Disaster ! What do you think would happen

[Coler]

Pop quiz :

lets say you have a 180 litre tank, mostly mbuna, not overstocked by the applicable standards, good filtration.

over Christmas, a fuse blows. Lights, Heaters, Filtration, everything goes off for approximately 48 hours but could be more. No one at home so no one notices until the happy fishkeeper comes home after Christmas. Fish were fed last 4 days before this, i.e. 4 days before the problem is spotted.

Temperature is extremely cold - Ireland in December.

What results would you expect on a) ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings and b) survivability of these fish following the problems being discovered, and c) what would you have done if it was you, when you found the problem.

I'll tell you what I did and how it worked out later

edit : tank readings pre disaster 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10 - 20 nitrates.

edit again : no plants

 

[Dave Noel]

I should read more carefully.

I am very new at keeping fish so I will try to answer this, my apologies if I am way off.

I am thinking being a rather larger tank your temp didn't change too much. Chemistry didn't go off the wall, nothing a few water changes couldn't handle.

I probably shouldn't even be answering this I may be way off. Look forward to hearing what really happened though.

 

[Windy]

Pop quiz :

lets say you have a 180 litre tank, mostly mbuna, not overstocked by the applicable standards, good filtration.

over Christmas, a fuse blows. Lights, Heaters, Filtration, everything goes off for approximately 48 hours but could be more. No one at home so no one notices until the happy fishkeeper comes home after Christmas. Fish were fed last 4 days before this, i.e. 4 days before the problem is spotted.

Temperature is extremely cold - Ireland in December.

What results would you expect on a) ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings and b) survivability of these fish following the problems being discovered, and c) what would you have done if it was you, when you found the problem.

I'll tell you what I did and how it worked out later

edit : tank readings pre disaster 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10 - 20 nitrates.

edit again : no plants

Well i know A and B would happen and when it comes to C, I would have gone nuts. I would try to fix the problem while monitoring them and checking to see if any of them ar experiencing any problems small or large. I would also check to see why the fuse blew and of course you know you did Coler...Replace it fast. I would like you test the water parameters and treat the water accordingly and do pwc for the tanks. When it comes down to letter C, I would like i said have gone nuts trying to figure out why this happened and medicate myself after coming home to this horror. I would have done all of this IMO.

What were your readings when you tested the water Coler Post disaster?
Did you lose any fish?
Are the survivors ok?

 

[pinkertd]

Lets see, water temperature dropped, fish have no food to eat and the cool water temp slows their metabolism way down, I'll take a guess and say there was no ammonia or nitrite spike, and the nitrates actually were much lower than they normally are in that tank, close to zero I'd say! And all the fish turned out just fine from their mid-winter sleep!

Almost forgot....when I found the problem I would have had a heart attack!!! Then slowly started things up again.

 

[jm1212]

i would probably assume the huge drop in temp would kill them before ammoina.

 

[jagr200]

Thats exactly what I was thinking would happened pinkertd. They basically just hibernated for awhile.

 

[Rbishop]

Hard to judge a temp issue...depends on how cold ireland was and how well your house is insullated. I would expect some fishie loss if temp drop was severe, like tank temp down by 20-30 degrees. If the tank was still in the high 60s, they would probasbly be somewhat idle.

I wouldn't expect the ammonia to be too out of whack, but would expect a mini cycle on restoration if running canisters.

I would have restored power and let the temp come back to normal with the heater and flow, then taken a set of tests and do water changes if they indicated one needed to be done.

 

[Coler]

...temp was 60 or below; ireland in december = cold & house was not heated over the period of power out.

 

[NeonFlux]

I would use portable wall outlets from Fry's

 

[fish guru]

Okay if the water temp got down that much, I would expect one fish dead but with most of them alive. Also since the metabolism gets slow.... I guess that there was no ammonia no nitrite but with a higher nitrate reading. Maybe like at around 30 if it already had 20. I'm a newbie so I might be off.