My Series of Disasters!

[AuntieFran@comcast.net]

Last week (June 23 to be exact) while watching the baseball game on TV, I 
looked at my 29T and the water level was down about 2" from where it was 
following a water change the day before. Whoops! There must be a leak. Sure 
enough! I set about moving fish to other tanks while hubby called the LFS. Yes, 
they had another 29T in stock.
He went and got the new tank while I drained the old one. By the time he got 
back we were both exhausted. Since he gets up at 4:30 in the morning, we 
decided to go to bed. I moved filters and driftwood to the overcrowded 10G 
tanks. In the morning I set about moving the gravel from one tank to the other 
and managed to have things up and running again. Problem? It took about 18 
hours to get everything finished.
By then, I'd lost the bacteria in/on the gravel, I'm sure. Sooo...we went 
through a mini-cycle and things were really looking good yesterday.
Are you ready for this? I woke up this morning to find the water level in the 
NEW 29T down about 4"; I think that translates to something like 6.5 gallons of 
water in the living room floor - AGAIN! Of course I had to wait for the LFS to 
open, meanwhile moving fish, draining tank and, as long as I had the Python 
out, changing water in all the other tanks. 
I called the LFS at 9:00 sharp! No, they don't have another 29T in stock, but 
have a 37T (same footprint). The general concensus is - and I have to agree - 
is that the weight is somehow distorting the metal frame (which incidentally 
was level) and causing the tank(s) to leak. I know that when I looked over 
there last night I could see daylight between the center of the stand and the 
center of the tank - not a good sign! 
So, since I *still* can't drive (I had foot surgey in April), I sit here 
waiting for hubby to come home so that we can 1) go buy a *good* stand for the 
37T (more water - that's good ) and drag all that stuff home, 2) put the shower 
doors back up (they were taken down because I couldn't get into the tub), 3) 
move his desk back against the wall (the shower doors have been back there to 
protect them), 4) move the little (2" X 6") bookcase back where it belongs 
(next to his desk), 5) put the stand where the bookcase is/was) and 
re-establish my poor silver dollars and cherry barbs.
I've already lost two silver dollars (they were being treated for a fungus when 
all this started on 6/23 and were obviously over-stressed with all the activity 
of the past ten days and succumbed).
Will this ever end???
And now, the question: Once again, I've lost most of my biofilter. What I'll 
have left is two pads of filter floss 4" X 12", a small bag of ceramic beads 
(the contents are more than a snack-size ZipLoc and less than sandwich-size). I 
can pull the filters from 5 other tanks (I didn't wash them when I changed 
water this morning) and that's about it! I really hesitate to dump this entire 
fish load (5 silver dollars, 10 cherry barbs, and 1 bristlenose pleco)with no 
more than that to support it. My options are to do that or move some of the 
fish to the 37T and leave the others seriously overcrowded in 10G tanks. What 
do you think?
If I were to move all of them tonight, would AmmoLock help or hinder the 
cycling process? Where is BioSpira now when I need them?
Your thoughts?



--
Growing old is inevitable; 
growing up is optional.

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