Just got back from work and all but 3 of my fish are dead. All was fine on going to bed last night.

On inspection the water is hot. approx 38deg C. The external inline heater was still going for it and I guess it is a fault on the heater that has cooked my fish.

(I'll get some water readings as soon as I've posted this.)

What's the best to do for the three remaining zebras?

I guess going back to a more normal temp too quick would be a bad thing.

Just keep the heater off and let the whole thing cool down or do a water change with cooler water to get the temp down more quickly??

Thanks,

Pete

The story gets worse.

NH3 0.5
No2 0.25
No3 50

Has been rock steady at 0, 0, 10 for months.

I took the plunge and I've got the temp down to 34 with a water change.

What do you think?

Sit tight or change to get the temp down further?

Thanks,

Pete

Ahhhh. Nightmare Pete!!!!

Rock and a hard place isn't it?

I assume you have removed in line heater. Do you have a spare ready to add at the correct setting, even if just the stick on kind that will kick in as the tank water cools enough?

Do you have any Prime to hand? Fab for emergencies and will lock up the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Just follow dosing as on the lable.

Is this still the 110 litre in your profile? Without a heater being on, tank temp will gradually fall but will it fall quickly enough and if quickly enough, is that going to shock the fish Dilema.

The choice ultimately has to be yours but if it was me, I would run a another change later tonight with cooler water again. I'm not sure fish can stand such high temps over a long period and it may be a risk you have to take

Just another thought, but can you remove the tank lid and aim a fan at the surface area too as well as the above?

It will speed up the cooling process too, but more gradually over a few hours or so. Turn all lights off too.

FX for you and fishies. Let us know how it goes.

Cheers Violet, appreciate the advice.

Since my last post I was watching the survivors and they seemed in a pretty bad way so I went for a 10% change with cool water. This brought temp down to about 34deg and same again has it down to 30 deg and they look a LOT happier. Now swimming about rather than lying on the bottom 'panting'.

Plan now is to not drop it further acutely but to do another change to tackle the NH3 and NO2.

I'll let it cool down on its own and I have a spare heater to stop it dropping too low.

I guess the heat will have sterilized the filter as well so the next weeks will be fun.

I don't have any Prime. I've been using the higher dose of stress coat+. It says on the label that it binds ammonia. is it anything close to as good?

Lid is off and lights will be off as soon as I've finished tarting about.

I too will have everything crossed.

P