Where'd the Water Go?

Ah. I gotta love my coworkers. :)

So, I was in the middle of...well I think it was helping a customer,

When my coworker came up to me and said. "We have a problem with one of the fish tanks."

Which isn't ever a good thing to hear.

And I glanced over to the fish wall as my coworker explained. "The water in this tank suddenly disappeared, it's so low, and there's hardly any water coming in through the locklines..."

Indeed. :S It was.

The tank in question, which held some guppies and catfish.

Was indeed almost completely empty.

Like only a couple of inches of water remained in the tank. :S The other 90% of the tank was now dry. O.o

How had the tank suddenly gotten so empty?

First thought was that there was a crack or a leak and we were so screwed, but then I figured that couldn't be possible because a) the tanks haven't broken yet and they're ancient and b) there was no huge amounts of water on the floor. lol.

But I quickly did see what the culprit could be.

Because in the tank above the 'suddenly empty' tank....was the gravel vacuum. Also hanging out IN the tank...with no one actively using it.

So I asked my coworker. "Did you leave the gravel vacuum in the tank and go do something else?"

To which they were like. "...Yah?"

Solution found. lol.

I told my coworker to Not. Do. That.

Because the gravel vacuum would continue to suck water from the tank if you leave it in there and don't watch it.

If you have to leave off the gravel vacuuming task, you always. ALWAYS take the gravel vacuum out of the tank first, and then go do whatever you needed to do.

That way, if you're taken away for longer than anticipated....the tank won't suddenly loose most of it's water.

Thankfully, my coworker noticed before the tank was completely empty, so the fish were still fine. :)

-It's not the first time this has happened either. Other greenies have made this mistake too, just not recently. lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi