Some of you know we had an 8-day power outage here: I got my tanks through it with all corals and several fish, snails and crabs alive.
I lost 5 marine fish, two freshwater. Saved the rest.
I think it was, outside of our efforts, the COLD which saved the fish, corals, and tank. I managed, with a small hunter's propane heater, (and ventilation to the outside!) to keep the tank temperature at 61.1. I'd rather it have been 62, but that was what we could do. With the cold, the water could hold more oxygen, and the fish and critters needed less. And I think I would recommend anybody, winter or summer, who has a power-out emergency, lower the tank temperature rather than fighting to maintain it---including floating bags of ice to chill it down.
Not everybody lives in circumstances where a generator is a possibility. [I do recommend the Penn-Plax battery bubblers, which were sold out within a day after the storm. (I didn't have those either.)] Basically we aerated for 8 days by standing on a ladder every 4 hours round the clock, dipping and pouring enough water to equal tank water volume (105 and 54). [Yes, I now have a generator.]
By the fifth day, I began losing fish, and lost all worms and some snails at some point. I knew it was going to spike ammonia, because in the dark and with fish under the rockwork, I couldn't get them out. The good news was, the cold helped hold back the decay. And I began using Prime to knock any ammonia.
The lasting consequences are that the nitrate readings are through the roof, because, apparently, tests can't distinguish 'bound' nitrate from not-bound. But the tank is fine, the corals all survived (they survive better than fish, just expelling water and tucking down) and the majority of the fish did. Lost a lot of the cuc, notably worms of every sort.
But I have come out of it with the conviction that it's a mistake to urge people to raise the temperature in a stalled tank: I think it should fall, but no lower than 62; and that they should stand by with Prime, if it lasts and lasts. And get some of those battery-driven bubblers. Water-pouring is a pain, but at that temperature, it works. Main thing is always aeration, aeration, aeration.
I lost 5 marine fish, two freshwater. Saved the rest.
I think it was, outside of our efforts, the COLD which saved the fish, corals, and tank. I managed, with a small hunter's propane heater, (and ventilation to the outside!) to keep the tank temperature at 61.1. I'd rather it have been 62, but that was what we could do. With the cold, the water could hold more oxygen, and the fish and critters needed less. And I think I would recommend anybody, winter or summer, who has a power-out emergency, lower the tank temperature rather than fighting to maintain it---including floating bags of ice to chill it down.
Not everybody lives in circumstances where a generator is a possibility. [I do recommend the Penn-Plax battery bubblers, which were sold out within a day after the storm. (I didn't have those either.)] Basically we aerated for 8 days by standing on a ladder every 4 hours round the clock, dipping and pouring enough water to equal tank water volume (105 and 54). [Yes, I now have a generator.]
By the fifth day, I began losing fish, and lost all worms and some snails at some point. I knew it was going to spike ammonia, because in the dark and with fish under the rockwork, I couldn't get them out. The good news was, the cold helped hold back the decay. And I began using Prime to knock any ammonia.
The lasting consequences are that the nitrate readings are through the roof, because, apparently, tests can't distinguish 'bound' nitrate from not-bound. But the tank is fine, the corals all survived (they survive better than fish, just expelling water and tucking down) and the majority of the fish did. Lost a lot of the cuc, notably worms of every sort.
But I have come out of it with the conviction that it's a mistake to urge people to raise the temperature in a stalled tank: I think it should fall, but no lower than 62; and that they should stand by with Prime, if it lasts and lasts. And get some of those battery-driven bubblers. Water-pouring is a pain, but at that temperature, it works. Main thing is always aeration, aeration, aeration.
