Quote:
Originally Posted by
Flower http:///t/394543/accidentally-left-canister-pump-off-5-days#post_3511768
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/394543/accidentally-left-canister-pump-off-5-days#post_3511756
Too true and I am glad that your critters pulled thru. You hear of these things happening but never think that you will forget to turn things back on. We had a storm come in last summer and my tank was off for 3 days and did beautifully. All fish pulled thru and the corals did good, mild bleaching, very mild, and bounced back quickly. I was a wreck but I was courious how the tank would react if that would happen and now feel that it would be okay if it were to happen again. (in the summer, not winter tho)
3 days total black out...and no air pumps at least??? I'm amazed.
We had a 4 day blackout a few years back, and I didn't even have a battery pump, I couldn't even find one to purchase at the time...I was scooping water out in a plastic bowl, and letting it waterfall back into the tank about 5 to 7X an hour. My mother and I took shifts through the night. No lost seahorses in the 30g, but 3 fish in the 90g died....including my Blue Hippo tang that I had for years and years ever since it was teeny tiny.
I have since purchased a generator, and battery operated air pumps. We had another back out last summer, and my generator ran both the new 56g (upgraded the 30g) and 90g tank, including the chillers on both tanks, as well as my Bi-Pap machine without a hic-up....now I feel ready for an emergency.
Until fattytwobyfour's post I never considered my nitrate filters that sat uncirculated...as well as what would happen to a canister filter. Those filters were sitting there for 4 days back then, without being circulated, now I'm sitting here surprised I didn't have everything die when power was restored. Indeed, file this thread in my thoughts to prevent disaster in the future.
I too was amazed flower and like I stated, was a wreck. I expected a whole tank wipe out. We did get a generator and the wife got it hooked up that night and within four hours the power came back on. We did the same as you did come to think about it with the water pouring but not as often as we had to work.
We did end with a generator from the neighbor and after around three hours of connecting everything the power came back on. No ammonia spike or nothing. I think it may have been due to the fish and corals went into hybornation mode and slowed down because the corals did not open during the outage and the fish stayed in their hiding places. We didn't feed or nothing.
not something I would want to try again, but another aquarist told me that if this happens you know you have a good established system. Who knows.
The following week or two I did a huge water change, 47 gallons and everything perked right up.