Afraid Irene is gonna kill my fish

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Aqua315

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
288
Location
Baltimore, MD
So as expected, Irene took out our power and we may not get it back till friday. I haven't been feeding my fish, trying to have as little ammonia as possible. I've been afraid to test the water because of what it might be... There's no way for me to power the filter and all the stores are sold out of battery operated stuff. I can't do pwc's because our water heater needs electricity so the only water coming out of the tap is ice cold. No casualties so far but it's been 3 days already and I'm not sure how much longer they're gonna last. I feel so helpless! Please, is there anything I can do for them?
 
Tank size? Fish quantity and type? Filtration type? Etc, etc, etc... Need more info.

How are you heating the house? Possible to warm some water using whatever is keeping the house warm? You may be able to keep the ammonia at a non-harmful level by changing it into ammonium using LFS chemicals. It won't lower the amount, but would be much less toxic.
 
its a 28g stocked with 8 neons, 2 gold barbs, 3 albino cherry barbs and 3 nerite snails. Regular HOB filter. I'm keeping the media wet for when we do get power back. We're not heating the house since it's in the 80's. The house is actually pretty warm, we've been keeping windows open to help cool it.
 
If your tank is cycled, the only thing to worry about are nitrates ... but if you've been doing routine PWC's prior to Irene ... I'd say your fine. If you feel you have to do a PWC you can put some water in a bucket and leave it out overnight. With the temps we're having, it'll warm up to room temp.

However, if the fish are swimming normally ... not gasping at the surface for air ... your fine. A couple of times a day, stir the surface to agitate so oxygen exchanges better.
 
Luckily the tank isn't overstocked at all so you should be ok. Since the heater in the tank isn't running, just leave pwc water sitting out and after some hours it should be room temp, same as your tank. I'd do pwc every day until you have power.
 
Thanks I feel better now. I'll try to find a bucket and do a pwc tomorrow. The power company says we should have power back on or before 11:30pm on friday. I really hope it's before that...
 
You might find some peace of mind for the next power outage in buying a battery powered air pump. You can at least get some circulation going, and up the oxygen content with one of those. The one I have runs quite a while on 2 D batteries. I was all set for Irene (or so I thought) until I realised that I had NO batteries of the right size. (Fortunately, we did not lose power, and I will get stocked up D batteries before the next storm.)
 
Just updating to let everyone know my power came back on last night!!! No casualties and everyone seems to be doing fine!
 
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