Power Outage Issue

[oldimpala]

Hi All!

I've got some troubling things that have happened to my tank in the past few days, and I'm coming for some advice...

I live in the Buffalo area, and for those of you who are following the news, we had a pretty nasty storm, knocked power out for quite a few people (Like 500K), for quite a few days. I fared pretty well, with an inverter powering my 72G tank, for about 35 hours, until my house got cold enough that I needed a generator. One heater, and a Stream wasn't keeping things warm enough.

I got one, but not before I fluctuated about 9 degrees down (69-ish) in tank temperature, over an 8-10 hr. period. The temp came back up, and I'm back on commercial power, now, holding steady between 79 and 80 degrees.

I knew, obviously, this wasn't good for the SPS (Livestock survived OK), and other than the 3" of water in my basement, the tank was the main reason for the generator purchase.

To wrap up my long story (Sorry), I'm now facing browning (I'm OK with that), and some RTN or STN, dunno which, but it's TN.

I need some advice on how to proceed, and I've asked this on the Upstate Reef board, but wanted advice here, too, as SPS is all we do here..

I see I've got three, realistic courses of action, and the TN is hitting only some of my Montis and Acros, now. My Efflos and the Xenia I have, other than some browning, appear to be recovering nicely.

Tell me which is best:

1. Frag 'em. Hope for the best with the frags.

2. Leave 'em alone, hope they recover organically, Fragging is too much stress.

3. They're gonna die regardless....

Let me know soon, please, so if advised, I can begin surgery....

Thanks again-

-Andy/Oldimpala

 

[discus010]

I have had some of my sps rtn before and sometimes I would frag them in hopes of stopping the spread of rtn. At other times, I would leave the coral alone. The end result was a 50/50 survival rate and I believe the spread of rtn stops when the tank conditions meet the corals needs.

In your tank, the rtn most likely started from the sudden drop in temperature and the spike in nitrates. If you haven't done so already, I would do a large water change. On top of that, clean out your collection cup at least once a day to maximize its efficiency until the rtn stops.

Best of luck

 

[dots]

If its something you absolutly love....I say frag it and double your chances....but give it a day or so if you can gamble to see if it subsides......SRTN is recoverable....if you stabilize the tank....