Read about my mistake so you don't make it....Worth the read.

vijaym85

New member
So i am getting ready to do a water change tonight. I turned off all the power to my tank as I dont like leavng the power on when I am messing with the water. So far normal. I end up getting caught up with some other stuff and dont get to go back to my tank for like 5 hours. Mind you the power has been off all this time except for 2 power heads which I left on. That means my skimmer, my fuge,my ozone, my chem filter, my mechanical filter, my sand filter, are all off. No filtration is occuring. I come back with the replacement buckets in hand and what do I see...

My French angel is lying upside down with his head on the sand and his belly up in the sky. My imperator is lying on his side. Both of them were breathing heavily, especially the imperator, I immediately return power to the tank and dump in the new water I made. The water level was low so I had to toss it quick to get the overflow going. I poked the two fish and the french got up and the impertor a soon while after.
Thankfully both fish seem ok as of right now, but what a lesson I learned the hard hard way. I belive the fish were starved for oxygen and that is why they were struggling for air, as both these animals were fine all day and eat and swan perfectly normal. Their repiration seemed to be highly labored. strangely my other fish seemed ok. With the filtration back online all the fish look happy and are swiming around freely. I thoink the oxygen level depleted quickly because I have a large number of fish and crearly these two must be the most unhelathy as they were the only ones to not handle the stress.
If anyone actually gets through reading this than I hope if you did not already know to learn from my mistake. In am not 100% sure it was oxygen related but any of your thoughts would be appreciated. Again I hope anyone who did not already know this be watchful of your oxygen content. And again the fish are doing fine now.
 
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I think I'll second that. That is a long time with no O2. Consider yourself lucky, this time.
 
Yeah I can tell it was not a disease type of display. Generally if they were sick they would stay down. But after replenishing the oxygen content they seem to be recovering from the effects.

I think to put it in perspective they were the first to go down becuase they are one quite large and two likely not in the peak physical condition. I have a 8in naso which is comparavble to the french and it was ok! Clearly this animal is in superior condition. I can tell as it swims so often and is an eating machine. If you think of a bunch of people running a marathon the ones in worst shape would be the first to fatigue out since their lungs and heart are in poor condition.

Anyway I guess the moral of my ordeal is that one should never take airation and oxygen content for granted. If I had waited a little longer the effects would have been lethal. I actually read a thread here that talked about this very issue and someones fish mysteriously dying... after I went thrugh my experience.
I just want anyone out there who did't know this or concern themselves with this to be vigalant and let my experience be your knowledge.
 
I had a similar experience where I turned off all pumps/powerheads around 5 pm one afternoon at feeding time. The next morning at 10 am I looked over and it was disaster. Lost 2 clownfish, a blue hippo and yellow tang, a mandarin, a few chromis, my cleaner shrimp, peppermints, and probably more. I only had live through it a chromis, a ywg which was only there a few days so that's wierd, a pistol shrimp and a peppermint or two. The corals didn't look a bit different or disturbed. It was a sad morning. :( Within a couple months I got an aquacontroller 3 with the feed cycle so that didn't happen again.
 
They're probably brain dead now. :D

Yeah, oxygen is very important to keep at a high level. It runs out quick.

Dan
 
Tangs and angels have a very high oxygen requirement---the bottom-movers far less so.
 
I made a similar mistake. The consequences were that all the fish made it but all of the three anthias in the tank died.
 
Definately a lack of O2 for sure, but glad to see that they're okay now........

I'm with drBDC...I luv the feed cycle of my ACIII
 
I used to turn off my pumps to feed all the time. I once forgot to turn them back on. Luckily nothing died even after 8 hours. I thanked my lucky stars and never turned them off again.
 
fish are ok , the Freanch is eating this morning. I am more concerned for the imperator,he is swiming and very active, but not eating yet. He is out in the open and moving about the tank, so my next step will be to provide him with the best water quality I can, and hopefully the trauma of the event will pass.
 
I have a pretty big skimmer, its about 4 ft tall so when its on its creating millions of bubbleswhich is a great help in maintaining o2 levels.
 
my imperator is eating again.
everyone is looking good, i am very happy they were able to bounce back.
 
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Thanks Gordon
I am really into passes this onto anybody else who dosnt know about it as I feel very fortunate.
 
Water movement through the overflow etc. is actually enough. Many run skimmerless. But with no water movement it becomes a cesspool.
 
Not much O2 in fish bags. Some dont make it because of this.

I think that if the lights were on this would not happen. On the real reef, O2 greatly increases due to photosythesis of plants,algae phytoplankton ect. Its suttle from wave action.


When you think O2 is low put in H2O3(hydrogen peroxide) WARNING H203 IS irritating too life, and can kill in high doses. But I would recommend 10 drops for every 100gallons in an emergency situation.

Or just keep the lights on :)
 
I would be interested in an article from Randy that could discuss oxygen and reefs.
I think the scairy part was that I thought things were so routine ya know. and to come to see these fish in that state really blindsided me. I even put my hand in the water to see if there was loose elctricity. Dont try that at home by the way. It was hard to even know how to react in that situation. In your mind you have to decide in a split second what you have to do to save this animal that is seconds from death. i felt like I was in ER or something. I am glad I made the right choice to increase the oxygen content. Imagine a misdiagnosis like thinking the animal was diseased or something of that nature and making medication your means of treatment. that would have been a disaster. I am glad that the ordeal is over.
 
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