6 hours without power

[tokejr]

Just got power back on from this morning.

What the xxxx was that that blew through here this morning????????

The winds were so bad, I thought it would blow the house up.

Can't move - trees everywhere, streets blocked.

At any rate, we haven't finished the backup power setup so the tanks had no power, no filtration, no lights.

Everything looks fine, but I'm not sure if there is anything special I should do. Dave's not here - helping friends - so I thought I'd turn to my ARC buddies and ask what I should do next.

Everything came back up fine - pumps, sump, lights, skimmer. The temperature in the tanks dropped to about 75 degrees, none of the fish were gasping at the surface of the water.

There's some RO water, should I do a quick water change (72 gal bowfront and a 30 gal long)? It will take a couple of hours to get the temp up and salt ready, but it might not be a bad idea?

 

[cr500_af]

I think your biggest danger was low oxygen... I think now that you got the H2O moving again you're OK, but I'm watching this thread so I can learn more!

 

[tokejr]

Ammonia looks like it's 0. Still have a few minutes on the color change, but the test tube water is clear.

I'll test the others now.

All the programmables clicked back on with the power.

pH is between 8.2 and 8.3

These are all on the 72 - only one fish, a couple coral and plants in the 30. Will test that one next, but I suspect it's good as well. I see no visible signs of distress in either tank.

 

[oil_fan]

I'm also thinking low O2 levels are likely but they'll come back up. Though you could throw an airstone in there if you have an air pump handy.

The temp drop shouldn't be an issue. It's not that bad. Just be glad that it wasn't winter.

 

[tokejr]

Oil_Fan;326671 wrote: I'm also thinking low O2 levels are likely but they'll come back up. Though you could throw an airstone in there if you have an air pump handy.

The temp drop shouldn't be an issue. It's not that bad. Just be glad that it wasn't winter.

LOL, heat is one backup I do have. Have a propane fireplace in the basement just for those winter storms and power outages. It just wasn't cold enough to turn the heater on today - but if it had lasted much longer, I would have.

Our next project will have to be power backup to keep the pump and heater running in the tanks.

I was really surprised at the 2 hour mark not to see gasping. We poured water from the fuge into the tank every hour, but I'm sure that didn't do much. It was, however, better than nothing.