Electricity Out HELLLLLPP!!!!!!!!!!!

[macman7010]

Our electric went out as the result of a bad early winter storm. According to the power company it will be out till Friday at 4 p.m. My reef tank is in my fish room with no filtration, water movement or heat. The battery back up went dead about 4 hours ago. I wondered what I can try to do to save some of my livestock.

My office has power - its 20 min away. Any ideas???

 

[Hara]

rent a generator

 

[Brodie]

Friday is a long time to wait for power. You could always get a generator, or see if a buddy with a tank could watch your fish and corals, or if your LFS can babysit for a few days.

Good luck!

 

[fishfreek]

Wrap the tank with blankets to maintan as much heat as possible. If you dont have a battery powered air pump see if you can get one quickly. This will help maintain som elevel of water movement allowing more oxygen to be exchanged. If you cant do this then 'stir' the water a few times an hour for oxygen exchange.

 

[austinsdad]

Any chance of getting a generator? Or maybe a power inverter that plugs into the car and provides a bit of electricity. I'm in Clinton MD (near Andrews AFB). Need to swing down and pick up a loaner generator? I'll leave work and meet'cha. It's either a few hundred to buy a generator, a power inverter (limited output), or come on down.

Gonna need a truck. Its a 5000 w/no wheels.

 

[macman7010]

we are going to get a honda eg 5000 now. thanks a lot guys ill let you know how it goes.

 

[austinsdad]

Pickup some extra xtension cords for the fridge(s).

 

[BillyZ]

just some basic generator safety tips:

Don't run the generator indoors, this includes the basement or garage unless you keep the garage door open and the generator near the door.
Don't fill the generator with gas while it's runing.
Don't keep the gas for the generator next to it.

 

[macman7010]

thanks a lot guys. I really appreciate the offers, they dont expect to have power to my area until Friday around 4 p.m. This generator will be enough to power some power heads, heater and wet/dry filter. I dont know that I will be able to run the lighting ... and Im going to need to run both heaters on my Discus tank. Ill let you know how it goes. They have been without power for about 12 hours a little less.

 

[ellisz]

I bought my generator at Pep boys. $299 for a 2500 watt I believe. This is a small one but was enough for my tank and some other stuff. Has a good size gas tank too.

We don't lose power often but just in case.

 

[KMyers18]

A 5K generator will power your whole house in most cases! And will by far power any tanks you have! I have a 5250 that i ran my whole including my A/C but you have to know how to wire it Anyway good luck

 

[macman7010]

well we got the generator wired in, it powers must of the house functions and I can run my tanks full blast lighting and all. The bad news in we didnt get to the saltwater fast enough. I am assuming the low temps, it hit about 68 or lower and lack of oxygen did it. The Discus tank fared better with only one loss - now the temps are normal and filtration is at 100% on both tanks. They were without power just over 12 hours.

Loses in the salt are as follows:
Lavender Tang
Royal Gramma
Both cleaner shrimp
Spiny Lobster

Yellow tang might make it - was on side now is swimming and laying against rocks
Sailfin tang may make it- swimming cocked near top
Maroon Clown may make it
Mandarin May make it
Blenny may make it
Others I have not seen and dont know

It seemed as the the temp went up things got some better, fish that appeared at first dead started coming around. Ill keep you guys posted.

 

[fishfreek]

Thats quite a load for a 75 gal tank. I suspect most of them where a loss due to oxygen levels more than water temperatures.

 

[Brenden]

Sorry to hear. I have been raging today because I lost my sailfin to a intake "accident" I would be #$%* if I lost that many. Hope they pull through for you. That is a heavy load for a 75 gallon

 

[greenmaji]

I was consered about your reeftank macman.. I know you run that system hard to keep everything thriving, much more dense then the norm. Thats way over what I would try and would hate to go without power for more then 5 min. much less 12 hours.. Good luck with the iffy ones..

 

[macman7010]

well thanks for the info guys. i wont be replacing a lot of the fish that died since the tank was well passed overstocked. I like to overstock but here is the report as of today, we got our power back earlier.

The lavender tangs dead
yellow tang dead
royal gramma dead
six line wrasse dead
all cleaner shrimp dead
spiny lobster dead

alive but questionable
maroon clownfish
bi-color blenny
sailfin tang

alive
purple firefish
yellow goby
pajama cardinals
green chromis
coral banded shrimp - miracle shrimp

corals seem good. i tested my water and nitrites were 0 however my nitrates were 100ppm which is totally insane. I did a 20 gallon water change with RO/DI water brining the ph back to norm - it had dropped a little - and brought the nitrates down to 20 ppm - hoping to lose some more nitrate values as things get back up and running.

corals seem ok some have opened up, clams and other mollusks, snails and hermits all seem fine. my hope is if the tank does not re-cycle than things should level out ok.

 

[greenmaji]

I would think that once your symbiotic algae corals were without light a big part of your filtration went out the window.. now that you have the lights back on maybe that will help.. again.. man that stinks..
maybe I can borrow your copy of Ultimate Marine Aquariums?

 

[macman7010]

yeah im sure it did, the nitrates are staying down, they are below 20 ppm now. the maroon clown seems better the the blenny pulled through.

 

[greenmaji]

goodluck with the sailfin.