Accidentally left canister pump off 5 days.

I was cleaning the floss out after my last water change 5 days ago. I just realized that I never opened up the line, and water hasn't been flowing through it for 5 days. I had my 2 power heads and protein skimmer running the whole time. It was just a stupid mistake. Anything I need to watch for?
 
I did like a 13% water change. (That was all the water I had mixed up). I am starting another bucket so maybe I can do another 15% water change. My fish are swimming around like normal. When I turned the pump back on, water rushed in the tank & my Kenya Coral tree closed up. I didn't know if this was due to the water flow change or a water quality change.
I think the smell is getting better. I can live with the smell. I'm just so scared that I am going to wake up and my pair of clowns & coral beauty angelfish will be gone. :(
 

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Should b fine. Iam guessing u have live rock? If so the biological filtration just from that should b enough for a short time
 

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
I would have taken the canister offline and cleaned the mess out of it first, and replace the media as needed before putting the canister back on the system, honestly.
Some canisters that are not maintained properly can build up a lot of nutrients in them and form anaerobic zones. Once the pump is turned off and the water has a chance to sit, anaerobic bacteria take over and start breaking down the rest of the waste in the canister filter. This is a problem when you turn it back on because the anaerobic bacteria have started to break down the waste into it's constituant components. This causes massive ammonia spikes and pH swings. Something I definitely don't want to happen in my system.
 
Thanks everyone. I do have live rock.
If I would've realized what I had done, I would've for sure cleaned the canister out. I turned it on and was smelling something & after 10 minutes realized what it was. By that time, everything had filtered into my tank. The only option I knew to do was the water change.
Everything seemed normal this morning. My fish were acting normal and all my soft corals were fully open. I'll test the water when I get home from work tonight and will probably do another 15% water change to be safe.
Hopefully this will just be a lesson learned. I've only had these fish a few weeks, but have grown attached to them.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
I killed all four of my erectus seahorses because the filter was clogged, and the water inside the filter was stagnate....when I flushed the line it released all that old water into my sump. I agree with snake, take the thing off line to get it cleaned up. That rotten egg smell is an abundance of bacteria. Maybe your fish are not as sensitive as seahorses, and like me, you didn't think about it until you smelled the bad smell. Running carbon may help if anything was toxic.
 
The smell has went away. I just tested everything that I test for:
Ph 8.3
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Temp 78
Sg 1.022
Which is how my tank has been running steady. I noticed my Kenya Coral Tree is closed up. But it seems like it often does around this time at night. (Dunno if that is normal). I am going to do another 15% water change in the morning.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by fattytwobyfour http:///t/394543/accidentally-left-canister-pump-off-5-days#post_3511731
The smell has went away. I just tested everything that I test for:
Ph 8.3
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Temp 78
Sg 1.022
Which is how my tank has been running steady. I noticed my Kenya Coral Tree is closed up. But it seems like it often does around this time at night. (Dunno if that is normal). I am going to do another 15% water change in the morning.
If nothing looks stressed I would say you dodged a bullet. If the smell is gone then you should be fine. When my seahorses died the Hectors goby acted like nothing was wrong, I think SHs are just more delicate and fish a bit hardier.
Obviously you have enough live rock and power heads and didn't need the canister for survival. That's pretty good....were you running a skimmer at all?
 

kiefers

Active Member
I had just recently left my filter off for a couple of days. Just noticed it this morning. That does not give one the warm and fuzzies AT all.
 
I have a 33 gallon tank. I was running a skimmer. It's rated for a 100 gallon tank. I was also running two power heads that do a combined 1400gph. And then I have 2lbs live rock per gallon of water.
I am hoping that I dodged a bullet. The fish don't seem stressed at all. I will for sure file this as a lesson learned, and hope that others will too.
 

kiefers

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by fattytwobyfour http:///t/394543/accidentally-left-canister-pump-off-5-days#post_3511754
I have a 33 gallon tank. I was running a skimmer. It's rated for a 100 gallon tank. I was also running two power heads that do a combined 1400gph. And then I have 2lbs live rock per gallon of water.
I am hoping that I dodged a bullet. The fish don't seem stressed at all. I will for sure file this as a lesson learned, and hope that others will too.
Too true and I am glad that your critters pulled thru. You hear of these things happening but never think that you will forget to turn things back on. We had a storm come in last summer and my tank was off for 3 days and did beautifully. All fish pulled thru and the corals did good, mild bleaching, very mild, and bounced back quickly. I was a wreck but I was courious how the tank would react if that would happen and now feel that it would be okay if it were to happen again. (in the summer, not winter tho)
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/394543/accidentally-left-canister-pump-off-5-days#post_3511756
Too true and I am glad that your critters pulled thru. You hear of these things happening but never think that you will forget to turn things back on. We had a storm come in last summer and my tank was off for 3 days and did beautifully. All fish pulled thru and the corals did good, mild bleaching, very mild, and bounced back quickly. I was a wreck but I was courious how the tank would react if that would happen and now feel that it would be okay if it were to happen again. (in the summer, not winter tho)
3 days total black out...and no air pumps at least??? I'm amazed.
We had a 4 day blackout a few years back, and I didn't even have a battery pump, I couldn't even find one to purchase at the time...I was scooping water out in a plastic bowl, and letting it waterfall back into the tank about 5 to 7X an hour. My mother and I took shifts through the night. No lost seahorses in the 30g, but 3 fish in the 90g died....including my Blue Hippo tang that I had for years and years ever since it was teeny tiny.
I have since purchased a generator, and battery operated air pumps. We had another back out last summer, and my generator ran both the new 56g (upgraded the 30g) and 90g tank, including the chillers on both tanks, as well as my Bi-Pap machine without a hic-up....now I feel ready for an emergency.
Until fattytwobyfour's post I never considered my nitrate filters that sat uncirculated...as well as what would happen to a canister filter. Those filters were sitting there for 4 days back then, without being circulated, now I'm sitting here surprised I didn't have everything die when power was restored. Indeed, file this thread in my thoughts to prevent disaster in the future.
 

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Very nice flower. Great story, and a good lesson at that!
I have never had a generator before. I don't have plans in the works to run one either. If I have a blackout for longer than a week, then I'll give up the hobby and save a lot of money in the process.
 

kiefers

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/394543/accidentally-left-canister-pump-off-5-days#post_3511768
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers
http:///t/394543/accidentally-left-canister-pump-off-5-days#post_3511756
Too true and I am glad that your critters pulled thru. You hear of these things happening but never think that you will forget to turn things back on. We had a storm come in last summer and my tank was off for 3 days and did beautifully. All fish pulled thru and the corals did good, mild bleaching, very mild, and bounced back quickly. I was a wreck but I was courious how the tank would react if that would happen and now feel that it would be okay if it were to happen again. (in the summer, not winter tho)
3 days total black out...and no air pumps at least??? I'm amazed.
We had a 4 day blackout a few years back, and I didn't even have a battery pump, I couldn't even find one to purchase at the time...I was scooping water out in a plastic bowl, and letting it waterfall back into the tank about 5 to 7X an hour. My mother and I took shifts through the night. No lost seahorses in the 30g, but 3 fish in the 90g died....including my Blue Hippo tang that I had for years and years ever since it was teeny tiny.
I have since purchased a generator, and battery operated air pumps. We had another back out last summer, and my generator ran both the new 56g (upgraded the 30g) and 90g tank, including the chillers on both tanks, as well as my Bi-Pap machine without a hic-up....now I feel ready for an emergency.
Until fattytwobyfour's post I never considered my nitrate filters that sat uncirculated...as well as what would happen to a canister filter. Those filters were sitting there for 4 days back then, without being circulated, now I'm sitting here surprised I didn't have everything die when power was restored. Indeed, file this thread in my thoughts to prevent disaster in the future.
I too was amazed flower and like I stated, was a wreck. I expected a whole tank wipe out. We did get a generator and the wife got it hooked up that night and within four hours the power came back on. We did the same as you did come to think about it with the water pouring but not as often as we had to work.
We did end with a generator from the neighbor and after around three hours of connecting everything the power came back on. No ammonia spike or nothing. I think it may have been due to the fish and corals went into hybornation mode and slowed down because the corals did not open during the outage and the fish stayed in their hiding places. We didn't feed or nothing.
not something I would want to try again, but another aquarist told me that if this happens you know you have a good established system. Who knows.
The following week or two I did a huge water change, 47 gallons and everything perked right up.
 
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