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Things always go wrong at the worst possible moment


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Goodness GW, I do hope the fish are doing well.

My own experience with bad timing takes me back to the last year of high school. My dog decided to have her puppies at 2 am the night before I was scheduled to take the SAT exams. The result: six beautiful squeaking little bundles of joy and one zombie taking the test, everything went well.

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I hope the fish are fine. The carpet and floor underneath? Ouch. Good luck!

My last few water leak experiences involved:

* Tropical Storm Allison spawned a tornado which punched two tree trunks through my roof, totalling the AC/heater, which had been just fine before. Took out much sheetrock and flooring.

* Later AC drip pan leaked, went unnoticed until it took out the ceiling in one room and devastated books and magazines, some collector's items from high school days. To add insult to injury, it later leaked again after being fixed. I had the repairman fix it but good, and he was motivated from the prior time. Heh. No problems since, but I check that sucker regularly. (Due to again, btw.)

* Water heater leak at my grandmother's, sudden and unexpected. Got to it fast, thanks to an alert caregiver, but upon repair, we found it had been leaking unnoticed for days or weeks, damaging flooring and probably in one wall. Sigh. Replaced the water heater pronto. The other was too expensive to put too much into. Good decision there.

In other words, Mr. Whillickers, sir, I can very much sympathize. Water leaks are no fun.

The handyman I know is nearing the point he'll have to retire. He's done odd jobs, some of the repairs from the above, but most of those were other people's work. Dang, I'm going to have to find someone skilled. My eyesight can't handle some things I could do if I could see to get at them. But mostly, I'm not mechanically inclined. Lugnutz could outdo me with both hands behind his back and his eyes closed, and not break a sweat.

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It could have been worse. The fish tanks are downstairs in the finished basement. So the floor underneath the carpet is concrete. (Which is precisely why they're there.) I moved the unhappy fish into the other tank where they're overcrowded but at least immersed, and drained and moved the rebellious tank. Luckily, I also own a carpet shampooer so was able to use that to suck up the excess water and then quickly give the carpet in the area a shampoo to kill the lovely fish-water smell. Now I need to either fix the leaky tank (razor off the old silicone, find a tube of aquarium safe stuff, re-caulk, and let it cure for a couple days) or buy another tank. One costs money, the other time and effort, time that I'm not sure my overcrowded fish will have. So I guess either way my afternoon is all booked up.

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Being an apparent disciple of the "Bigger is Better" camp, I ended up buying a new tank. Of course, I didn't just get a replacement identical tank, I bought one about twice as big. That necessitated some considerable tank stand modifications to support the extra girth, so I spent my day yesterday at the lumber yard and in my garage with power tools in my hand (insert Tim Taylor grunting noise here). Fortunately I had enough of everything else (adequate filter, heater, substrate) that I didn't have spend yet more money on all that.

Anyway, it's all up and running, and it's a beauty. And yup, the carpet shampooer killed the fish smell.

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