Heater issue

1MCp · Dec 5, 2018

Hi all, ran into a problem and want to get some advice.

Past 2 days my tank had no heating, it was unplugged without my knowledge.

Last night didn't notice as my room gets hot and stuffy during the winters, but this morning I opened the window a smidge to circulate the air so it got pretty cold.

Came back home and noticed the tank was really cold so plugged the heater back in right away.

Corals all look fine, but the fish..... My clown fish have a hard time swimming. The largest one seems fine in their anemone, but the smaller two seem to be breathing heavy and hard time swimming.

They wouldn't eat either.

The filefish is doing okay and even ate a bit.

Six line wrasse is swimming though rock cracks seem fine.

Yellow wrasse is missing, same with sand sifting goby missing.

What actions should I take? Are there any hopes that once the temp is back up these fish will be fine?

Thank you all

DLHDesign · Dec 5, 2018

Fish can survive gradual temperature changes such as your tank experienced - happens during shipping, for example. Their metabolisms will slow and they will become sluggish, but they should recover with time and stable temps. I wouldn't suggest taking any specific action beyond getting the temp back to normal gradually (no major water change with warmer water, for example - that would be too sudden a change). Let your heater do it's thing and raise the temp gradually. If you normally run two heaters, I'd suggest just using one until the tank is back up to temp.

1MCp · Dec 6, 2018

DLHDesign said:
Fish can survive gradual temperature changes such as your tank experienced - happens during shipping, for example. Their metabolisms will slow and they will become sluggish, but they should recover with time and stable temps. I wouldn't suggest taking any specific action beyond getting the temp back to normal gradually (no major water change with warmer water, for example - that would be too sudden a change). Let your heater do it's thing and raise the temp gradually. If you normally run two heaters, I'd suggest just using one until the tank is back up to temp.

I've let the one that I usually run do it's job. Been about 7 hours and temp is back to normal.

Thanks for the info, I'll keep my eye out. I've put one of the clowns into a smaller container in the tank so he doesn't float around as much and he can rest a bit. Hopefully things come back to normal.

1MCp · Dec 6, 2018

As of this morning, 2 clowns are dead, one is surviving, filefish is just floating around like nothing happened, saw a glimpse of my six line wrasse swimming around.

No sign of my sand sifting Goby nor yellow coriss wrasse.

I am embarrassed as a semi experienced reefer but to those who are new to the hobby, even the simplest things can bring a tank down.

Will now be banning my car from my room as I found that it wasn't a plug issue, the wire was chewed out by the devils spawn that is my cat.

She now wears the hat of shame.