Aquarium Horror Stories

[CJs Aquatics]

During routine maintenance/ a rescape of a tank with predatory fish in it, one of the UGF uplift tubes broke off. Imagine a dirted substrate capped with sand no longer capped, 2 very large and very angry puffer fish no longer being visible as you with your arm in the tank frantically try to reattach the base of the uplift tube to the “clip on” located underneath the sand/ dirt. Makes for a heck of a horror story I’ll tell you, scary…This just happened fyi so next few hours will be spent siphoning water changing rinsing and repeating smh… makes for an interesting topic though, anyone have any horror stories, preferably more comedic ones like this? 

[nabokovfan87]

I had a 75G setup with an aquaclear 110 filter.  For whatever reason every single time I unplugged the thing it literally ended with a trip to the local big box store to exchange it for one where the pump would turn on. EVERY. TIME.

After a few months of this and 2-3 exchanges I ended up with 2 spare impellers and a few spare shafts just in case I could try a new one and have it work to get the pump going. We all are aware of the "trick" of needed to start the impeller sometimes and then the pump will run fine.

I've had other aquaclears, but for whatever reason the 110 was my nemesis. I did not have a spare filter at the time as my AC70 didn't fit the tank rim and my Tidal 55 wasn't big enough to fit either.

Anyways, frustration building, I'm trying to simply clean the filter and turn it back on. It's stuck. I cannot figure out why it won't go and it's the normal song and dance. I have the pump out for the 5-8th time which is extremely annoying because then I have to dismount it from the HoB itself by draining it. I grab a pair of pliers and a new shaft (the one internally appeared to be worn and this was after one month of use). I turn on videos to try to help understand exactly how to remove the shaft. Pretty straight forward just yank it out carefully. I pull one way and the pump that weighs a lot slips in my hand. Despite holding it with a towel and everything, just slips. It happens. I try to catch it and just watch in slow motion as the pump lands on the floor RIGHT ON the lip where it screws into the HoB container.

Needless to say enough was enough and I haven't had the desire to mess around with an AC since. The pump went into the trash and that filter went with it. (not a review, there's more to say)

....but then I had to figure out how on earth to get a filter on this tank and nothing was available in my area. Not even sure what I did, honestly, I know I stared at the 407 filter a lot, but ended up with a pair of tidal 75s. I haven't been happy with that either, which led to the mod project but at least I can perform maintenance now!

This is why I always enjoy having an air stone in the tank when the pumps are off for maintenance. Sometimes stuff happens and it just takes forever to fix something.

[CJs Aquatics]

@nabokovfan87 ugh that’s stressful, at least you figured out a work around 

[mynameisnobody]

My horror story is the 400 gallon I want is $5000. Pure terror. The end. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/14/2023 at 2:22 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

@nabokovfan87 ugh that’s stressful, at least you figured out a work around

Something about necessity being the father of invention.... yeah. 

[CJs Aquatics]

@Pepere they got me to smh

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/14/2023 at 5:58 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

@Pepere they got me to smh

It's still the best warranty / pump you can buy and it's not even close.

It's a complicated issue.  The tidal works for certain situations, but it works much more effectively as a filter modded.

"tier 1" of my mods in the thread is pretty easy and can be done in a very short time. No major changes to the filter and it's very easy to accomplish.

I understand the frustration and dislike from @Pepere on the tidal, but I don't regret mine.  I wish it had some improvements, ABSOLUTELY, but I can say the same thing of every filter available, canisters included.  Nothing is without flaw.

[Tanked]

Not exactly a horror story for me, but the fish probably had a different opinion.:  

Somewhere in the past I had a 3" pleco I called Snowplow because of his swimming habits.  Snowplow seemed to have a recurring case of the zoomies.  At the same time, I was trying to keep a Scarlet Temple plant alive, but every few days, I would find it drifting around the tank.  I made a protective cage out of the stiff black plastic mesh used to keep the leaves out of the roof gutters on your house. All went well for about a week or more until I found one of the larger Danios tightly ensnared in the mesh. It was decided to pull up the cage, and using a tiny embroidery scissors, begin cutting the mesh away from the squirming fish.  Ultimately the the fish survived, but without the cage, the plant gave up. 

[CJs Aquatics]

@Tanked love the name snowplow 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Pumped 20% water out of a tank so I could add sand and turned the pump off. Went outside to rinse the sand for a rescape and came back in to the hob grinding dry. The tank gravity drained and the fish were all in 1” of water.

[CJs Aquatics]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea that would probably scare anybody 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/15/2023 at 5:12 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea that would probably scare anybody 

The fish were all panicking and breathing heavily. I put water back in, suuuuper careful about temp since I was replacing so much. The old tank water had drained outside in the grass and could not be used. Then I cut the tank lights off and abandoned the project for the time being so they could relax.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

That moment when you wake up, maybe the fan is on during summer, and then you notice the room seems eerily quiet. You don't see the lights on and you just sit up and try to hear the silence.

.....ok cool, the filter is still running.

[CJs Aquatics]

@nabokovfan87 that is scary, especially after a “power was out, filter wasn’t running” disaster I experienced years ago 

[PaigeIs]

On 8/18/2023 at 8:38 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

That moment when you wake up, maybe the fan is on during summer, and then you notice the room seems eerily quiet. You don't see the lights on and you just sit up and try to hear the silence.

.....ok cool, the filter is still running.

LOL..  that happened to us this morning.  My 9 yr old came in and nonchalantly said "I don't know what you did Mom, but my fish tank is really quiet lately."  I went running into her room and found the HOB unplugged.  

[CJs Aquatics]

@PaigeIs oh wow good thing you caught it