Let It Settle

 You gotta 'love' it when customers don't listen to your advice. *exhales*

So I only know pieces of the story.

As I came on to help the customer after my fellow manager had already been attempting to help them figure out what was going on with their tank.

Which really...after listening to the customer blabber on and on and on about some of the 'timeline' of things that 'happened' before it went wrong....

It really just sounds like the customer tried to start their tank too quickly, panicked when things went wrong, tried to fix it, ended up causing other issues, tried to fix it again....and yah. All the fish in the tank died.

*exhales*

It sounds like the concern started when a 'foam' began forming on the top of the tank.

Which considering the customer had TWO over the back filters and then a wall of bubbles along the back of the tank....my guess was that the tank was too turbulent. 

Like water that gets stirred around too much causes foam. You see it in waterfalls, in oceans, even in boiling pots of water --though probably just when you're trying to stir pasta--in any case....the customer just needed to cut back some of the water flow.

Which the easiest way to do so would be to turn off the air bubble wall.

Which the customer had apparently done already, and they had noticed that the foam had drastically decreased.

But for whatever reason....the customer hadn't been content to leave it at that?

As they also seemed to assume that the temperature of the water was also affecting the foaming nature? As they said that when it was in the 60s and low 70s it was fine...but if it got above 74 degrees it would start foaming again?

O_o??? I honestly have no idea with that one. Still leaning with the too much water turbulence theory. 

But the customer also ended up doing a FULL water change on the tank.

And it was all hunky doory....until the foam started...and the water got cloudy. 

And so the customer panicked that something was wrong and did another FULL water change as well as deeply cleaned every nook and cranny of that tank to ensure that 'nothing' like 'soap' or anything had caused the issue.

*exhales*

Doing a full water change means that you're basically starting your tank over brand new.

There's no beneficial bacteria set up in the tank to help with the biological ecosystem. And adding a bunch of a fish to a 'brand new' tank that hasn't even gotten the ammonia cycle properly going again....

It's no surprise that the fish all ended up dying over the weekened.

The customer had stressed out the tank further by doing too much cleaning. The fish couldn't handle the 'newness' and so died.

And the customer was thinking it was the cloudy water that was the issue. 

Which no...it's quite common for tanks to experience cloudy water for up to a month after being set up because the tank is still 'settling' it's still 'cycling' there's a lot of things that get stirred up that need time to calm down. 

Hence why we don't recommend adding in fish for at least 24 hours after set up. 

And the longer you wait, the better really. To let your tank settle further. 

But this customer was running head tilt into the dreaded 'death cycle' where they keep adding in fish and the fish keep dying so they keep adding in more fish only to have them die.

And I strongly recommended that the customer just let their tank run empty for a couple of days. To let it settle. To help it cycle.

Otherwise their fish would keep dying if they tried to get more today.

Customer didn't quite believe me.

Well...they believed me. But they had little impulse control and decided that they just 'had' to have fish in the tank anyways. Even if they do die. Because the customer couldn't stand to have the tank have 'nothing' in it. *exhales*

Like dude. I told you that the fish would die....and you want to buy fish anyways...and you know that they might die....but you don't want to wait and actually have them live? Like dude. Learn a bit of patience. 

But it seems like this customer is the "must touch the stove to believe it's hot." sort of learner as they were like "well if they die then I'll know you were right and I won't get any fish after this point." 

*exhales*

JUST WAIT YOU DUMB PERSON.

But nooooo *shakes head*

I won't be surprised if they come back in tomorrow telling me the fish died. 

All because they couldn't wait freaking 48 hours like I suggested to let the tank settle. 

Customers are rather irritating at times.

-Sarnic Dirchi