Everything is dying!!! i had power outage. Help!

[Subtropic Reefer]

I had a power outage last night while i was asleep and woke up to all my corals closed up and my fish almost dead. to make things worse, the water went from clear to almost brown. I’m about to test right now. what else should I do? acros went from healthy to bleached! i’m so worried.

 

[HeyLookItsCaps]

I had a power outage last night while i was asleep and woke up to all my corals closed up and my fish almost dead. to make things worse, the water went from clear to almost brown. I’m about to test right now. what else should I do? acros went from healthy to bleached! i’m so worried.

Get aeration and heat in there. During a bad power outage I was heating up water over my stove/fire and stirring the tank with a stir stick. If you have power get flow going, add air stones if you have them, and get the temp back up to normal asap

 

[Subtropic Reefer]

Get aeration and heat in there. During a bad power outage I was heating up water over my stove/fire and stirring the tank with a stir stick. If you have power get flow going, add air stones if you have them, and get the temp back up to normal asap

Luckily i’m in florida so the temp is fine. i got everything running but the effects look awful.

 

[Subtropic Reefer]

Get aeration and heat in there. During a bad power outage I was heating up water over my stove/fire and stirring the tank with a stir stick. If you have power get flow going, add air stones if you have them, and get the temp back up to normal asap

 

[Harold999]

Power outlet warning device + a 1000 watt generator = 250 bucks.
Too late for you now but hopefully a wakeup call for others.

 

[HeyLookItsCaps]

Aeration aeration Aeration. Get that water movin

 

[Lavey29]

Power outlet warning device + a 1000 watt generator = 250 bucks.
Too late for you now but hopefully a wakeup call for others.

OP was asleep and did not know power went out so generator would not have helped unless it was hard wired into the main. Although I firmly believe in your logic about stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

OP was asleep and did not know power went out so generator would not have helped unless it was hard wired into the main. Although I firmly believe in your logic about stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

Battery powered back up air bubbler. I know hindsight and all..but be a warning for others.

 

[Lavey29]

Battery powered back up air bubbler. I know hindsight and all..but be a warning for others.

Yes everyone should have one of those too but again if you're asleep and wake up to an emergent tank situation gotta try and address the immediate problem which is what most suggested with aeration. Hopefully it is just shock stress and everything will get back in balance for the OP.

 

[Subtropic Reefer]

Yes everyone should have one of those too but again if you're asleep and wake up to an emergent tank situation gotta try and address the immediate problem which is what most suggested with aeration. Hopefully it is just shock stress and everything will get back in balance for the OP.

To make things worse i had a red planaria die off which i think caused the water discoloration. i did a 40ish percent water change. i don’t know what else to do. Any tips? should i run extra carbon? turn lights down?

 

[NS Mike D]

run carbon in a media reactor (not carbon dosing) to help remove any toxins released by stressed/dying inhabitants (especially anenomes). Also, do you have water or have access to a Petco or other shop that sells it (or make your own from distilled)? Do a water change - will help remove any bad stuff and also helps to aerate.

I had a short in a heater that did something similar to me one day. I lost a lot of new corals and had some crash related Dino issues but tank look good today - 5 years later. Fish survived. Also had a 3 day power outage - spent a day using a water pitcher to lift and pour back water every half hour to aerate. I had to leave the place so I let Mother Nature do her thing until power came back and lost just one fish.

Now I built a Ni-Ion power bank using harvested scooter batteries for a quick power source for the pumps, Still need to get that generator for longer outages.

 

[Lavey29]

To make things worse i had a red planaria die off which i think caused the water discoloration. i did a 40ish percent water change. i don’t know what else to do. Any tips? should i run extra carbon? turn lights down?

If power is back on lowering light intensity may help coral shock. Carbon is never bad if you suspect water contamination. Check all your parameters and you can determine your course of action. I'm guessing they will be irritated a few days but recover. Hopefully your fish are better now. Extra aeration 02 always good.

 

[Mical]

delete post

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

do waterchanges, carbon is your new best friend, change it hourly at first. dont hit it with lots of light for a few days.

check your levels often, the big brown growth spurt might have your alk off , if that gets off everything else suffers quickly.

in a pinch use your car battery to run a 12 volt water pump if you dont have a generator.

 

[brandon429]

if you want the safest tank cpr you do a full rip clean and don't run lights much at all for a couple days especially if the tank is being left with the same sand and rocks/not rip cleaned.

once the tank is fully cleaned in one pass (a rip clean is total cleaning all at once, and all new water) then you just run lights at about half power. full bright lighting will kill the corals in the stew setup currently, this is best CPR advice.

Reef Tank CPR - power outage biology, crash arrest, and recovery

Team Don‘t add bottled bacteria to the display during crash arrest as the cycle bacteria aren’t killed in still water. There are times where bottled bacteria can lower ammonia in fish holding containers especially if travel or transport is occurring, but by rinsing these displays out vs dosing...

www.reef2reef.com

fix examples are directly logged there plus inspectable outcomes weeks later. reduce lighting intensity as the very first thing or turn lights off until fixed. dont take long to rip clean, its a chemical stew even with the partial water changes in place. those helped 10%.

 

[kiran]

This happened to me recently but it went out 3 days in a row for 4-5 hours a day. Luckily I didn't have any fish in the tank because of the fallow I'm doing.

Half my corals died and the other half are bouncing back.

I bought a generator dedicated to only my tank and battery powered air-stone right after.

I'm sorry OP. Hope you're tank bounces back.

 

[Harold999]

OP was asleep and did not know power went out so generator would not have helped unless it was hard wired into the main. Although I firmly believe in your logic about stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

A 30 bucks power outage warning device wakes you up when you're sleeping, i mentioned that. Then you can turn on the generator.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

my generator kicks on by itself after power goes off more than a programable amount of minutes, check out the solar diy sites.