As a note, the 66.1 was the temperature I chose (and where it settled) when the power-out left us with no pump, light, heating, flow for 8 days. 62 is where things start dying of cold itself. But at 66.1, everything chemical is slowed, including life processes, decay, bacterial action. Fish die under rocks, can't be extracted, so you don't want rapid decay.
I also used hand pouring every 4 hours and hydrogen peroxide (3-4 times in 8 days) to restore oxygen; and Prime (about 4x) to do in any ammonia (you can't read a chemical test in the dark, but I took no chances.
I did NOT feed. Fish can die of being fed when their body temperature is too low to enable digestion.
Survivors: 2 dascyllus species damsels; 2 black axil chromis.
Various hermits; the colonista snails; asterina stars. Aiptasia bloomed like mad.
Four corals: hammer, frog, acan, candy cane. Every coral survived and thrived.
The bacterial activity in the rock rebounded as the temperature came back up after power was restored.
Lost: The worms all died. Lost various fishes amounting to about 4 oz body weight, the Fiji Blue damsel last, day before the power came on. Fish that died first were those who hold to the rocks and don't come toward the surface---that points to lack of oxygen as the specific cause. Fish that died later probably lost the battle to the cold: two of the four survivors live constantly in the upper layer of water (chromis) and the other two are very fat fish, who may have had padding against the cold. (dascyllus.)
Lost the cheato, pods, and mysis colony in the sump, largely because of the dark as well as cold.
What I'm doing now: Nitrate spiked to 80, so I'm doing both vinegar dosing, and water changes at the rate of 10% every day or so. Got it hammered down to about 40, and the corals, which had tucked up, are spreading out quite happily. Note that these are hardy corals: more delicate types might not have fared as well.
Of course the two species of fish that did survive hate each other. What can I say?
But that's the final score, for what it's worth. The definitive what lived, and what didn't.
Problems to clean up remain, but we got through. Having anything survive that long I credit to lowered temperature and persistent dark, so that fish stayed quiet and didn't run about using oxygen. Just thought it might be useful to know
I also used hand pouring every 4 hours and hydrogen peroxide (3-4 times in 8 days) to restore oxygen; and Prime (about 4x) to do in any ammonia (you can't read a chemical test in the dark, but I took no chances.
I did NOT feed. Fish can die of being fed when their body temperature is too low to enable digestion.
Survivors: 2 dascyllus species damsels; 2 black axil chromis.
Various hermits; the colonista snails; asterina stars. Aiptasia bloomed like mad.
Four corals: hammer, frog, acan, candy cane. Every coral survived and thrived.
The bacterial activity in the rock rebounded as the temperature came back up after power was restored.
Lost: The worms all died. Lost various fishes amounting to about 4 oz body weight, the Fiji Blue damsel last, day before the power came on. Fish that died first were those who hold to the rocks and don't come toward the surface---that points to lack of oxygen as the specific cause. Fish that died later probably lost the battle to the cold: two of the four survivors live constantly in the upper layer of water (chromis) and the other two are very fat fish, who may have had padding against the cold. (dascyllus.)
Lost the cheato, pods, and mysis colony in the sump, largely because of the dark as well as cold.
What I'm doing now: Nitrate spiked to 80, so I'm doing both vinegar dosing, and water changes at the rate of 10% every day or so. Got it hammered down to about 40, and the corals, which had tucked up, are spreading out quite happily. Note that these are hardy corals: more delicate types might not have fared as well.
Of course the two species of fish that did survive hate each other. What can I say?
But that's the final score, for what it's worth. The definitive what lived, and what didn't.
Problems to clean up remain, but we got through. Having anything survive that long I credit to lowered temperature and persistent dark, so that fish stayed quiet and didn't run about using oxygen. Just thought it might be useful to know
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I have bought a small portable generator/inverter, which will make the next one much more survivable---and we nearly had another one two days ago. Weather's gone nuts this year---what we had was an Arctic front barrelling in. Followed by a rain event, sort of like the Pineapple express, warm and wet, followed by anothing gust front, now succeeded (now that the mountain snow has melted) another snow/rain banded forecast.
