At least I don’t think so… The filter on the fish tank died at 11 o’clock tonight. No way to replace it at this hour. Hundreds of dollars worth of fish with lives in the balance. I have time to go get a filter tomorrow morning assuming there are fish to save, but I don’t have time to set it up. I will have to be very very late. Then there is the cycling of a filter. If I can’t reuse enough of the components with good bacteria living on them the tank good essentially become a deathtrap as the biological filtration chemistry starts over. The last time we got a new filter I think we did 50 percent water changes (40 gallons) every hour for a full day to keep the water livable… It was awful and so many fish died. The water becomes poisonous and they suffocate. They try to jump out before they die.

And I get to deal with potentially any combination of the above possibilities tomorrow before work. Joy.

UPDATE: No one died, the new filter is bought and up and running. I’ll test the water in a bit to see if there is any bad stuff happening…. so far so good!

tagged: pets fish tank filter disasters

I woke up with one chore to do today. Clean the fish tank filter. I was up nice and early. As I was checking my email and sipping a nice cup of coffee I heard it.

Beep. Beep. Beep beep!

It was that damn washer again. It does this every now and again. I don’t know why. It was brilliantly designed by those Kenmore folk with no display. Anyway, the last time it did this beeping non-stop (usually it stops on it’s own) I had found a magical button combo to reset it. Did I write it down? Erm.. No. Of course not. So I lost like 30 minutes looking for it on the Google. Then I went down to try and ‘figure it out’. No luck. It was getting late so I went to my chore of the filter.

Beep. Beep. Beep beepbeep.

The filter thing went fast, although with all the beeping I was a bit annoyed. I put it back together and went to re-attach it to the tank. It filled with water, but wouldn’t prime and start. I pumped the little starter to get suction. Nothing. I pumped more.

Beep. Beep. Beeeeep.

After some time I gave up and tried to detach a hose to use my mouth to start it. The hose apparently had filled with water even though it wouldn’t prime. This water sprayed everywhere, drenching me and the immediate area of floor and inside the cabinet that houses the filter.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

So I unplug it altogether and take it back to the sink to drain it and try to start the process all over. Water of course drips along the way. I head bak to the tank, re-attach and try again. I pump the thing. Water leaks out from somewhere. The washer beeps. Finally it starts.

Beeeeep.

So I have cleaned up. I am running totally late (even later after blogging it). The washer is still beeping.

tagged: fish coffee washer annoyed clean running reset beep filter insane