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lost a tank yesterday


az1

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Hi All

Flooded my garage yesterday (sunday) when a 5 X 2 1/2 X 18" tank broke. Man, the water.!!!!! sad.gif

Anyway the way this happened is rather interesting and may serve as a warning to others to be carefull when surrounded by lots of glass.

The rack that this tank was in is arranged in a tiered set up with a 2 1/2 foot wide at the bottom a 2 foot wide above that and then a 18" at the top, thus each tank has 6" exposed.

I have a milk crate in my fish room that I use to sit on and I have 2 step ladders for accessing the various higher tanks.

On sunday morning just after having fed the fish I noticed that I couldn't see one of my EB'S that had been holding, this was in a tank located as the top tank in the rack next the one that broke. As I was in a hurry and my room is a bit messy rather than making room for one of the step ladders I decided to use the milk crate as a quick boost just to see into the corners of the tank.

As I went to stand on the crate, lifting my other foot of the ground, the milk crate tipped over with me now half on it propelling me onto the 2 1/2 foot tank. First my knee hit the side of this tank and cracked it and then my hip did the rest, so that as a result glass covering half the front of the tank down to about four inches was in pieces with me on the floor somehow away from the tank and completely unharmed apart from getting very wet and trying to catch flying fish. dry.gif

So a lucky escape with the moral of the story don't use milk crates to stand on as they are not stable (as if I didn't know this before I did it wub.gif )

All up lost a view baby BN and maybe some EB at about 8cm but as I had sold a lot of fish out of this tank it was pretty empty.

Cheers

Andreas

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Andreas,

VERY, VERY lucky. Good to hear your not cut to bits. I'm sure you must have had that split second thought as the fall turned into slow motion

"Oh crap, in the next couple of moments i'm in a lot of trouble" rolleyes.gif

glenn

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Andreas,

How thick was the glass on the tank? I thought a tank that size would be able to withstand a bit of impact like a knee hitting it? Must of hit pretty hard. Your very luck and then again very unlucky.

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Oh man as terrible as that story is, the look on your face when you heard the tank crack must have been priceless LOL.gif

Sorry to hear such a terrible story. Look at it this way, water will evaporate, but severed nerves / arteries from flying glass will never fully heal.

Count yourself lucky (and unlucky at the same time) wink2.gif

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Guest Summerdayze

You are VERY lucky mate!

I went through a fish tank (5 footer also) and ended up in hospital. I took a 2" x 2" slice out of my arm completely down to the muscle. That was 8 years ago now and still have a whopper of a scar to remind me!

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I've had some truly brutal slices on my hands from tank lids so I'm happy to hear you're ok champ smile.gif I'm glad you posted this story though because I've been known to rely on the odd milk crate to get my to higher places in the past but I sure as hell won't be doing it anymore!

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I have a milk crate in my fishroom which doubles as a visitor's seat and a step up to the top tanks.

Might have to look for another alternative now sad.gif

Thanks for the story Andreas, hope you get it all sorted out without too much fuss blush.gif

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This story reminds of a mishap I had a few months ago.

When I tried to lift a 4 x 20 x 20 with weir onto a rack which was about 3.5ft in height. For some stupid reason I thought I could lift it alone hahaha... anyway.. I stood the tank on its side and leaned it diagonally against the side of the rack, then I got under the tank and proceeded with the "clean and jerk". I managed to lift the tank up and got under it... But not for long, as the tank started to come back down on me... I had no choice but to let go of the tank and dive out of the way. I just couldn't complete the "jerk" part of the lift.

On the way down, the corner of the tank managed to catch a bit of my shoulder which left a very deep hole which pooled with blood pretty quickly. But after about 1 minute... the blood was pouring out down my arm uncontrollably and I had to cup the blood in my palms to stop it from dripping onto the carpet.

Anyway, all this happened while I was alone. It sends shivers down my spine each time I think about what could have been. I managed to get away with just a 'scratch' and less 1 tank. But if the tank came back down on me and smashed right on me, I may have been less a few more items - maybe an arm, a leg, or.... well.. lets not go there.

Was supposed to get stitches that night, but I managed to keep the skin together with butterfly tape. I managed to send my body into shock that night too. I just started sweating like crazy, went dizzy and crashed to the floor. Maybe it was the loss of all that blood, and the talk from the doc of all these needles I needed to have injected - I dont' take to needles too well.

Cleaning up all the smashed glass on carpet wasn't a very fun job either, took a few hours to get rid of it all. But definitely one fishroom mishap I will never forget.

Luckily, no one was hurt too seriously in both these situations, I surely have learnt a thing or two from it smile.gif

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G'day

Well gladly/luckily/thankfully you are okay. wink2.gif

I suppose the moral to the story is to keep your fishroom tidy and don't be lazy. shock.gif

Now I just need to listen to this advice! blink.gif

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hi Andreas

really sad to read of your slip up and the losses cryblow.gif

i think we're all quilty of short cuts and non approved OH&E and worksafe practises all too often, [hmm i better check my milk crates]

but on a lighter note, really pleased to see the addition of a new species,

flying fish!!!! LOL.gif wow what a first. tongue.gif

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Glad to hear that you are okay smile.gif

I painted the ceiling of the fishroom using milkcrates 2 and 3 crates high dry.gif and yes, almost lost my footing on wobbly crates at least 80 times blink.gif

They can now go back to holding all the crap they usually hold.

Cheers

Aline

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