have sued, but never did.
By the way, our home insurance covered much of the damage, but would not pay for the tank or the investment in livestock at least many hundreds of dollars. The rehabilitation and repair of the home cost about seven thousand dollars.
I miss my aquarium.. But the plain fact is I was growing tired of all the maintainence, and I did not wish to subject my home to any further risk. So, this fateful night marked the end of my aquarium hobby days. Now I only have my website pictures-- which I love to review! I hope you enjoy them too-- fish keeping is a fun hobby. Planted tanks are maybe the ultimate challange.