everyting turned off!!

[sparklerainbowglitter]

Got home today to find someone had accidently turned the power off to my long standing fish tank. No heating or filter for hours!! - Does anyone know if all the fish will die? Is there anything I can do?

[EauRouge]

Bugger! Hopefully you switched everything on again straight away? It takes a while for total die-off of good bacteria in the filter but hopefully there should be some left. If you test the water to monitor the ammonia and nitrIte levels over the next week or so then you'll know if your filter has taken a serious knock. Then something like ammolock can help.

If you know anyone with a fish tank then you could beg a bt of sponge out of their filter to help boost your good bacteria levels.

If everything I'm saying is gobbledegook then this will explain it.

[sparklerainbowglitter]

no bad signs yet 4 days on - have been adding "cycle" product and will be doing a decent water change tomorrow - not sure whether to clean filter (as usual) though or to leave it a few more days?

[EauRouge]

When was the last time you cleaned it? If it's blocked at all then it'll be a good idea to give it a quick rinse in water from the tank but if it's all flowing fine then I'd just leave it. Have you got a water test kit? Those cycle products can be a bit hit and miss, in fact most of them can be classed as a miss which one did you get?

[CherryTheRedNosedMonster]

fish can survive happily without filtration for up to 48 hours, im sure they will be fine.

[EauRudolph]

The fish can survive without a filter for a short time but the bacteria in the filter will die off completely in 48 hours meaning that the whole cycling process has to start again which exposes the fish to high levels of ammonia and nitrIte.

How did things go, Sparkle, were your fish OK in the end?