COMPLETE NIGHTMARE!!!!!

It's been a while since I last posted (life gets busy!!) but I need everyone to learn the lesson that I learned on Saturday.

Here ya go...

I was doing my weekly water changes on my 4 tanks on Saturday morning and when I changed out my cichlid tank I used up the last of my dechrorinator (the stuff to make tap water safe).

I ran around the corner to petsmart to grab another bottle.

I only get supplies at petsmart, never fish, because it's about a 2 minute drive from my house. The LFS that where I buy my fish is a good 20 minutes away.

So, i get back home and change out the water on my live planted tetra tank. So far so good. New water in... tank clean... open up the new dechlorinator... pour in a the required amount....

NIGHTMARE... something is not right... immediately the tank water changed to a light brown gravy color...
I started freaking... I smelled the bottle... LEMON SCENTED!!!!! I think it was pinesol or some kind of cleaner.... within 2 minutes I had floating fish....

Now I am talking about a live planted tank that I had been working on for over a year... there were about 70 tetras in there.. neons, black skirts, serpeas, silver hatchets... 40 + plants

Thanks god I had a 60g with only 4 angelfish in it.... right away i started scooping out survivors... and putting them in with the angels... I lost another 4 or 5 fish over the next few days but I think i saved about 30-35..

Anyways. the lesson to be learned is...

before you pour a treatment into your tanks at least do a smell test!!

ps... the people at petsmart were not to happy on saturday afternoon when i came back to cause a stink... I have a bit of a temper!

The only positive that i take out of the situation is that i now have to set up the tank all over again and hopefully i can do it better!!!!!

wow. crazy story. so was the bottle sealed when you opened it?

Thats messed up!What did the people at petsmart say and do about it?

That really sukz. Did they make it good!!

weak!

I didn't know Petsmart sold Pinesol. And why would it be over in the fish department? None of it makes much sense.

Sounds like some kind of prankster or someone with an ax to grind with the store and tampered with the bottle.

When I had 'city' water I always used my dechlor before adding to the tank.

wildbeanerz wrote:

Sounds like some kind of prankster or someone with an ax to grind with the store and tampered with the bottle.

Exactly my thought...Sorry for the loss.

and this is why I always twist the cap, to make sure the prime still has a seal on it when i buy it...

Yikes. I'm always leery about buying product off the shelf. I've always ordered through online sources actually, unless in an emergency. Even still, you'd assume the product is good and you just take it home and start using it. You just never know how long the product has been on the shelf, and if it's been tampered with.

This begs the question ,,,, you put untreated city water in your tank BEFORE adding dechlorinate r ??? Don't your fish react immediately to the chlorinated water before you Dechlorinate IT ??!!! O_o

wow! i'm sorry you had to go through that. i have never checked the bottle before i purchased it but i'm sure going to start after reading your story.

I hope you went into the store and made them make good on this. I had a similiar problem with my local Petco. I bought a bunch of food that was half gone when I got home and checked. They are also very famous for not wanting to stick to their policies on returns and price matching. We have been told many times that they will get in trouble for price matching, but they have banners hanging in store about how they do that. We have also been told that we cant return a fish cause our tanks had "off levels" and that is the reason our fish died, when I do a full test myself anytime I loose a fish, so I know exactly where the levels are. Anytime you want them to do anything but sell you something, most of the time something they know nothing about, prepare for a fight. I bought a couple Leopard Geckos and they went on sale the very next day. They told me I could not get the sale price even if I brought the reciept back, and the only way I could is by returning the actual geckos and buy different ones that are now in the display. I had to email petco twice, then call their customer service # to get them to give me the 50% difference in price and only cause I said I would post on any board I could find about their terrible customer service. The only positive that came out of this is now everyone knows me in that store and they do whatever I ask as they know I will quickly go over their heads for good customer service.

OK, first of all I hope you kept the bottle and container, or got a receipt from the store acknowledging what you had supplied. Secondly, in this situation I would now write to Petsmart head office, explain what has happened, the time you have spent, the money you have spent in developing the tank, and ask what they are prepared to do to rectify the situation.
To be honest I wouldn't even deal with the store manager at this stage. I work in retail management, and the store manager is limited I bet at Petsmart on what he can offer as recompense.
WARNING... don't say that you are going legal to the store manager. If you say anything like that he will clam up, and ask you to leave the store. Telling you to contact their head office.
Instead, I would contact their customer service dept. Tell the clerk, very nicely what has happened, (write it all down on paper before hand so you know what you are going to say) the losses in fish, plants, sand, filtration media, cleaning of the tank (time is money), new substrate etc and of course Inconvenience.

I would ask for a written explanation from them as to how this has been allowed to happen, and what action has been put in place to ensure that it cannot happen again.

The important thing is to be polite ( this is not when you lose your temper, always ask for the persons name and make a note of it, if you get no satisfaction ask for the Customer Service Manager, and get their name, and write it down! Always keep peoples names, and confirm the spelling 1) This means you have it correctly & 2) They know you are keeping a record, which scares them. Now is the time for being calm and cool and asking "so you can't help me is that correct/reimburse me for my losses?"
Write down before hand your questions, and then in the space you leave, write down their answer, and repeat their answer they have given. This lets you have time to write it down, lets them know you are making notes and confirms what they have said.
It's also good to ask at the start of the conversation "are you recording this?" if they reply "yes" say "good".
If they say no to meeting what you have lost, then it's time to say "thank you for your time (NAME). I have written down your response and will be not only asking my local paper if they are interested, but also posting on all the local forums, and national fish keeping forums our conversation

From your side, I hope this will ensure you are suitably recompensed, from my side, I hope they rectify what ever happened so I don't lose my tank of Mbuna I have had for 3+ years on a water change, because if it happens to me I'm talking 11 fish all mature, over 150lb of good holey holey rock, coral shell base and 2 canister filters a full tank clean and milage plus time to rectify everything, and my time isn't cheap, the life of my fish grown from 1" isn't cheap....and my ability to post my story on fish (and other pet) forums would be tenacious.

I am truly sorry to hear about these losses of pets due to the ignorance of someone's Idea of funny or perhaps a slight chance accident it happened however I doubt accident then the customer service actions and responses. I hope that you receive more than what you losses were In my opinion it couldn't be replaced EVER! As I tend not to sniff the water treatments I use either. I inspect the packaging or container and place the trust in the company manufacturing as well as the distributer.It is also a goal of mine to try not to use any unnatural additives unless needed. I would be absolutely following through with every angle to get the message across to the corporate leaders and other unsuspecting customers of the product and company distributing them.

So Sorry for your losses of pets and dedication to keep fish Truly Saddened by the actions of Ignorant people and the always inevitable pass the blame or run around excuses, excuses, excuses by the loop holds these shady businesses who house,have ,and care nothing about the pride in standing by the products,nor animals they harm everyday.

This is dreadful! I have not had anything like that happen before, but believe me I'll be examining my purchases closely from no on ! Yikes. It must have been a crazy person or someone upset with the store. I'll bet they could examine security video and see how it happened.

lifeisgood wrote:

This begs the question ,,,, you put untreated city water in your tank BEFORE adding dechlorinate r ??? Don't your fish react immediately to the chlorinated water before you Dechlorinate IT ??!!! O_o

I fill my tanks this way, with a Python, so the water goes directly from the tap into the tank as I'm adding dechlorinator. Sometimes its a few seconds before I can get from the sink to the tank, and I've never had a single problem doing it that way for the past 15 years since the miracle invention of the Python came into my life. The fish actually will often swim excitedly through the flow of new water, seeming to enjoy the current.

I have had a tank disaster or two over nearly 3 decades of keeping fish when I completely forgot to add dechlor, but never from adding while the new water is going in.

[quote=

So, i get back home and change out the water on my live planted tetra tank. So far so good. New water in... tank clean... open up the new dechlorinator... pour in a the required amount....

[/quote]

As I read it , he completely changed out the water before adding his dechlor. I can understand the add while adding water would work , was just wondering about completing the change before adding chemical.

At any rate ,,, sux that it happened no matter the circumstances of the how .