Sal Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Ugh. I did a water change last night and stopped my filter... Water change went fine, cleaned up, closed up the tank, and went to veg on the couch, then went to bed...... This morning I thankfully noticed things seemed "calmer" than usual in there, no plant movement etc. [insert panic here.] Got everything up and running again and so far the fish seem ok - I had one angel who was hiding, but she is back out swimming around now. I'm really kicking myself!! 😩 Feeling like the worst fish mom ever, what a DUMB move! Anyone else done this? Was everything OK after? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Oopsey. Yes done it no it didn't cause any issues. I have had to put my filter on the same socket as a lamp and I was in the habit of turning the lamp off at the socket. So yes done this a few times recently never crashed my cycle and it's been off for over 12 hours 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 ALL THE TIME 🤣. It’s part of the reason I always run an extra form of air driven filtration that never gets turned off. I have never experienced issued in a seasoned tank even when no other filtration was present. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 On 7/28/2022 at 9:24 AM, Sal said: Anyone else done this? Was everything OK after? A couple of weeks ago our power blinked out a time or two. For some reason it didn't occur to me to make sure the HOB's had come back on. Two or three days later I noticed that the water in the 65 gallon tank wasn't as clear as usual, but I didn't think too much of it. A day or two after that I finally noticed the lack of movement and realized that the filter hadn't come back on. I immediately got my little wooden stick, gave the impellers a bump, and it started right up. Some gunk came out of the filter, but as far as I can tell I didn't lose a fish (I know the Bolivian rams and rainbowfish are all there, but I've never been able to count the tetras or corys). If the tank didn't have a good amount of live plants I suspect I'd have had a bigger problem on hand. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Eric_ Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Yep. More times than I’d like to admit. It never caused a problem. Test your tank tonight and in the morning to be sure. Agree on the redundant air powered filter. Came back from vacation to find a newly cycled 20 gal with only the sponge filter running- HOB filter was off for who knows how long. Never had ammonia or nitrite over 0. Everybody stayed happy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 it happens. i run everything for a tank on a power strip, that way i just turn off the strip, and when im done if by chance i forget ill notice pretty quickly the tank has no lights as a reminder to turn it back on. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 Yes, I’ve been there too. In my 75 gallon I forgot to turn my filters back on after a water change. 24 hours later I realized it, turned them back on and checked the parameters. They all looked pretty much the same as they would with the filters running. There’s a lot of plants and hardscape and I think that helped keep the cycle running. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sal Posted July 28, 2022 Author Share Posted July 28, 2022 Thanks all for making me feel better! ❤️ The overall system is on our backup generator for power outages since we live in a cold climate. But when I am the power outage, I guess it's a little different. 😂 It would have been out a little over 10 hours total. I will test parameters tonight! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveO Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 I have one tank in particular that I will turn the filter pump off when feeding. I don't turn it off every time, but often enough that I know I'm going to forget to turn it back on eventually. That's why I have that pump plugged into a Kasa wifi timer. It is programmed to turn on three times a day. Midnight, noon and 6:00 pm. That way to the pump won't be off too long when I do forget to turn it on. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bev C Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 been there and done that too i have very limited wall outlet so have everything on a power strip and and it easy to forget ,,, 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 On 7/28/2022 at 7:24 AM, Sal said: Anyone else done this? Was everything OK after? It's been a bad week. I've done it one too many times. I now have my kasa plug setup to "turn on" randomly through the day just in case I screw up again. It's a safety measure Cory mentioned that I really think is helpful. I've had one where it was left off for ~2.5 days because the house was sick and I wasn't in the room. Power went out, tank was very heavily stocked. It took me about 2 months to get the tank to re-cycle. You'll get this type of a situation when you start seeing the brown bacterial slime all over the filter. Clean it every 2-3 days until things start to be clean. I did this for about a month, and then eventually just ended up slow dosing in some bacteria in a bottle. The media and everything kept getting so clogged with muck and slime that water couldn't flow well enough. The most recent times, a few hours off, no issues. I do recommend to check the HoB in 2-3 days and give it a clean just to make sure things don't develop into some funk on you. It happens, we've all done it, but generally you'll be "fine". I do have an airstone that I always leave running on it's own plug / pump and it's something I try to keep in every single tank I run now. This allows me to not rush through WCs and spend a lot more time with wet hands cleaning plants and stuff, trimming, feeding even, during a WC day without too much worry about the fish having issues. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanked Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 On 7/28/2022 at 10:24 AM, Sal said: Ugh. I did a water change last night and stopped my filter... Water change went fine, cleaned up, closed up the tank, and went to veg on the couch, then went to bed...... This morning I thankfully noticed things seemed "calmer" than usual in there, no plant movement etc. [insert panic here.] Got everything up and running again and so far the fish seem ok - I had one angel who was hiding, but she is back out swimming around now. I'm really kicking myself!! 😩 Feeling like the worst fish mom ever, what a DUMB move! Anyone else done this? Was everything OK after? Forgetfulness or power failures lasting a day or more have never caused a problem. I know I have forgotten to plug the HOB in at least once. I only noticed because at feeding time, the food didn't go anywhere. My setups all provide visual and audio clues that the filtration is working. Failing to notice that the heater has failed or wasn't plugged in is a little more frequent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillip Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 Your post just reminded me that I forgot to turn one of mine back on yesterday! I do always run an extra sponge filter in all of my tanks though so should be ok. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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