My AC went out for 12 hours and my parameters went crazy...

[RussC]

So I figure my AC was out for about 12 hours before I could get it repaired. House temp got to be about 87. I was a nervous wreck. All my parameters started to do weird things when the temp started increasing in the tank. I don't have a chiller.

My salinity average is normally 35. It increased to 36.5
My ORP is normally 300. It dropped out to 277.
My temp is normally 77.5. It increased to 82.5
My PH is normally about 7.6 and it got up to 7.9

These might not seem like big swings, but when I say my normal settings are consistent, they are really consistent. So these changes were relatively quick for my tank. The one coral that had a noticeable reaction was my Leather Coral. It shrunk to its "night" position. Now the other corals didn't seem to make much of any difference. But what about the parameters?

I realize the temperature increase caused all this. But What caused the ORP to make such a significant drop like that? How does temp increase change that? And why does PH go up when temp goes up? And I'm guessing salinity increased because of evaporation and the amount of tipoff that had to be added. Am I on the right track?

What do folks do when the power goes out and they don't have a chiller during the summer? Just how much can a tank withstand? I just went through a hurricane but didn't loose power. I have a generator but it never occurred to me a tank could heat up that quickly. This was one of those learning experiences. Thought I'd share and see what others do. Thoughts?

 

[WatDatThing]

The last time the power went out, I fired up the generator.

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[ahuaia]

Well for pH there is constantly reactions taking place that make your pH what it is and where your pH sits is the equilibrium point and one thing that can change your equilibrium point is temperature. This is probably the case for your ORP as well. Hope this helps.

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[Small Heavens]

Salinity always changes with temperature, the temperature also drives out oxygen from the water and I know it tends to make toxic things more toxic including effecting pH to acidify although I currently forget if high or low pH is acidic. Seem to me that high pH is acidic so that would be normal (like bad air on a really hot day feels for humans, so with "hot water").

Hmm, solutions.. I know people often use a fan to blow on the water surface to cool it but prefreezing some of your tank water into icecubes; will give you a little emergency cooling for such events in general. See if you can get something in a good size for your tank because "icecubes" melts really fast tbh.

I am sorry to hear about your troubles but hopefully you have got it under control.

I did read somewhere online that reeftanks generally show how they "feel" about one week AFTER the event that shocked the tank. So my best advice would be to make sure to keep all your livestock well-fed and pampered until next week so you can see how much impact was done to them without causing any futher stress to them if possible. If we presume that some of the algae in your corals died, the coral should get peace to rebuild it so no sudden-stress push it over into exhaustion and death.
Hurry slow & good luck RussC