Sad over my tank.

[dcherry]

The winter storm we had last week left us without power for 5 days. I tried to find a generator but everyone was sold out. I wrapped the tank in a space blanket. I used a small battery powered air pump. I also rigged up a small battery powered water pump to pump hot water through silicon tubing to try to heat the water. I have a gas stove and I ran the tubing through a pot of water heating on the stove and had a coil of tubing in the tank. It was not enough with temps outside as low as 5 deg F. I did not get much sleep but one night I did fall asleep and missed my alarm to wake up at 1am and 4am. The house was down to 44 deg F. The water boiled out of the pot. The water temp was down to 53deg F. I lost many snails, rainbow lobster, pygmy angel, not sure if the leathers are going to make it or not. I finally got my hands on a generator. My fear now is that the entire tank will cycle and I will yet loose more. Not sure what to do at this point. I may just have to start over. There is a foul order of death in my tank even after pulling out all the dead. I did a 50% water change today. I have some chemi pure bags hanging in the tank. I do not have a local store for salt water supplies so I am placing orders tonight for more filter medium. I had to pull my Fluval 205 with the cold temp it developed a leak around the O rings. I am having a hard time getting it to reseat.

 

[acrylic51]

Sorry about your troubles......Monitor water parameters and get your filtration up and running and water changes......

 

[superman]

I had a problem last year where my tank got too hot. You're actually going to end up in a better position with too cold vs. too hot. With too hot, you lose a lot of oxygen and get a ton of die off. With too cold, you will have things die, but whatever made it through the cold should bounce back without much issue. About 8 or 9 years ago I moved about 500 miles and packed everything up. Ended up hitting a snow storm on the way and most of the water cooled off way too much during the trip. I ended up not losing any fish at all. Just do what you can to get the water warmer and keep it that way. I don't think you'll need to start from scrath though. Good luck.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by dcherry http:///t/390893/sad-over-my-tank#post_3463801
The winter storm we had last week left us without power for 5 days. I tried to find a generator but everyone was sold out. I wrapped the tank in a space blanket. I used a small battery powered air pump. I also rigged up a small battery powered water pump to pump hot water through silicon tubing to try to heat the water. I have a gas stove and I ran the tubing through a pot of water heating on the stove and had a coil of tubing in the tank. It was not enough with temps outside as low as 5 deg F. I did not get much sleep but one night I did fall asleep and missed my alarm to wake up at 1am and 4am. The house was down to 44 deg F. The water boiled out of the pot. The water temp was down to 53deg F. I lost many snails, rainbow lobster, pygmy angel, not sure if the leathers are going to make it or not. I finally got my hands on a generator. My fear now is that the entire tank will cycle and I will yet loose more. Not sure what to do at this point. I may just have to start over. There is a foul order of death in my tank even after pulling out all the dead. I did a 50% water change today. I have some chemi pure bags hanging in the tank. I do not have a local store for salt water supplies so I am placing orders tonight for more filter medium. I had to pull my Fluval 205 with the cold temp it developed a leak around the O rings. I am having a hard time getting it to reseat.
First...I'm glad that YOU are alright, in that type of cold you were in danger as well. I'm so sorry, I lost power for 4 days (in the summer) and I do know the nightmare....everyone and their brother had a generator except me, and none to buy because they were all sold out within the first hour. I also tried to stay up 24/7 to save the tank critters and fell asleep. A person can only stay awake so long, and sitting in the dark quiet doesn't help.
Water changes is all you can do right now, and save what you can. The good news is (and I hope you never need it) you now do have a generator in the event it should happen again. The lesson is to be prepared for the emergancy BEFORE you need it. So hoard some battery powered air pumps and don't forget the batteries....I couldn't even find a store with batteries to sell. My well was on an electric pump, so the toilet and RO water also went down...no electricity is a serious problem for all living things in our house.