Power out, tank crashing.

LivinTheSwreefLife · Mar 3, 2018

Like the title says, my power is out and has been for 40+ hours. I had a battery backup on my vortech which worked for about a day and a half keeping the water surface moving, but my heat is out along with the power and it’s cold here. The temperature fell below 52 degrees. All the fish are dead.

I removed all the dead fish, and now just have a few questions:
-the corals are not totally bleached/dead yet but the battery backup has run out. I can add a battery operated pump... how urgent is this for corals? I know it’s crucial for fish but not sure about corals. We are staying quite far from the house so if it can wait until tomorrow morning I will do that. I’ll be even more bummed if I do hours of driving back and forth and all the corals die from cold anyway
-I have 6 zoa polyps in the tank (which is 57 gallons+10 gallon sump). I never kept zoas because I was afraid of the stories of them being poisonous, but got these as hitch hikers and they were utter chaos so I kept them. So the question is, do I have to worry about them releasing toxins as they die of cold?

I guess that’s all. I’m really sad. I may be done with this hobby if I lose everything this time... just losing my Copperband Butterfly is almost enough to make me quit

seaplane · Mar 3, 2018

So sorry for your losses. I would try aerating the water some by taking out water in a container then pouring it back in several times. Also, cover the tank with a heavy quilt or blanket to try to maintain warmth. Good luck.

John3 · Mar 3, 2018

I thought I saw someone was using a power inverter in their car with an extension cord to keep their heater and pumps going. Not sure if that is an option at all. Some newer cars/trucks even have a 120 outlet already in them. I would say flow is very important but the temp is more critical in this situation.

At this point it seems like you might loose it all anyway. I’m sorry as this is the thing we all dread happening in this hobby.

fragit · Mar 3, 2018

I lost power for 6 days this last October. Temp dropped to 56, lost half my fish and almost all my corals. Battery backup for my Gyre lasted 14 hours. I bought a generator after that for the tank, my wife and infant/toddler. I will not go through that again. Just remove all dead stuff, let the tank cycle and start again. It sucks and I feel your pain, but you now know you need to be more prepared and that will leave you with peace of mind for future events(hopefully not).

skiergd011013 · Mar 3, 2018

Im sorry. Power loss is my biggest fear. I think the only sure fired solution for a long term outage is a generator. Are you in Ma?

LivinTheSwreefLife · Mar 3, 2018

skiergd011013 said:
Im sorry. Power loss is my biggest fear. I think the only sure fired solution for a long term outage is a generator. Are you in Ma?

I’m in Maryland

UCF Alum · Mar 3, 2018

@livintheswreeflife

I know what you’re going through because I’ve been through it. This all comes down to how much time and effort you want to spend saving your tank.
Go to Walmart or some place and get a AC/DC power inverter, if you can find one. Hook it up directly to a car battery or take the battery out of your car and run a heater.
You can also take a bucket and pour tank water in and out the tank for aeration/circulation.
Desperate times desperate measures.

Good luck
-Dave

cracker · Mar 3, 2018

Sorry Livin

lou dog420 · Mar 4, 2018

I'm in the same boat, power has been out for 48 hours. Lost my magnificent foxface. Have a generator hooked up now, it really sucks!!

BertieBones · Mar 4, 2018

Sorry to hear about your loss

Thankfully that's one thing I don't have to worry about being in the UK

DarthSimon · Mar 4, 2018

The Little Honda Generators are great.... I've had them for a few years now.... I think they cost around 900 for a 2000 Watt Unit. It will most likely power your entire tank, and a few other things in house...
https://www.amazon.com/Honda-2200-W...D=51gT%2Bzm0p6L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

mitch91175 · Mar 8, 2018

This has definitely made me want to find a generator for my setup. Everyone in a while we will have a power outage for some reason or another, but fortunately I haven't lost anything because power has been restored within enough time. I also live in Texas so I have the opposite issue of temperature most of the year (warmer). Guess I will be look through Craigslist adds for a small gas generator.

chipmunkofdoom2 · Mar 8, 2018

So sorry to hear this Sarah. Do you have power back yet?

slowngreen · Mar 8, 2018

Do you live somewhere you can use a generator? Such a good investment if you can. Even the little bitty Harbor Freight generator for $100 should run a heater and air pump or power head. I bought a Harbor Freight 4000w generator for $400, which are on sale right now for $330 I think. Its been real good, used it for all sorts of things including construction work.

andrewkw · Mar 8, 2018

This is probably too late for you but may help someone in a similar situation. There have been a lot of posts like this lately. If you're not staying at the house why not just take the corals and fish with you?
Even a 5 gallon bucket that is heated and aerated is better then a still and cold 57 gallon reef. Especially in your situation since you mention a few corals only. Don't mean to sound like I'm criticizing I just saw this post now or I would have posted this earlier. Something to think about for or if you do happen to go back and the power is still out and the corals are still alive.

Either way don't give up. You can rebuild.

J2thefree · Mar 9, 2018

Went through this in south jersey yesterday power was out a little over 24 hrs and the tank temp dropped to just below 60... corals seem to slowly be coming back and all inverts seem to be alive thankfully I don’t have any fish at the moment so I lucked out .... but hang in there and hopefully you have power by now and luck out like I have

TinyChocobo · Mar 9, 2018

I know it likely won't help you now - but with as much $$$ as you surely have in this - a good inverter generator and UPS would be cheap.

I run my tank on a UPS that can run everything for a couple of hours which gives me time to fire up my Generator which can run my whole set-up for ~13 hours on something like 2 gallons of gasoline.

Is it more expensive than wall-power and more of a pain in the butt? Yeah - but if you keep your corals, fish, and whole reef alive - it's a small price to pay compared to losing everything.

Personally I don't really understand how somebody can invest so much into a reef and not have a plan for power failure. A battery back-up for the pumps is just a tiny tiny portion of having a plan for power failure.

Here in the Winter we can, and have, lost power for days or even a week or two - and I kept my reef alive by running it off of a generator. Granted I have more cause to have one around due to power failures happening periodically in the winter - but even if I didn't - a Generac Inverter Generator that is more than enough to run just about any reef tank is $800 or so at Lowe's. I'm sure you have more than that in your corals, fish, and equipment most likely [otherwise you wouldn't be upset about losing power and losing fish/corals].

That said - if your power is still out - can you go pick up a generator? I don't suggest the normal / loud / huge / heavy ones - but a good inverter generator is not much louder than a car when it's running.

Reef man 89 · Mar 10, 2018

I am going through the same thing right now. My tank got down to 48 degrees. My power was out from the storm we just had for 3 days. The only thing showing a little life is my Duncan and a couple of zoas. But lost 2 frogspawns 2 hammers 2 torch. My green birds nest and a candy cane. I feel like crying 2 years of work gone.:mad: I guess all I can do now is start all over. I definitely feel your pain. But next time I will be ready for a power outage.