Power Outage recovery

[VTReefer1]

Hi,
I am in the NorthEast and lost power for about a day. When I got the power back today I noticed that there was a rather foul odor coming from my display tank. One of my two clown fishes didn't make it, but the other one and my puffer and my eel seem to be ok. I am just wondering what I can do about the smell. I don't usually run charcoal but I threw a bag in the sump to see if it would help. I also did a 20% water change. Any thoughts? Never had an issue like this in the three years I have had my tanks.

Thanks!

 

[KarlBob]

I'd suggest at least one more water change, then test the water to see if you need yet another one.

 

[Agu]

When you say "charcoal" I assume you mean carbon. And yes that's the proper treatment for bad smelling water. However you do need to test for ammonia and nitrites which would indicate a large enough die off that would create a cycle. Any spike in either would be reason enough to do water changes to minimize the effects of any cycle on your surviving livestock.

 

[the other tang]

I know I am a bit off topic but I had this happen a couple years back. To prevent this from reoccuring i simply bought a couple PC battery back ups to run the power heads only, to just keep some flow and oxygen in the tank. The battery will run them for a couple hours which buys me enough time to get home and start the generator if needed. It is not a fix all but helps.