Please Help, Can't Find Answers! Please!

[Terry.E.]

Hi, I'm new to this site. I can't seem to find the answers I need so I thought I'd give this a shot. Long story short if possible goes like this. I'm OCD about my water changes on all my tanks. I was out of town and relied on a friend to handle only one tank, in fact it's my only freshwater, the rest are saltwater and wouldn't let him touch those. It's a 125g Malawi cichlid tank. These fish are very large, most range from 6"-10". Due to the size of fish I normally do 40% changes weekly. I've done this for years on this tank and only use salt and stress coat, no chemicals. Anyways he used the python draining system and was draining the water and while draining he fell asleep. Basically taking 85% of the water out. Ironically I got home early and walked into this BS. After wanting to key his car and punch him in the face which I didn't do, I rushed to fill it up and got the filters running ASAP. I have multiple aquaclear 110s on this tank. So it's been almost 24 hours, not one fish lost and the behavior and habits of the fish are very normal. So question #1- with all the beneficial bacterial from the aquaclears and the established substrate, how worried should I be? Question #2- is there something else I can do in the mean time to add extra peace of mind to this disaster? (besides trusting no one but myself to maintain my tanks) I have analyzied the fish constantly and they seem very normal. Please, any advice or thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[aquariumart22]

So, I'm thinking as long as your filters still had water in them to cover the media and sponges, your bacteria should be fine. You may have lost some, but not all. Without the filter running, you would loose about 10-20 percent of living bacteria every 24 hours. Changing so much water should be fine as well. Someone may be able to give some more advice, just wanted to share my thoughts.

 

[Terry.E.]

Thanks. There wasn't much water in the filters but the sponges were wet and the block sponges would be most important to me when it comes to the beneficial bacteria.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

An 85% water change in itself should not cause any issues, if the original water was reasonable good, I regularly suggest ~95% water changes on the forum and do them myself when such drastic measures are needed. If the original tank water was loaded with ammonia/nitrite, then a massive water change can result in "old tank syndrome" whereby the new water is so different it shocks the fish. If your tank water's chemistry was drastically different from your replacement water, perhaps through using rocks/substrate that increase the hardness, then this could stress the fish (as could wildly different temperature).

As long as the filter media was still damp, there should have been no bacteria die off, which will almost certainly be the case while still draining water from the tank when you arrived home and woke your sleeping water changer.

 

[fluttermoth]

NOTG is right; I've done 95% changes at odd times too (sick fish, questing on WoW while draining tank.... ) and no harm is done.

Make sure you test often for ammonia to check your filters haven't been knocked out and you should be fine

 

[Terry.E.]

Thanks, my thought process is to not perform any water change for a couple weeks to get things back to normal. All fish are still doing well, eating like horses as usual. The usual habits, some watching my every move, the trench diggers, the playful ones and the loners. Still not convinced though. I'll feel better in another week or two. I will never let someone touch my tanks again. If the tank did have to somewhat re-cycle Itself again, wouldn't it be done quickly considering the fish are so big and what they can produce in such a short period?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Bigger fish in larger quantities produce more ammonia if fed sufficiently, which the bacterial colonies will respond to by increasing in size, but there will be a lag time where toxins are rife... Just like in a "fish in cycle."

 

[Terry.E.]

Bigger fish in larger quantities produce more ammonia if fed sufficiently, which the bacterial colonies will respond to by increasing in size, but there will be a lag time where toxins are rife... Just like in a "fish in cycle."

 

[Terry.E.]

Bigger fish in larger quantities produce more ammonia if fed sufficiently, which the bacterial colonies will respond to by increasing in size, but there will be a lag time where toxins are rife... Just like in a "fish in cycle."