Power outage! What do I do??

[J.Serrano]

Hey guys!

I just came home from work to realize that the power is out and im worried about my fish! It seems that the power has been out for 4-5 hours already, so my fish dont have aeration and the bacteria in my tank does not have oxigenated water flow... Temperature is fine...

Im worried my fish will die or get sick. Also, im worried that while im at the end of my tank's nitrogen cycle, the outage will kill all the bacteria and force the tank to restart the cycle with 29 fish!

I dont know what to do. Help please!

 

[BBradbury]

Power Outage

Hello J...

I dealt with the same problem last summer. The power went out for close to 12 hours. This time of year, the tank water temp should be fine. The larger the tank, the slower the water will cool. It will take many hours to cool more than a couple of degrees and a very slow cooling won't bother the fish or plants.

I did fill a pitcher with some of my tank replacement water and poured some in to agitate the surface of my tanks and mix a little oxygen into the water. I did this every two to three hours and the tanks were fine.

Long term could cause a problem, but if you've contacted the local power authority to make them aware of the problem and you live in a fairly urban area, the power will very likely come back on soon. The power authority is usually able to give you an approximate time the repairs will be made.

B

 

[J.Serrano]

Thanks B! I appreciate your response!

I forgot to mention my tank is a month old and has not completed cycling yet. Do you think it would make a difference?

Theres some ammonia in there due to the bacteria growth not being enough to keep it at zero. So if the bacteria were to die i would probably have to start the cycle again...

 

[BBradbury]

Your Tank

Thanks B! I appreciate your response!

I forgot to mention my tank is a month old and has not completed cycling yet. Do you think it would make a difference?

Theres some ammonia in there due to the bacteria growth not being enough to keep it at zero. So if the bacteria were to die i would probably have to start the cycle again...

Hello again J...

If you're cycling without fish, then there's no problem that I can see, long term. Just pour a little new, treated tap water into the tank to provide a little O2 for the growing bacteria.

If you have fish in there, then procedure says to test daily for traces of ammonia and nitrite. If you have a positive test for either, you remove and replace 25 percent of old tank water with pure, treated tap water. The water change will provide the O2.

I always kept a lot floating plants in the tank during the cycling process. The plants take in the nitrogen in the form of ammonia in the water and give back O2.

B

 

[J.Serrano]

Thanks for the info! Fortunately, power just came back and everyone seems to be happy and active still.

Also, i am guessing water quality is not too bad since just saw my first fry when the power came back and the light turned on! So exited! I just saw one little guy, and he went back to hiding so i lost him.

Anyways, ill be monitoring them, but for now it seems like everyone is healthy and happy... So im happy!