doh.. emergency midnight water change

[Peekay]

Yesterday, I did my regular water change.  Prime, all as normal, except that I nudged the wood, and a few bubbles came out. 

Around midnight, I walked by the dark tank, and saw silver flashing as the loaches thrashed about.  Turned on the lights, to all inhabitants looking 'off'.  Bad colours...like loaches were pink and pale, hot gills, ottos pale translucent yellow.... I've seen them all in their sleeping state before and last night they looked BAD.  Enough so that I immediately changed half the water, and primed the heck out of the tank. 

Maybe noxious gas from under the plate holding down the wood? 

And then, to add a layer of midnight stupid to the situation, forgot to turn back on the filters.   

Everyone is alive this morning, and looking much better than last night.  But now to watch if I've completely destroyed my filters.   Argh. 

[washefuzzy]

Scary!

[Peekay]

It was scary.  I was relieved to wake up to movement! 

It's the worst when you aren't sure WHY... only guesses, and only hope that whatever you do will help.

[touchofsky]

Filters should be OK.  We have occasional power failures here, and I have had filters out overnight without any problem. 

Good luck and please keep us posted on how things go. 

[daworldisblack]

Do you have snails in your gravel Brenda? They are sorta like earthworms for my substrate and keeps potential toxic gas build up from taking place apparently.

[Peekay]

Thanks Val.. that's reassuring.

Rah, I do have pond snails.  Do they dig?  I don't notice them on the substrate so much as on the wood, plants, glass..

[daworldisblack]

Thanks Val.. that's reassuring.

Rah, I do have pond snails.  Do they dig?  I don't notice them on the substrate so much as on the wood, plants, glass..

Nope pond snails don't dig. They are good for munching on decaying matter in the aquarium but for gravel you need Trumpet Snails. Some people hate snails in their aquariums but  have them in all of mine (not hitchhikers - i actively sought them out and put them in) - I have red ramshorns (takes care of dead plant matter and some algae ), malaysian trumpet snails ( aerate gravel and breakdown dead matter on substrate and also eat some algae) as well Zebra Nerites (awesome for GSA). I am not a fan of the way pond snails look so I keep them out of there as much as possible. Let me know if you want me to fish out some Trumpet Snails. You can research on them and decide on if you want some Let me know.