Tank Disaster

[freded]

Last night I managed to lose power to the two external filters and airstones on my 380 litre tank without realising it. I'd been trying to fit another external filter which I had problems with and when I disconnected it, I accidently disconnected power to the other filters and airstones.

When I went down this mornig, half of the tank was dead, including my favourite pleco, 4 clown loaches and 3 baby severums. All the other fish were hanging around the top of the tank.

I didn't have time to do a water test but changed about 40% of the water and got the filters and airstones working again.

I assume that lack of oxygen is what killed the fish or is it possible that ammonia etc spiked due to the filters being out of action? Filters were probably out of action for 9 hours. I'd recently been battling high nitrates but had got those under control by regular water changes and my ammonia/nitrite readings were fine.

Is there anything more I need to do? According to my wife, I've had no more losses since going to work. Should I avoid feeding the fish for a couple of days?

I was absolutely gutted this morning at having caused such devestation to my tank. Its definately a lesson learnt and I don't think I can bear to add any more stock to the tank while I recover from the loss.

Thankfully my other two tanks were on separate power supplies and the inhabitants of those tanks are fine.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

It could have been an ammonia spike if it has a high fish load. I would lower the feeding a bit for a few days as there will have been some die off of the bacteria in the filters and keep a close watch on the water conditions.

 

[-germ-]

As has been mentioned its just a case of monitoring the tank as carefully as possible to make sure no illnesses follow on for the surviving fish, it is suggested that ammonia poisoning (without being fatal) can greatly reduce the long term health of fish and their ability to cope with further illnesses, environmental troubles (posioning, stress, oxygen lack etc).
You need to make sure the filter bacteria has survived and that ammonia and nitrite are being processed, so if you don't have a tester you should probably get one, i'm no good on cycling but do know that without oxygen bacteria will eventually begin to die off.
Also, as i'm sure you've done already, ensure there are no dead bodies concealed/undiscovered in your tank.