Power out for 9 hours!

[pa reef pig]

My #2 worst nightmare come true. (exploding tank is #1) Had a bad ice storm here last night. Well just my luck, the power goes out at about 7pm and didn't come back on until about 4am this morning. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well. I was up s#!t creek without a paddle. Had no idea what to do. No circulation, no heat and no lights. Since it was about lights out time anyway, I wasn't too conserned about that. It was the circulation and the temp. that really freaked me out. I wasn't sure how long the power would be out. The temp in the house, and the tank for that matter, drops pretty quick when its 34 degrees outside. The tank went from 79 to about 72 until the power came back on. Much lower and I was gonna freak. Well the worst is over and looks like everything made it. NO WATER MESSES. SUMP HELD THE OVERFLOW! YEAH!
Hope that doesn't happen too often.
Has anyone else had any close calls like that one? or worse?

 

[10k]

You must not have heard about the killer ice storm we had here in NC last week. Thousands without power, some for days, others still out! Several on this board, including myself.....What a ride!

 

[pa reef pig]

I did hear about that. How long were you without power?

 

[10k]

I was only out for 2 days, but keep a lookout for Kipass. He just recently got his back. Some are still without, and I still have a live utility pole on my roof! We love the ice! Really we do!

 

[pa reef pig]

What did you do with the tank? Is it ok? What happened?

 

[danrw84]

i had a 10 hr outage her in SD. not much of a temp problem though
everything was ok...it was one big fish bowl though!

 

[volitan]

We had a power outage last year that lasted a week. The tank temp. only dropped into the sixtys, though. I kept the tank wrapped in blankets throughout the outage, and I bought a propane-fueled space heater for the front room. Everything lived except my serpent star. From what I was told, don't feed your tank until about a week after the power comes back on (I have no idea why, but it seemed to work when I did it), and only let the temp go up about one degree per hour. I feel very lucky that I didn't loose any more than I did. I thought I was going to have to start over.

 

[donkeykong]

I second volitan with the raising the temp slow. Low 70 high 60 can be scare for us but the fish will actual go into a hybernation mode. As long as it doesnt last to long, and they were healthy to begin with they should survive. But if sfter the power is back we raise the temp 10degrees in about 1/2 an hour that will stress the fish out worst then the low temp.
A friend of mine learned this the hard way. After a power out that dropped the temp to 68, he added his to spare heaters in the tank to speed up the reheat, at first everything was fine all looked to be ok, but when the temp went to 81 in 1 hour he lost all his inverts. You should have seen his face when I had to tell him that he probably caused the deaths not the power outage

 

[10k]

PA,
The power went out at 3:30am, and as soon as the sun broke, I ran around looking for a generator. I got lucky and got the last one Lowe's had, 25 miles away......talk about lucky! I have 5 tanks, 3 salt, 2 fresh, and Geckos to keep up. I couldn't have done it without the generator. Best investment I ever made!

 

[michelle13]

My power was off for over 24 hours. Tank temps got down to 55 degrees. Everything survived and is doing fine. All the fish looked pretty lifeless until the tank was warm again. I do have a snake that I think may have went into hibernation though!!

 

[jeffrey-chiang]

In my solution , I use a UPS with the needle wheel skimmer , then there are some circle in the tank . And the UPS can handle abt 6-7 hrs.
Some of us use the generator or there are the big generator in the department. So it's not a big problem.
In your place. I will close the sump vent and use something to cover the tank (onside the water ) to avoid the temperature decrease so fast.
Just my opion.

 

[javatech]

Last year in KC i lost my power for 6 day's lost a lot of fish on day 4 i found a gen. they were shipping them in by the train load and you had to get on a list. check with FEMA i got $500 back from the gov.

 

[entice59]

i understand about needing power for the heater, but why do we need circulation in the tank when the power is out?(stupid quesiton)

 

[iechy]

Mostly for gas exchange to that your fish don't suffocate but if it is out for a long time then your coral need the circulation for nutrients as well although if the lights are out and the polyps retracted then that may not happen anyway.