Oh No!

Got up this morning and went to feed the fish, and noticed the lights hadnt turned on with the timer this morining, a closer inspection and there was no water flow from the filter, I then checked the temp and its had dropped down to 18c, then next thing to check was the plug which was turned off! Now I fed them after my dinner last night and they were all fine, so one of the little kids must of turned off the switch to the plug which is located to the side of the tank, I even had tape over the plug to try and stop this happening.

My fish has 4 Discus 5 Bristle nose, I started to freak out as the water had dropped very low the fish had gone very dark and did not look well, one was up against the filter in put looking dead (but wasnt). I got the plug turned on the filter kicked in (worried about the biological media being killed now as it must of been off for over 12hours, I boiled the kettle and ran the hot tap, filled up 2 5 little bottles of very warm water and placed in the tank covered with a towl to keep any heat in and from escaping. And left the rest to the hands of the Gods.

Had a peak after 5 hours and the temp is now 25c and the fish have picked up colour and look lively and having a good swim around.

Just hope there will be no side effects and they will pick up well,

You can try and cover most problems ie spare filter, 2 heater instead of one, spare tank etc but when kids are around there are always something you can nerver have a back up for!

Sorry to hear that mate:( but it is good that they are looking better now
Make sure you do regular water tests for the next few days in case your filters are not up to scratch

I'm sure they'll be fine. A lot worse than that could happen in the wild.

I wouldn't worry about the filter media, if it's an established tank the bacteria will last even those 12 hours.

It's enough to give you a heart attack though.

Good luck

Hi B.J,
nothing worse to happen in a morning but a text book recovery on your behalf. and any problems will be minor the only thing i would add is slightly reduced feeding maybe tomorrow i would skip and check water on Friday but i really don't see there being anything to worry about.

Just a little tlc

Mickey

Hi BJ,
Lucky escape by the sounds of it, but if there is one thing that has been proved by this,its that checking your fish tank first thing in the morning really is important! I often leave the house at 7 ish and will still check that the temp and filter are running. I see you have done similar. Well done and thankfully you recovered the fish safely.

Gavin

Hi BJ

If it was the socket outlet that the kids switched off maybe it might be an option to change the socket outlet to an unswitched socket. Won't stop the kids unplugging the plug top but you might have a better change of seeing the plug out instead of the switch being off.
If you need advice on changing the socket give us a shout and i can help you out.

good recovery by the way:cheer:

Cheers

GB

As suggested feed lightly for the next couple of days. Feeding a little a few times a day rather than 1-2 large feeds will let the filter manage the waste easier. A lot of bacteria could have died off in this time so there will be less to handle the bio load.
One good thing might come out of this, with a drop in temp. the bristlenose might spawn.