dumb move

[cobaltblue]

I did my 50% water change Saturday night, then i was away on business for all day sunday and part of today (monday). When i returned, i right away noticed that my usual 86degree water was 73 degrees. I looked down and saw to my horror that i forgot to plug the heater back in after my wc. Hope i did the right thing. I just plugged it back in, and let it rise slowly, figuring if i did anything drastic the temp differences would stress the fish more. All of the fish seem to be doing ok. Will there be any long term effects from this that i should be watching for, it is this temp drop not to big of a deal? I just did another 50% wc and temp is almost back to normal, at 84.

[Mughal]

If all your fish are still alive then you're probably OK. The only thing that could go bad now is perhaps some bacteria had the upper-hand while your fish were freezing. You may need to medicate by using Epsom Salt if you notice anything wrong with your fish.

[AADiscus]

If you have a back-up heater throw it in there to help bring the temp up a little bit faster. Normally going up in temp is not bad it's the going down that does. Keep an eye on them. If they look like they are stressed i would put some salt in there and keep an eye on'em.

[CliffsDiscus]

If your Discus are HEALTHY just replug the heater.

Cliff

[Alight]

I had a similar occurence, only worse, a few weeks ago. We had a 10 hour power failure on a cold night, and my tanks dropped to below 70 F. After the power came on, I just let the tanks rise to their normal temps. Everything seemed ok, except my blue diamond pair that was taking care of new hatchlings (wrigglers) freaked out, and ate the babies when they went free swimming. Then, this pair seemed to have flukes, as they did some dashing around, that I haven't seen before. I treated them with Prazi Pro for 7 days, and they seem to be back to normal. I didn't see any effects on the other tanks.

So, it seems that at least a one time temperature decrease like that is not too crucial, and does not seem to make the Discus sick.

Almost forgot to say that it's very easy to forget to either unplug a heater, or to replug it.

I have most of my heaters now at the bottom of tanks, so I don't have to unplug them, simply for that reason. In one tank, (my planted tank) where I can't arrange that, I have the heaters and filters plugged into a power strip that I can easily turn on and off with a switch. It's easier to remember when nothing is on, (or off) that you haven't turned things on or off.

[wolfbane]

Mughal, not Epsom salt, aquarium salt. Epsom salts are for constipation.

[korbi_doc]

;) Cobalt, we've all been there, done that! I can't believe that I've even repeated it, think you'd learn, huh? Even with signs/notes it happens.. most of the time it's multitasking that gets us in trouble, & right now with major changes going on in my crazy life it's amazing it's not worse, so we need extra cautionary measures, lol, Dottie ps.your fish should be fine, mine have gone lower & been ok :)

[Willie]

Happens to me at least once every two weeks. When I design my fish room, the first thing is to move the outlets to eye level.

1. No way for water to go down the wire into the outlet.
2. Easy to see and mark outlets.
3. No more bending!

Willie

[Carol_Roberts]

Your fish should be fine - I forgot as recently as last week to turn the filter and heater back on after a water change

[dixiedog]

I position my heaters horizontally about 2" off the bottom so they're never turned off.

'Course this is a bad idea if your heater is not fully submersible ...:D

Gene