Learning from mistakes

[daso]

I have had my tank up and running for about 4 months now. And Thanksgiving happened.

I went out of town for Thanksgiving weekend-- left late Wednesday and came back early Sunday. I left my tank (of course), but I did research as to what to do with it while I was gone, and if it would be okay. From this research, I thought I would be fine. I did a water change and cleaned the filter. I came back today to a tank in disaster.


Two of my fish were missing- a O. Clown and banded goby. My 6 line wrasse was still in here, along with my 5 snails and two peppermint shrimp. I am guessing they died. I immediately took water levels and this is what I got...

Temp. 82
SG 1.024
pH 8.3-8.4 ( It's not normally this high, normal for my tank is 8.2)
Ammonia .25PPM
Nitrate 5.0 PPM
Nitrite 0 PPM

(btw--my apartment complex called while I was gone and said the electricity went out. Not sure how long, but wasn't a whole day or anything major...all my equipt. was on and running fine when I got home.)

I did a water change to fix those levels. But, now, I am confused as to what happened? Any ideas?? Also, what should I do when I leave for a couple days like that again?


Thanks!

 

[mike007]

Did you overfeed before you left? Your ammonia should be at 0.

 

[Nurse Payne]

If the temp had a drastic change due to the power outage, that could've stressed your fish. Also, no water movement for a long time decreases oxygen levels in the tank, dropping Ph.

You state you're missing fish, which leads me to believe they died and are decomposing in your tank, hence the ammonia spike.

I'm reAlly sorry about your losses. It's so hard to leave a tank. It seems a tank will run fine for years, and the moment you leave, disaster strikes.

We've all been there.