Filters off for several hours

I'm having some rooms in my house painted and today when I was at work they
unplugged all of my tank 'stuff' (filters, heater, air stones) for god knows
how many hours. Needless to say when I got home I yelled a very loud expletive
(scaring my dogs) and ran over to plug it all back in. The fish seemed a little
lethargic, but perked up quickly with the filters on.

Is there anything I need to be worried about?

You should probably do a substantial water change right away and keep
checking your parameters every day for a while. If you have an open
hang-on filter you may be OK, but if you have a closed canister it can
go toxic pretty quickly. You might get an ammonia/nitrite spike if
the biobugs started to die off. Also check the pH.
I'd give the filter media a fair rinse in the old tank water when you
do the change--just to help get rid of any dead bio bugs. Of course
if you rinse TOO vigorously you could also get rid of any live ones,
so be Moderate.

Also, remember that any paint fumes in the room can get into the
water. Keep the ventilation going in the room where the fish are.

Hope everything turns out A-OK.
--



givemeabmw RemoveThis @aol.com (GiveMeABMW) wrote in message news:<20040227174529.02009.00000519 RemoveThis @mb-m22.aol.com>...
> I'm having some rooms in my house painted and today when I was at work they
> unplugged all of my tank 'stuff' (filters, heater, air stones) for god knows
> how many hours. Needless to say when I got home I yelled a very loud expletive
> (scaring my dogs) and ran over to plug it all back in. The fish seemed a little
> lethargic, but perked up quickly with the filters on.
>
> Is there anything I need to be worried about?