Emergency - Help PLEASE! What do I do!?

kimsie

kimsie

New member
Ok - so as many of you may know - I had surgery yesterday... My mom was over last night and putting something away under my tank and she must have hit the switch on the power strip and turned everything off... This was about 8:00pm - and I just went on my crutches to check the tank and noticed! 12 hours with no air movement, skimmer, heater... The tank is at 70 degrees rather than the usual 77...

WHAT is going to happen!?

WHAT should I do!?

I'm really freaking out - am I going to lose everything!?

Please help... Kim

PS - PM me for my cell number if it's easier to tell me what to do over the phone...
 
I'm sure by now you have everything back up and running.

I don't think 12 hours is really long enough to cause serious issues. I have had my tank down during power outages for almost that long.

How does everything look?

Jamie
 
Ok - I did that - how do I make sure that I don't heat the tank to quickly? Should I turn the heater down Stealth Visi Therm) or will it just naturally take a while to heat up?

What kind of losses should I expect?
 
It probably could go either way--depending on how heavily your tank is stocked. No fish losses yet that you know of? If not, that's good. I wouldn't bring the temp up too fast, maybe 2-3 degrees an hour. If there's no losses yet, that's what you have to be careful of is too big of changes too fast. Good luck!
 
Everything still looks really good... The corals, anemones and fish all seem ok - but I just don't know if things could still happen...
 
I don't know what you are using as your return/skimmer/reactor pumps but my tank heats up to 77 without any heaters and lights in a matter of 8 hours. I would not make it any shorter then 2 or 3 hours. You should be fine. Sps will not like the dead water but they should jump back if they were in good health before...
 
No SPS for me - it's a 30g that is mainly zoos, rics, shrooms and LPS... No sump just a HOB skimmer and Korlia...

Our air is set on 72 so I don't think the room temp would make it heat too fast...
 
Raise temp slow over a few hours and I think everything will be fine. To raise the temp slowly just let the heater run and then unplug it for a while after the temp has come up a few degrees. Then plug it back in.

Good Luck

Jamie
 
Ok - so far all fish are accounted for except the Black Capped Basslet - but it usually sleeps hidden in the rocks... Hopefully he'll come out soon.

There's still a chance that fish could die - right?
 
I think you are probably OK at this point. They are stressed probably, but as long as they were healthy to begin with, I'd guess they'd be OK. Just observe closely and regularly.
 
Oh - thank you guys - I hope you aren't just reassuring me out of pity! :)

Hopefully this is the case - and THANK YOU for all of the quick responses.

Something I really need to get help with - as this is evident of - is a better power source and or back up for this tank.

I don't have any backups on either of my tanks should the power go out.

What would you guys recommend? If anyone has time to give me some ideas - I would appreciate it!
 
Yeah - we're hopefully moving soon (trying to sell our place) and are generators permanent? If so - I would want to wait until we moved...

So far - one hour later and now we're @ 72.1...
 
Well, about the only way, is get a device that will either kick on a backup heater, or have something to page out an alert to you.

There are a few items on the market that will do that.
 
I have my neighbors notify me when the power goes out. There are some devices like Mark mentioned that will dial out when they lose power. ReeferHead has something like one. You could ask him.

Here's his thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1349448&highlight=power+outage

Some generators are permanent and run on natural gas. When the power goes out they come on. Most common though are portable. They come in a wide rang of capacities. Small to run TV or large enough to run a whole house.

Mine is 5500 watts and could almost run the whole house except for the heat and air. I can run everything on my tanks plus 2 refrigerators, TV, SAT, lights and then some.
 
Last edited:
Take a deep breath, it will work out. It seems so far so good! (And off the subject, I hope you heal quickly.) I recommend a generator also, I always freak out when the power goes off after the storm last year wiped out our entire tank, was depressed for quite awhile about that!
 
Isn't it great that so many people help so fast? You have to love the Internet.

One thing to add, I would get ready to do a normal or slightly larger than normal water change in the next day. Since your toe is not 100% you might go ahead and get the water made as it may take you longer than it would on all 10 toes. Then do a couple of normal water changes over the next week.

IMHO it never hurts to change 15% to 25% of the water whenever you have an unexpected event.

Faz

Good luck and STAY OFF THAT FOOT ! ! !
 
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