Power failure and resulting mass death

[flatty]

I have 3 tanks in my house.
A 55 with African Cichlids
a 36 community and a 10 gallon tank with Cichlid fry.
I was out of the country and had someone watching my tanks when Hurricane Matthew hit and killed our power. By the time the fish sitter got back the batter aerator on the main cichlid tank had apparently never kicked on and all but 5 of them died. She didnt know what to do so she scooped the remaining cichlids out and dumped them in my heavily planted community tank. Large cichlids and black neons etc dont really mix but so far I think the plants are providing adequate hiding and probably provided enough oxygen to keep them all alive.

My big question is how to i rapidly get my cichlid tank back in order so i can get them out of my community tank before they get hungry. I have removed all dead fish and done two large water changes so far (90/50) but the tank is still very cloudy and has only had power for 24 hours. I am fairly certain after 3 days of no power the bacteria in filter are dead.

 

[Caliban07]

I have 3 tanks in my house.

A 55 with African Cichlids

a 36 community and a 10 gallon tank with Cichlid fry.

I was out of the country and had someone watching my tanks when Hurricane Matthew hit and killed our power. By the time the fish sitter got back the batter aerator on the main cichlid tank had apparently never kicked on and all but 5 of them died. She didnt know what to do so she scooped the remaining cichlids out and dumped them in my heavily planted community tank. Large cichlids and black neons etc dont really mix but so far I think the plants are providing adequate hiding and probably provided enough oxygen to keep them all alive.



My big question is how to i rapidly get my cichlid tank back in order so i can get them out of my community tank before they get hungry. I have removed all dead fish and done two large water changes so far (90/50) but the tank is still very cloudy and has only had power for 24 hours. I am fairly certain after 3 days of no power the bacteria in filter are dead.

What kind of filtration are you using?


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[Toad]

Takes some of your filter media from the other tanks and put it in the cichlid filter, let it run for an hour or two, put your fish back in and keep a close eye on the levels, it's similar to in fish cycling with that part. May want to rearrange the decor too, since you had losses, hierarchy may out of whack and that should help avoid any issues with that.

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[Caliban07]

Takes some of your filter media from the other tanks and put it in the cichlid filter, let it run for an hour or two, put your fish back in and keep a close eye on the levels, it's similar to in fish cycling with that part. May want to rearrange the decor too, since you had losses, hierarchy may out of whack and that should help avoid any issues with that.

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Good idea?


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[flatty]

What kind of filtration are you using?


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One HOB filter and a canister.

 

[flatty]

Takes some of your filter media from the other tanks and put it in the cichlid filter, let it run for an hour or two, put your fish back in and keep a close eye on the levels, it's similar to in fish cycling with that part. May want to rearrange the decor too, since you had losses, hierarchy may out of whack and that should help avoid any issues with that.

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My concern was that those tanks lost power too so their filter bacteria may be gone too. All tanks have a HOB and 2 have a canister also.

 

[Caliban07]

My concern was that those tanks lost power too so their filter bacteria may be gone too. All tanks have a HOB and 2 have a canister also.

I don't think you have anything to lose. The bacteria in the canisters may have become o2 depleted quite quickly. The HOB might be ok.


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[flatty]

Probably true. Trying to get the tank to atleast clear up some before i put fish back in

 

[plantnoob]

I doubt if all your bacteria are dead. If they die within 3 days, the "bacteria in a bottle" companies are going to have some explaining to do. An easy test is to add a bit of ammonia, say 1 ppm and see how that changes. Filter media from my friend sat in a closed bottle over the weekend in my office and when i added it to my tank and started the cycling process, the tank cycled within 3 days.


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[Delapool]

When I left my canister off for a week I got a rotten egg gas smell and ended up taking it off and cleaning. From memory it seemed to be making more mess than cleaning - I would have to have been fed up with it as I hate cleaning my canister filters.

I have left them off for a day and they have been fine on re-start.


Three days I'm not sure on. Would probably guess the bacteria won't be doing well if the canister was closed up to air/water flow. I'd suspect problems if any sort of smell or releasing a lot of gunk.

Edit - just saw post from plantnoob which was interesting. May also depend on filter load as well. In my tank I get a lot of plant debris.

 

[Caliban07]

I doubt if all your bacteria are dead. If they die within 3 days, the "bacteria in a bottle" companies are going to have some explaining to do. An easy test is to add a bit of ammonia, say 1 ppm and see how that changes. Filter media from my friend sat in a closed bottle over the weekend in my office and when i added it to my tank and started the cycling process, the tank cycled within 3 days.


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This is where the skepticism come from with the bacteria in a bottle. Most of the time it's not true nitrifying bacteria. They come up with all kinds of junk to sell these products.

I'd worry about the colonies in an enclosed filter such as the canister. Even more so in a cichlid tank.


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[Delapool]

This is where the skepticism come from with the bacteria in a bottle. Most of the time it's not true nitrifying bacteria. They come up with all kinds of junk to sell these products.

I'd worry about the colonies in an enclosed filter such as the canister. Even more so in a cichlid tank.


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I wonder what they do base bottle longevity off. Ph? I've never been able to find anything...

 

[Caliban07]

I wonder what they do base bottle longevity off. Ph? I've never been able to find anything...

I think in the main it's dormancy. The bacteria just shut off and wait for their conditions to change. Apparently they can last up to a year in a bottle.


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[flatty]

I have done a few more water changes and water is cloudy now but looks ok aside from that. Somehow during all this i managed to get snail infestation too. What a pain. Going to hope the water clears up a bit more and try to move the fish back tonight or tomorrow as they are getting a little more used to the community tank now

 

[Delapool]

I think in the main it's dormancy. The bacteria just shut off and wait for their conditions to change. Apparently they can last up to a year in a bottle.


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Makes sense, my sister has restarted hers a few times after sitting idle for months when last fish died.

I have done a few more water changes and water is cloudy now but looks ok aside from that. Somehow during all this i managed to get snail infestation too. What a pain. Going to hope the water clears up a bit more and try to move the fish back tonight or tomorrow as they are getting a little more used to the community tank now

Snails as well, that is a bad run Is the tank into a bacterial bloom or just debris? I've tried seachem clarity and thought it helped.

 

[acewiza]

I doubt if all your bacteria are dead. If they die within 3 days, the "bacteria in a bottle" companies are going to have some explaining to do.

Yes, agreed. But I'd still like to know what the actual timeline is under certain conditions.

FWIW, I run my tanks on UPS. The 2 big tanks are on a 2kv unit that will keep them going for almost a day before the battery is drained if the heaters and everything else connect to the UPS is turned off. Except for the heaters, the other aquarium stuff like electronic thermometers, air and filter pumps don't use much electricity. We also have a generator for longer term outages.

 

[gilpi]

I too have a 55g African tank. After storm Sandy hit us a few years ago, I lost power for almost 4 days.
The tank's filters are two canisters, by the 3rd day I had given up hope on my fish since now the outside temperature also started dropping and the house was getting cold.
The fourth day we woke up to power and filters running. Didn't lose a fish.
At that point I didn't bother checking water levels, just did a good water change and a few days later did maintenance on the filters.
Wish I could tell you what the "timeline" is when the bacteria starts to die but that was my experience.

 

[Delapool]

I too have a 55g African tank. After storm Sandy hit us a few years ago, I lost power for almost 4 days.
The tank's filters are two canisters, by the 3rd day I had given up hope on my fish since now the outside temperature also started dropping and the house was getting cold.
The fourth day we woke up to power and filters running. Didn't lose a fish.
At that point I didn't bother checking water levels, just did a good water change and a few days later did maintenance on the filters.
Wish I could tell you what the "timeline" is where the bacteria starts to die but that was my experience.

I wonder if the temperature dropping helped with slowing down bacterial activity?

I've been assuming that I'm fine on re-start as long as I don't get any rotten egg gas smell and the canister runs as normal.

I did a quick search out of interest and up to 48hrs seemed like it should be fine but same problem of not knowing what the timeline is and I suspect there could be a few variables in there as well.

For interest (and only applicable to my tank and tap water I guess), as a test on a mature filter (larger canister) I left it standing and sealed over-night filled with tap water. Tank was fine on re-start with no ammonia spike over several tests. So I think the bacteria in a mature filter are pretty tough (not so sure on a young tank - one of the variables?) so was starting to hunt around for how long they can survive without oxygen or if they just go dormant. Not finding much research so far

 

[gilpi]

I wonder if the temperature dropping helped with slowing down bacterial activity?

I've been assuming that I'm fine on re-start as long as I don't get any rotten egg gas smell and the canister runs as normal.

I did a quick search out of interest and up to 48hrs seemed like it should be fine but same problem of not knowing what the timeline is and I suspect there could be a few variables in there as well.

For interest (and only applicable to my tank and tap water I guess), as a test on a mature filter (larger canister) I left it standing and sealed over-night filled with tap water. Tank was fine on re-start with no ammonia spike over several tests. So I think the bacteria in a mature filter are pretty tough (not so sure on a young tank - one of the variables?) so was starting to hunt around for how long they can survive without oxygen or if they just go dormant. Not finding much research so far

Not only was I concerned about the filters not running but the temperature was starting to be an issue and as you mentioned, I wondered if that had something to do overall in preserving the bacteria? After 3 days, my wife had asked me about the fish and my response was, "I give up".
I guess my attitude would have been different had I not been so overwhelmed with all the issues going on due to the power failure.

It would be nice though to have the extra time and equipment to experiment on bacteria as you mentioned, I think it would make a terrific topic.

 

[flatty]

Makes sense, my sister has restarted hers a few times after sitting idle for months when last fish died.





Snails as well, that is a bad run Is the tank into a bacterial bloom or just debris? I've tried seachem clarity and thought it helped.

Yeah not sure where the snails came from. I think it may be bacterial as after two days it is still a touch cloudy. Either way water params look decent enough so I think I need to make the move tonight