Have You Had This Happen?

[Ryefish]

you need to have a set time for doing tank cleaning and then set an alarm for when you think you will be done and stick a post it note on the alarm saying to check all your equipment

 

[Andeekaii]

I've accidently forgot to turn my heater back on (a couple of days ago infact) and my neons went very pale! I only lost 1 fish though, and that could have just been stress from the previous few days of rescaping anyway.

I'm not sure why your fish all died though - I put all my fish a bath full of tank water for about 6 hours, with no filter or heater. And they were all fine (albeit a little pale)

I doubt it would have killed that many fish on it's own though?

But don't give up, as you said you can use this as a time to try a new species of fish or something new!

Good luck,
Andy

 

[Mikaila31]

Yes I don't see why so many died either. I run planted tanks which are more generally more stable then an nonplanted tank. I've never had any problems with filters off temporarily. If the filter in my 20gal is being too loud I will unplug it for the night. This is a tank with probably around 50 fish including a young rainbow fry and older tetra fry, some other stuff and a load of endlers. Never seen any harm come from the filter being off for 8 hours, so I don't really see how a tank can totally crash in 14 hours .

 

[Andeekaii]

You sure it was just the filter that was unplugged? Heater?
Maybe it was the lack of surface motion that caused a lack of oxygen, with that many fish i guess the o2 levels can go down pretty fast?

Either way, bad luck but we all make mistakes
I just recommend that you dont't make the same mistake again