forgot to plug filter back in

[carrcn]

I went to do my weekly cleaning of my tank yesterday morning and pulled the hood off only to find that the filter wasn't running. I looked at the power bar and both the filter and heater were unplugged!!!

My fish hadn't been acting any differently all week, so it never dawned on me to start looking for something. I changed about 50% of the water and kept a sample for testing. Surprisingly, after a week with no filtration, there was no ammonia, nitrites, and only 5 ppm on the Nitrates. Guess I've got a fairly balanced system in there. Aside from the water being a little cooler than normal, everything else was fine. Warmed the little fellas back up and they're doing fine still.

Anyone else ever do this and have any kind of negative effects afterwards? Like to know if my fish are going to be stressed out and what to watch out for. Thanks.

 

[gixer]

keep monitoring ammonia and nitrites for the next two weeks

 

[Rusty_S]

I know it's not quite as extreme but my mother turns every single plug off in the house at night and always has, it has never affected my fish. Don't worry I've already been flamed for this and as I've explained before she is obsessive and it can't be stopped, I believe she has some kind of disorder, no joke. But anyway, my fish don't seem to notice the change overnight, but I've never left it off for so long as a week before.

It's surprising what fish can put up with really

 

[Nina7777]

wow i am amazed that you had no amonia nor nitrite for a whole week without a filter. Seems like you do have a good balanced system as well as proper feeding knowledge. It could have been a huge disaster if you had no filter and overfed your fish!

 

[Teelie]

I always do periodic checks on all the filters I run to make sure they're running. It's a good thing I do because one of my filters on the Cory tank accidently got unplugged the other night while I was messing with the cords. I have a second filter on there however with a biowheel so it wasn't a big deal.

 

[TracyRee]

I did this about a month ago and have been paying for it since. I'm battling fin rot in 3 of my fish now

 

[Synastic]

Hope everything turn out well for you . Your lucky, one day you could have came home with green water and dead fish.

 

[cherrybarbbaby]

My cats have learned to turn off the switch to my power cord that my filter is connected to!
The switch light is red and at night my kitten is attracted to it like a moth to a flame!
One time it was off for 48 hrs but my fish were okay

Bad Kitty Cat!

 

[Nina7777]

My cats have learned to turn off the switch to my power cord that my filter is connected to!
The switch light is red and at night my kitten is attracted to it like a moth to a flame!
One time it was off for 48 hrs but my fish were okay

Bad Kitty Cat!

 

[luxum]

Anyone else ever do this and have any kind of negative effects afterwards? Like to know if my fish are going to be stressed out and what to watch out for.

Since there was a temperature drop, be on the lookout for signs of ich. Scratching, flashing, difficulty breathing, eventually little white spots that look like grains of salt. I'd do small daily water changes for about a week just to be on the safe side, then resume normal weekly changes after that.

 

[carrcn]

I live in an extremely hot environment, so the water temp didn't drop below 73-75 degrees, so it wasn't too low. But the water temp is usually in the upper 80's. I have to keep it there because during the summer months, the "cold" water coming out of my tap ranges in the mid to high 80's. It just makes it easier on me when I do my weekly water changes to keep my temperature a little high. The freezer is a little small, so there's not enough room to keep a bag of ice in it to cool it. I did that last summer, 5 gallon buckets with ice in them to cool them to the correct temp. That got old really fast, so I decided to bump the water temp up so I don't have to keep ice on hand. Plus, I don't know what's in the ice when it melts.

The one thing I've noticed is that my neons have gotten really skinny. I don't know if they're not getting any food or if there's something wrong. Don't want to lose those guy since they were the first ones in the tank. They're still very colorful, so I'm thinking they're just not getting enough food. I've got some real pigs in my tank that are bigger than them, so I think they might be scared to go to the top and get some bigger flakes. They just hang out below everyone and pick up the smaller scraps that's left behind by all the bigger fish. Wusses.