some really sad news

So I went on vacation to my parents for Christmas. I left my apartment heater on the whole time to ward off any super cold snaps (as it is wont to do in the mountains). My apartment ac can't be set by temperature. You have to feel it out by turning it off and on. So I thought if I just set the ac to the dead middle, it shouldnt get TOO hot and will keep the heater from blowing from overworking.

Well, tank water got up to 86. I had an anemone in there (I know ... shouldnt have. but I did. It had been doing really well till then, though) and it died. So I was worried about it poisoning the tank. I went and got a new tank (because I didnt have any others) and moved all my live rock into it. Then all my live sand. I figured by doing that, plus using my old filter would keep the bio filters basically in place, evenn with a large (~50%) water change to keep poison from spreading. The fish still looked ok at that point, but I didnt kno wwhen the anemone died and I didnt want to takke a chance with poison being in the water. So I did the change. Well, all went well and the fish acclimated fine.

However ... my filter went out late last night and when I woke up today i noticed the fish flopping around and all of them hanging out at the surface of the water. I went ahead and did another large water change (the ammonia tested at like 1 ppm or so). And bought a new filter.


Long story short, only have 3 of my 8 fish :( :( :( It's a very sad day for me today.


Pic is the casualties of The Great Tank Crisis of 2012.

yes sad to hear about it.

Not sure if your sig is correct, but 8 fish in a 29g is too much. You could have caused a mini cycle by moving eveything the way you did.

Hopefully the rest of the fish pull through, go slow and take it one step at a time. Good Luck!

+1 Moe....sorry to hear....but yes, I do hope your signature is old and you had a much larger tank than a 29g for 8 fish.

Accidents happen in this hobby. Always sucks when things happen while you're gone. I have a neighbor who pet sits for me, and I show them to peek in the sump room once a day just to make sure there are no floods. And if there was, I have an LFS on stand by who can stop by and fix the damage.

No the sig was still right. But that was part of the reason for getting a bigger tank (a 37g). The water in the 29 was *super* clear though, probably from my overkill on filtration (had a pump for 60 gallons). So I thought as long as the parameters were all in check I was ok (though I wasn't planning on adding any more fish). I think Id have been fine if my filter hadn't have broken, but I don't know for sure.

lesson learned :( poor fishes

Moving the sand may have been what did it more than anything. So sorry for your losses. :( Do you not run a heater in your tank?

yeah i have a heater. but it was a cheap replacement of one that broke. and the last one broke during a cold snap while i was away (hence the reason i turned on the apartment heater too).

Now I have a pretty good one though. Thermal plastic, not glass like the other two. And you can set the temp on it (it was like $50 for 150 watts i think). ... sucks to lose the fish to learn .... i suppose that happens though. :S