Big Fish tales

So April Fools is on me. We have a large 55 gallon aquarium in the livingroom, fill of all kinds of fish, it has been doing wonderfully with minimal loss here & there. I was pretty proud of it.
So last week we noticed the cloth it sat on was rather damp. As we'd just replaced some water we figured we had spilled some. A few days ago, we noticed that it was apparently actually leaking some as it was wetter. Hmmm........its no small task to tear it down & redo it.
Well today we got to do it anyway!
Mom was sititng here watching tv when she heard a loud CRACK CRACK, she freaked out & called me, said we had to do somethign TODAY!
oops
So they start draining the tank & get the fish in buckets, hoping they dont die. ive got some old timers in there.....
We move the tank & DAMN, the wood underneath is all wet, warped & cracking right down the middle. if wed have waited, wed have had a catastrophic failure & 55 gallons of fish & watrer in the floor, mixed with electricity, a lot f glass & whatever was in front of it when it went could have died..
DAMN
So we had to replace the cabinet, spent more thna planned on a stand & had to get small pumps to aerate the buckets so my fishies dont croak (hopefully!).
We're resealing it, refilling it & praying for the best. The thing itself isnt leaking though, the failure is in one of my filter boxes, just enough to make a big damn mess.