Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => The Emergency Room => Topic started by: fruitbat on June 11, 2015, 09:12:33 AM
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hi guys, how long would power need to be off for my fish to die. while on hols my daughter came up to find all my fish dead, power had been off at some point as trip switch was off but i had my tank on a non trip one while on hols so this wouldn't happen but obviously did.. could power cut for a few hours cause this... the day i left all tests were zero except nitrates which was low ... any info would be welcome , thanks
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Ah Fruitbat, I'm so sorry for your loss.
It was nerve wracking to go away last week and leave them and having lost my first six fish I do feel for you.
My ammonia was showing when I got back and Sue did ask if we'd had a power cut but apparently not.
How long were you away for. I was away for 5 days with nobody caring for them.
If my power goes off, everything comes back on again when the power is returned. The only thing that does are the clocks which are always way off.
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Extremely sorry to read of this. I'm not sure that there'd be a definitive answer to this. However, there was a similar tragic incident which I read about on another forum (which I use for helping folk with goldfish problems, based on my former experience) a while back, in which the owner had inadvertently caused a kink in the filter cable by pressing it too far against the back edge of the tank, and thus causing it to malfunction when he was away. Is there any possibility that something like this could have happened rather than or in addition to a power cut?
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I'm so sorry to hear this.
There are a couple of things that would go wrong. The heater would have been off, and depending how cold the tank got, the fish could have become stressed. Though that would apply more in winter than summer.
If the filter went off the ammonia made by the fish would no longer pass through the media, and although the bacteria on the other surfaces would not be affected, there wouldn't be enough to remove all the ammonia, which would build up and potentially kill the fish if left like this for a few days. Once the first fish died, that would push the ammonia level up even faster.
If there was no filtration for several days, the bacteria inside the filter could have suffocated. I know they go dormant if deprived of food, and only die after several weeks without food, but i don't know how quickly they die when deprived of oxygen.
Does your filter always switch back on after being turned off? I once had a filter that wouldn't start after a water change, I had to manually start the impeller. If this happened to yours, even if the power had only been off for a few minutes, there would have been no filtration afterwards.
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Fcmf's comment regarding a kink in the hose has just reminded me that my home made one wasn't working when we got home (thankfully the main one was) and the reason for the failure of that was because when I cleaned the tank two days before I went away I didn't notice that I had placed the lid across the hose rather than with the hose pushed into the slot.
As the water was still being circulated I didn't notice. In reality of course, it should not have made a difference to mine since the other one was going but it might explain the rise in ammonia in that tank when I got back.
The hose was so kinked I had to replace it.
I also have a battery powered pump which I was saving for emergencies but I'm now wondering whether I should stick that in as a backup before I go again.
I'm a bit worried now. Flipping fish!!
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thanks for your remarks about my fish, you do get attached to the little buggers !!! power had been off but don't know how long for but when my daughter came up they were all dead but everything was working she said, once power was restored the pump and filter etc come back on automatically ( just turned off for a few mins and everything turned back on ok).. it was only 3 days in to my holiday that it happened so max 2 days without anyone being there ... arranged someone come up 4 times a week .. told my daughter to just put a little food in twice a week to keep the cycle going and when i returned reading was ... ammonia .5 nitrites over 5 didn't test nitrates .. though through this my 2 amman shrimp survived !! strange , i will never know exactly why they died but as I'm an electrician will have to work out a emergency back up
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just to add, tested just now and everything fine ! guess i will have to start all over again :vcross:
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Do you have anywhere you could temporarily house the amanos? The safest way to start again would be to add 3ppm ammonia and test next day to check the health of the bacteria colonies. But the amanos won't appreciate that much ammonia.
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hi, no i haven't, but what i meant is start over restocking. the water seems fine since i did several water changes after i got back and nitrite back to zero.. do you think i will need to re cycle again
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It depends on what caused the fish deaths. If something happened to kill the bacteria, allowing ammonia and/or nitrite to get high enough to kill the fish, you need to build the colonies back up again. You could go slowly as for a fish-in cycle; there should be enough bacteria left for a few fish, then once you know the levels are staying at zero you could then get a few more. I would be concerned if you went out and bought a tankful of fish all at once that there may not be enough bacteria for them all.
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I'm going to get a 4 platys and see how it goes and build up slowly, after the fish died i told my daughter to put a little food in to hopefully keep the cycle going until i got back, hopefully they will be ok, thanks
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The food will have helped. It will keep the bacteria in there fed as it decomposes to ammonia, and if any had died off, it will encourage the ones left to multiply.
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hi, as of today water seems to be fine, hopefully it has kept up as a cycled tank but time will tell, if i start getting high nitrites may pull my hair out ! put 6 rummy in 10 days ago and all seems ok, putting 4 platys in at the weekend and maybe a couple more shrimp... i love the two i have at the moment as i like to look for them and see them gliding through the water.. :cheers: