♥ashley♥

last night my nefue was playing around the tank and he threw a baseball at the tank and broke it. I saved my fish but I had to go to a walmart( which was the only place open at 10:00 at night) and I had to buy a smaller tank it's 10 gallons and I saved the rock and rinsed it off but I didn't boil them or anything like that. but there's new water in the tank now. and I was wondering if the new tank was to be cycled again because it's new,

capekate

Hi Ashley
so sorry to hear about the accident with the tank. What a shame...
Glad to hear you were able to save your fish tho. If your filter media didnt dry up in the time it took for you to set up the new tank and add water, you shouldnt be that far behind a new cycle. Did you use the same gravel? I hope you rinsed everything very well to make sure there is no glass in any of the substrate or tank decor. Not only can it harm the fish, you can cut yourself when doing maintenance on the tank. So be very careful and make sure you got up all the glass. Your tank will have to go through another cycle tho, just stay on top of testing and water changes and you should be ok.
What fish do you have in the tank now?

~ kate

MrWaxhead

The bacteria would primarily be in your filter and substrate etc, so as long as you reused those you should be fine, as long as the new water was similar in parameters as your old. You may get a mini cycle but shouldn't get a full on one.

Also sorry to hear about your accident and hope all goes well.

MrWaxhead

Also what can help is to grab some quick growing plants like cabomba or hornwort, and stick a bunch in your tank, and let them soak up any spikes that may try to start. The plants will take in the ammonia and nitrite etc to make it easier on your fish. Both of those plants do not have to be planted either you can just drop them in and let them do there work and remove them down the road if you no longer want them.

Bonochick

Yikes, I would have freaked out! I hope that everything works out all right.

♥ashley♥

i room is soaked! i'm mad

sirdarksol

Good advice here. Hope your fish do well.
Also hope the kid's parents held him responsible for his actions.

♥ashley♥

nope since he's 7 he gets off scott free becase he's jusr a kid! grrrrrrr.





yea I used the same gravel and I rinsed all the gravel out very well. I put it on a black towel and put a lamp above it and picked out all the shinny glass I saw.





oh and another thing is that I have pregnant fish, so are they going to be alright and still have there babys or what?

COBettaCouple

i think he's old enough to learn that throwing baseballs at fish tanks isn't something to do. maybe his parents will feel differently when he tosses one through the front window of their house.

i'd do 25% pwcs every other day and test the water before each one to see how the tank is doing on getting back to being fully cycled. Do you have Prime to be treating the tap water with?

the pregnant fish should be no worse off than the others since you acted quickly to save them.

sirdarksol

I think a three year old is old enough to know that, let alone a seven year old. I'm not talking replacing the tank or anything, maybe just having to help set the new tank up, or something like that.

Anyway, I'll get off my "people should teach their kids responsibility" soap box now.

Once again, it sounds like you've got things under control, so your fish should survive very well.

neverendingninja

C'mon now, my 18 month old knows not to hit fish tanks. I would have bit that kids head off for doing that.

susitna-flower

I also agree that a 7 year old is certainly old enough to know that what he did was wrong, and should have to do something to repay you the loss.

Several years ago I was doing a landscaping job worth many thousands of $$$'s . One day after planting I left, and 3 little boys all between the ages of 5 and 9 went through and pulled up EVERYTHING I had put in that day.....Their parents were made to pay not only for the plants that were killed, but my time to replant! This, because they left their children unattended.....Parents MUST teach their children right from wrong, and even if it was an accident, we all have to pay for our mistakes. You should NOT have to pay for a new aquarium, and it should be replaced with one of the same size!

COBettaCouple

but if you do that, the poor little guy will feel bad about himself.. and we can't have that, can we? :P it's like this little brat that was running around the store yelling, comes up to me, hits me on purpose, runs away and then his dad flips me off.. hey, i guess the prison guards need future job security.

♥ashley♥

people fustrate me because as soon as I started to clean up all the water my sister asked me what happened and when i told her what happened she said oh well and took my nephwe and left. and i had to clean up the mess, by myself.

COBettaCouple

that's just wrong.

♥ashley♥

yep I know. I am so mad right now.

Alasse

I certainly would not have been nearly as calm about it....they are not cheap to replace (both time cost and actual cost) and a 7yr old definately should know better than throwing a ball in the house....my kids wouldn't dare go near my tanks...they have been warned that they will have to replace at their cost (even if i gotta wait for years) anything they break through being foolish and knowing better than to do what they did (different if a real accident, cause well accidents do happen)

sirdarksol

Yeah, too many people think that because they're kids, they shouldn't be held responsible. Like I said, I don't expect a kid to pay back a broken tank or anything (though a good parent would do so, the law in this matter is iffy, and it depends on the judge as to whether or not the parents are responsible). I also don't think the kid should be involved in the direct cleanup in this case (putting a kid near sharp pieces of glass that are coated in aquatic bacteria, while possessing a note of poetic justice, is dangerous). However, helping in setting up the tank shows the kid that, even if something is an accident, there are consequences, and that a good human being will try to undo any harm they have done. It also might get the kid interested in something that would teach him a little patience.

P.S., the Christian-hearted, Buddhist-minded darksol is out of the body at the moment, and the vindictive, evil darksol would like to suggest that breaking a couple of the kid's toys when you're over at his house will make things even. Depending on the cost of your original tank, perhaps dumping a can of soda on his PS3 would be in order.

COBettaCouple

..or testing out the same baseball on it.

♥ashley♥

lol, that's pure evil guys...........i love it! lol


I was actualy really calm about it when it happened because I'm a relitivly calm person until I have time to think about what happened, and now that I am thinking about it more I get mad. and I am always telling him not to be running in the house and not to be playing around the fish tank and stand, and don't tap on the tank and stuff like that and do you think would listen to me, no of course not! his mother just sits there on her butt while her kid runs a muck in my house! it just goes in one ear and out the other. oh and i havent even had a call or anything from my nephwe or my sister.

sorry guys, i had to vent.

sirdarksol

Not a problem at all. That's one of the great things about communities like this. Just try to remain calm about it (or regain that calm). The last thing we want is for our indignation toward this situation to feed into yours and make things work. All joking aside, there's no reason for you to have an aneurysm because your sister doesn't know how to raise her kids. Besides, it would do no good to act angrily toward your sister (though you have every right to be upset at her, just be aware of the distinction between the two).

It sounds like this is a problem that is larger than a badly aimed baseball. If it were me, I'd let my sibling know that, until the child is taught how to behave as a guest, the child is not welcome in my home. Now this is easy for me to say, since my brother is developmentally disabled, doesn't have kids, and lives with my parents (on top of that, he's an obsessive cleaner, so when he comes over to my house, it often has the exact opposite effect that your sister's arrival seems to have).

Peterpiper

So let me see if I have got this right... brat throws baseball and smashes your aquarium, sister takes brat home and leaves you flooded. now you need to buy a new tank, as your sister wont take responsability for her sons actions.... Ok it may seam heartless, but I would not let the brat back in my house and I think I would be having a chat about the $ with my sister.
If one of my boys ( 4 boys ) had done this, we would have cleaned up and replaced the tank. the boy would need to repay me ( with pocket money ). As it is now against the law to smack your kid in Australia. Take away TV computer games etc until the money is repaid.

COBettaCouple

yea, she reminds me of these parents i see just watch their kids run around like little terrors.. it's not like you should beat your kid with a telephone poll, but some discipline to reinforce what's ok and what's not ok is a good thing and she's told her son that it's ok to be rude, annoying, destructive and disrespectful of others as well as telling him there's no consequences for destroying someone else's property.. i'd get a sign for the door saying "stay away until you teach that kid to act human" and call the local prison, tell them to reserve a room.

♥ashley♥

lol.

but I have called my sister and left her a message about 4 times and she keeps avoiding my calls. oh well. all I wanted was an apologie. that's it. oh well looks like my nephwe takes after his mother.

Allie

Sounds like our apartment building Lazy young kids...err, parents and with too many kids. Hence why we are moving. The mouths on the 7 years old around here.

offminded

wow...hope everything works out!

COBettaCouple

yea, i guess they're both on equal maturity levels. maybe, on the bright side, she won't be wanting to bring the little terror over anytime soon.

♥ashley♥

yea, I just wish he would listen to me more, or at leaste be a little bit more well behaved. oh well..

I have one fish now that doesn't want to eat very much. he's a blue/green guppy. is it the cycle that's doing this to him?

sirdarksol

Hopefully, but it could have been injured. Water transmits shockwaves really well, and a solid rap on the glass can actually damage sensitive fish. I can imagine that a baseball through the glass could be deadly.
I would maintain really good water quality, as well as use Vitachem to help the fish get the nutrients he needs to heal, in case he's injured.

♥ashley♥

do you know where to buy that?