That eggy smell...

[missmary]

My family has been better about taking care of my tanks while I'm away at university, but for the past couple of weeks they've been away quite a bit for the family business and I have discovered that they've completely neglected the fish.

Just a few hours ago, I arrive home for Thanksgiving break and the entire den smells like rotting eggs. My greatest fear became reality when I walked over to the 180 gallon aquarium and found that it wasn't a filter that wreaked of rotting eggs, but the entire aquarium. The water looked clean, but tested HORRIBLY. And for God only knows what reason, the canister filter set up for mechanical filtration had been shut off.

I'm performing a 80-90% water change as I type this and am extremely pissed. If anyone knows of any aquarium cleaning services that make house calls operates within the Fayetteville, NC are, please let me know. If they're not willing to do even simple tank maintenance on the aquariums that they refuse to get up, they're sure as h*** going to pay to have it done because my animals will not be subject to such neglect if I can help it.

/vent

 

[Austin]

that's real bad. doing a huge water change is also a bad idea, you will get a massive parameter change which could kill things, do multiple 20% over the next day. good luck.

 

[missmary]

Thanks for the advice. I just stopped the siphon (drained about 30% of the water). They complain about the bi-weekly water changes I ask them to do (they all act as if this is too much to ask, despite it taking less than 20 minutes), but by God they're going to be doing them every day for the next week.

I'm just so... mad. I can't wait to graduate in a year and take all of my babies (my precious fishies) with me whether they want to let go of the tanks or not. It makes me mad when I see other people neglect their animals, and makes me even more upset to see my own family neglecting my animals

 

[phillydog1958]

My family has been better about taking care of my tanks while I'm away at university, but for the past couple of weeks they've been away quite a bit for the family business and I have discovered that they've completely neglected the fish.

Just a few hours ago, I arrive home for Thanksgiving break and the entire den smells like rotting eggs. My greatest fear became reality when I walked over to the 180 gallon aquarium and found that it wasn't a filter that wreaked of rotting eggs, but the entire aquarium. The water looked clean, but tested HORRIBLY. And for God only knows what reason, the canister filter set up for mechanical filtration had been shut off.

I'm performing a 80-90% water change as I type this and am extremely pissed. If anyone knows of any aquarium cleaning services that make house calls operates within the Fayetteville, NC are, please let me know. If they're not willing to do even simple tank maintenance on the aquariums that they refuse to get up, they're sure as h*** going to pay to have it done because my animals will not be subject to such neglect if I can help it.

/vent

no offense, but you seem angry with your family because they are busy with life and all the hassels that go along with it. i think they want to help you, but they are busy. look at it this way, they're helping you pay your tuition. they can only pay it because they work. if they did not work, you might not be in college. give them a break and be thankful. it's thanksgiving.

 

[missmary]

no offense, but you seem angry with your family because they are busy with life and all the hassels that go along with it. i think they want to help you, but they are busy. look at it this way, they're helping you pay your tuition. they can only pay it because they work. if they did not work, you might not be in college. give them a break and be thankful. it's thanksgiving.

I've been paying them (my brother, 17, and my oldest cousin, 18) to do simple maintenance. They travel for the family business in shifts (and there's half a dozen of them that do the traveling, so they definitely have a lot of time off each), and when they're not out on business trips, they're lounging around the house and having socials. To top it off, my mom's response when I addressed her about it "Oh, I forgot to call you about that. Just spray some air freshener."

I love them to death, but I've been busting my butt at school to maintain my scholarships and was hoping to come home for some relaxation and am instead surprised with this.

The fish seem okay for the most part and I don't foresee any losses, so I'm going to take your advice and take a chill pill. It was just such a shock to come home to @_@

 

[phillydog1958]

I've been paying them (my brother, 17, and my oldest cousin, 18) to do simple maintenance. They travel for the family business in shifts (and there's half a dozen of them that do the traveling, so they definitely have a lot of time off each), and when they're not out on business trips, they're lounging around the house and having socials. To top it off, my mom's response when I addressed her about it "Oh, I forgot to call you about that. Just spray some air freshener."

I love them to death, but I've been busting my butt at school to maintain my scholarships and was hoping to come home for some relaxation and am instead surprised with this.

The fish seem okay for the most part and I don't foresee any losses, so I'm going to take your advice and take a chill pill. It was just such a shock to come home to @_@

you seem like a very rational and mature person. talk to your family about it. maybe have a family meeting on it. good luck in school and good luck with the fish and happy thanksgiving.

 

[haynchinook334]

What kind of fish and filtration do you have?

 

[missmary]

What kind of fish and filtration do you have?

Two oscars, a green severum, and a half dozen blood parrots (mom's fish that were added without my knowledge a while back). They're all in a 180 gallon.

The filtration is an Eheim 2217 (bio & filled to the brim with substrat pro), a Magnum 350 (mechanical--also the filter that was for some reason turned off), and 3x Penguin 350B's (some chemical, mostly mechanical because I hate the sight of food particles in a barebottom tank).

I'm in the process of building media containers for one or two of the Penguin 350's to increase the amount of bio media for the tank.

I've also been considering buying an FX5 and setting it up for bio, converting the Eheim to mechanical, and removing the 3 350's... but just don't have the funds for that yet.

 

[bob965]

Sounds like your arrangement for cleaning the tank is too informal and ambiguous. You keep saying "my family" was supposed to clean it, but when you give a task to a group and tell them it can be done by whoever is available when they have time, guess what...it doesn't get done. There's no clear delineation of responsibility, and nobody really takes any ownership of the task. If you're PAYING someone, you need to be clear about your expectations, and who is responsible for meeting them and when.

 

[missmary]

Sounds like your arrangement for cleaning the tank is too informal and ambiguous. You keep saying "my family" was supposed to clean it, but when you give a task to a group and tell them it can be done by whoever is available when they have time, guess what...it doesn't get done. There's no clear delineation of responsibility, and nobody really takes any ownership of the task. If you're PAYING someone, you need to be clear about your expectations, and who is responsible for meeting them and when.

I've taught them how to replace cartridges and do water changes. Heck, I ever printed out a calendar with the dates on which to do these things. I also order all of the supplies online and have them delivered directly to the house. They've been pretty good about it until this happened.

I agree with you that just giving a group a task and not specifying who should do what and when isn't the best idea, so I went ahead and added people's named to the maintenance calendar.

We just had a family meeting about it and it was settled that the two who were in charge would pay back the last few of month's maintenance and not get paid again until I see that they've been doing what's needed. I've also replenished the water testing kit so that they can check water parameters twice a week and text me the results.

If this doesn't work out, I'm going to just sell off the tanks and put the money away for the 300g I plan on getting in just over a year. They keep telling me that they want to keep the tanks, but I need to see that they are willing and able to keep them healthy.