well.. tank crashed... :(

 Sorry to read about that.

In 40 years in the hobby, I have never bothered turning off pumps to feed. If you are worried about it, just feed slower so the fish have a chance to catch the food before it goes "down the drain".

LostCauseZ06 wrote: ...two days later there is no infection in any of my fish at all!  too bad i cant afford a quarantine tank right now...

There is always an Ich parasite living on one or more of the fish, but it just doesn't bloom and cause any harm until conditions become stressful. Best thing is to seriously look at your tank and see how it's biological ecosystem can be improved. Outside mechanical filters are less important than the living growing biological activity inside the tank and sump/refugium.

Edited by Mark Peterson

Maybe it's just me, but I'm doubting the unplugged heater caused the damage.

Adam

if you guys dont believe me go ask ryan or kyle at aquatic.. they said there is no way it was my water quality that did it.. especially over night... im guessing the tank got down to easily 60 degrees... window down at night is freezing at my house.. when i woke up at noon it was back up to 74, i had never seen it down past 76 EVER in the past...

 

the water was perfect.. there was NO problems with the water, or the tank.. ryan and kyle were pretty puzzled as well....

 

the water was taken from the tank with all the dead stuff in it... not after it had time to really filter alot of it.

 

BTW mark.. since the crash there is not one spot of ick on any of my fish.. seems like the powder brown was the main stressed out one and kept on stressing cause he was always infected.. he was a breeding ground for ick..

btw i took a look at ryans ricordia that just died beucase his temps got messed up and they looked identical...

you dont lose a perfect condition healthy enormous plate coral overnigth with bad water... no matter how much my setup sucks in your eyes... its just not logical..

my only other idea was that i could have been foul play by somebody that was pissed at me, or someobdy accidentally haveing something on their hands when they messed with my tank while i was gone... but nothing else has died since i have had the heater plugged back in..

Dude, I personally (potentially others but I will not speak for them) are simply trying to share experience and knowledge. Trying to allow you to have the information available to make your own judgement call. No one is "hating" your tank. (watch MTV much?).

Try to relax and understand that just because people say things that you may not want to hear that it is not a personal attack on you. It is an opinion. You OBVIOUSLY have your opinions and have not problem expressing them. Well, you should accept the fact that others will share theirs.

However, you don't need to worry about me sharing mine to your posts anymore. In my opinion, you're too high on your horse to be willing to listen to people trying to help you and therefore a LostCause. Good luck with your perfect, bullet-proof tank.

Edited by Carl

I don't remember how big you said your tank was, but If I remember right it is 55 gallons or smaller.  I can attest to the fact that a tank sitting in a place in the house that gets cold can lose heat pretty quickly.  I've observed a 4 degree temp swing in my 180 gallon tank in the basement and this during summer months.  In the winter I must have a heater or the tank would easly get as cool as 72 degress and even cooler.  This swing alone could kill some of the more tempermental fish we keep.

I'm sorry to hear about your Powder Brown.  They are very cool fish.  (Almost as cool as Powder Blue's.)  A lot of people have suggested that maybe the water parameters could have had something to do with it's problems and you have contested all along that your parameters are perfect.  I am in no way questioning your water quality or your filtration, but there are many things we don't test and more that we can't test or don't really even understand that could be wrong with the quality, for lack of a better term, of the water.  I don't claim to know what the reason is, but having set up many aquariums, both freshwater and saltwater I can say that I have far fewer problems with disease, sick fish and dying fish after the tank has been set up for a long period of time and become well established.  I've had many fish die in my tanks youth and then found that very few fish die after it has been established a year or so.

If you decide to get another fish that is touchy like the Powder Brown, I would suggest you look carefully at wether or not your tank is large enough for that fish. (Again I don't remember how big your tank is.)  Then wait until your tank has been established for a while.  There is just something about a well established tank that seems to work.  My Powder Blue has thrived in my tank for a year, but it was established 7 years and established at it's current site for 1 year before I aquired him.

Good Luck!  I hope everything that lived through the cold period continues to do well.

I just can't see it getting all that low during the night. Even with the window open. Takes water longer to cool down than air. I would guess you only got down to around 70 at most, especially if at noon it had only risen to 74. Takes water a long while to heat up or cool down.
But thats just my opinion.

FWIW, I have a 300 gallon system in a greenhouse. The water can be at 80 degrees at 8PM and drop all the way down to 70 (the air temperature at night) within 6 hours or so.

i think i have decided the calcium is high because i use tap water out of our water softener, its treated with salt so im guessing its leaving calcium in the water.... it seems to go up every time i do a water change....

LostCauseZ06 wrote: btw i have decided to go with premixxed RO water from now on... hehe

Good idea!  I used to use tap water for my aquariums, then bought a cheap RO unit ($15 used).  When I use tap water instead of RO water for my phytoplankton, it will usually crash within 2 weeks.

Some of the LFS will sell you premixed water, or just RO water if you want.

It is good to hear that everything that is left is doing fine.  Now, what do you want to replace with kind, and what do you want to replace with new stuff?

The only comment I have regarding the loss of your fish is this: "Is it possible that you just had too many fish and the loss of a few left the remaining fish less stressed?"

75 gallons, OK, I can't harrass you too much about too small a tank then.

Everyone is wondering about the turning off the light thing.  Please explain the thought behind this.  I'm guessing you weren't home so you asked you dad to feed, then to turn the lights out which right now is plugged into the outlet without a timer.  If this is the case do like Shane H said and buy a timer or two.  They save a lot of headaches.  This is coming from someone who was too lazy and cheap to buy them for too long himself.  The $10-20 will be a huge favor to both your fish and yourself.