matth2181
Member
Hey every one this is my first salt water aquarium and i had a bit of a problem over the weekend wondering if any one can tell me what went wrong. i went away for 3 days and i left the light off and the fish werent fed for about 60 hours. i come back to find one of my damsels dead, my other damsel lying on the bottom under a shell, and my clown was lying on the bottom. when i turned on the light the clown ran under a rock on the bottom and the damsel stayed. so i checked parameters and there were no nitrates and no nitrites the ph was around 8.2 and alkalinity was high along with general water hardness, and specific gravity was around 1.023. so i changed the filter pad on my penguin 150 and added a bit a freshwater very slowly, and added some food. after about 15-30 minutes the clown comes out and hides with the damsel under a plant for 5 minutes then they both come out swimmin around eating the food i had put in off the bottom. so i left the light on over night let everything run, and as usual the two fish were swimming at the glass and near the top when i came by looking for food, which i fed them and now things are back to normal. so i dont get it, ive left fish for a couple of days with no food with no problem at all and i dont think the absence of light did it cause the room gets some lighting during the day (not direct sunlight). temperature stayed steady cause i have a heater around 78-80 degrees. so ive never seen this before... ithought maybe an ammonia spike and i was going to loose the clown and damsel but they came back no problem. any one know what i did wrong? cause my african cichlids did just fine while i was gone but like i said this is my first marine tank.
