What is your “Just in the Nick of Time” story? Everyone has one!

[Vicki]

Mine is a rather convoluted story, but it’s kind of interesting, if you don’t mind my crazy storytelling. 

On Tuesday, I was discharged from the hospital after being in for 10 days with a headache. (Yes, it’s somewhat better. Not gone, you’ll see why in a minute.) My husband didn’t do a thing to take care of my fish - no food, no water adds, nothing. My Tank of Nightmares (ToN) was still fairly full - I was surprised by that, to be honest. My Tetra tank was three gallons low (20 gallon tank, 😬) but all my fish in both tanks were still alive. My plants in the ToN had doubled in size, so I knew I had some work to do there, but Wednesday, I had a dentist appointment and Thursday was doctor’s again. So, Friday was for fish. First, I checked water chemicals. My ToN is reaching a balance, everyone! Hurrah! 😄 Everything looked perfectly NORMAL! I was so pleased! There may have been just a *trace* of Ammonia, so I treated for that, but that’s beside the point. I trimmed back my plants, replanted, fixed my air bubbler and hooked it up to the new ACOOP air machine I’d purchased a couple of months ago because the old usb one wasn’t working right anymore - and I’d intended to do this and just hadn’t. Anyway, I took care of getting that inside tank stuff done, then pulled out my small usb sponge filter and put it in my tetra tank to seed it for when I need to start the quarantine tank for the livestock for my ToN. 

After all of that, I cleaned and emptied about 20-30% of the ToN, then as it was filling back up, I ran and got a tub to soak a new piece of wood in. And as I was rinsing the tub out, I forgot about the tank and let it overflow.

Yep. 

Probably 10-15 gallons of water on the floor. And under the cabinet that goes all the way to the ground and leaves me no way to get to the floor to dry underneath. So, I spent a LOT of time on the floor with my dogs velocity dryer BLOWING water out from under that cabinet, hoping that it’s not ruining the wood underneath - that I’m getting enough to keep it from warping. NOW I see the benefit of having a wire cabinet. I learn as I go. BUT - I’ve still not given you the “Nick of Time” part of my story!

After getting everything as clean as possible, I was finally able to put some ice on my head, take some medicine, and sit down. I talked to my husband as he was going from his first job to his second, and I found a movie to watch while I waited on him to get home. I watched my movie, then my sister called, we talked for about three minutes before we were disconnected, and the power went out in our neighborhood. (Totally unrelated - us being disconnected and the power going out - they just happened at the same time. Odd?!) First, the power would be back on at 10:45. Then 0200. Then 0900. Then 1400. Now??? 

The Nick of Time? GETTING THE BATTERY BUBBLERS IN BOTH OF MY TANKS YESTERDAY!!!!! Can you BELIEVE THAT??!! I get battery air put in for my fish JUST before the power goes out in my house for … 19 hours so far! My little fishes would have been so thirsty for air!  Just in the nick of time! I’m totally a Christian, y’all - and I totally believe God had a hand in this one! Just in the nick of time!  

So what’s your story? Any just in the nick of time stories to tell? Come on! Share them!

[nabokovfan87]

I hope your head is feeling better!  I have some gnarly headaches sometimes so I empathize. 

As for the ToN..... I'm going to need to see this puppy!  I hope things are doing better and I am right there with you as far as having an "emergency tote" of bubblers and things to drop into tanks on a moments notice.

One of my close calls, you're sitting there and doing the water change, waiting for the tank to fill.  You;re there, paying attention and then you hear the telltale waterfall noise.  There's been plenty of times I have asked for help so I can be at the tank and yell down the hallway for someone to turn the faucet off.  I have since informed people which way to turn the knobs to turn the water off because there's always that "just in the nick of time" whoops turned the water up instead of down and panicked to turn it off in time. 

Give yourself a cushion, don't get distracted!  It happens to the best of us.
 

 

[Tanked]

I 've had 3 flooding disasters over the years. Without going into details, they could be categorized as: Who Knew?, Accidents happen!, and How stupid can you get?

My "Just in the Nick of Time" story came about after a late night out with my buddies. Inexpensive digital timers did not exist, so the lights would normally be turned off when I went to bed.  I watched the fish for a bit and realized that I couldn't find the Red-tailed Black Shark.  After searching in and around the aquarium, I continued the search lying on the floor with a flashlight.  I found the shark encased in dust under the stand.  After retrieving the fish, I attempted to revive it by holding the tail and dipping it like a tea bag in the aquarium , forcing water through the gills.  I figured the idea was dumb enough to work and after three or four minutes I felt a faint twitch.  I kept dipping until the fish seemed to be actually moving on its own. When I let it go, the shark promptly sank to the bottom.  It wasn't done yet!  Seconds later it righted itself and swam off.

[Odd Duck]

I’ve been keeping fish long enough I’ve had plenty of these moments.  One of the best(?) fairly recent ones was a 10 gallon that sprung a leak.  Hubby heard the HOB motor squealing.  I ran in there and my new cories that had just gone into quarantine a few days before were laying on their sides on the substrate!  No water on them but the substrate was still very wet and water still leaking and they were still wet and breathing.  Grabbed them each out and plopped them into the tank right next to it and every one of them was completely fine.  The other tank was a QT tank also and had other cories that had started in QT at the same time but both tanks were fairly “fresh” and I hadn’t wanted to overload one by putting them all in the same tank.  They all did great together, no issues, didn’t seem to even faze the cories that were briefly high but didn’t quite make it to dry.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

In the “How could you be so stupid!” category was overrunning my 75 G tank while I had my arm in it fiddling with plants!  It’s not like I had even stepped away.  It’s not like I needed someone else to turn off the water - I had the valve right there next to me because I fill with a pump in my mixing barrel.  Right there - inches from my face.  Inches.  From.  My.  Face.  🤦🏻‍♀️  I was very zoned in on the plants.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 😆 

[Vicki]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:26 PM, Odd Duck said:

 Right there - inches from my face.  Inches.  From.  My.  Face.  🤦🏻‍♀️  I was very zoned in on the plants.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 😆 

That’s TOTALLY something I’d do!!  Absolutely!! 😂😂😂

[Vicki]

On 8/27/2023 at 8:19 AM, Tanked said:

…I attempted to revive it by holding the tail and dipping it like a tea bag in the aquarium , forcing water through the gills.  I figured the idea was dumb enough to work and after three or four minutes I felt a faint twitch.  I kept dipping until the fish seemed to be actually moving on its own…

I’d have never thought to do that! 
but seriously, that *was* JUST in the nick of time!!!  Even more than how I felt about getting my battery air machines installed in both my tanks the day before the power went out for 24 hours - when the power hasn’t been out for more than an hour at our house in oh, probably close to 10 years!!!  Wow. Your fish was in dust! Wow! Good save!!!