Power out - temperature down to 45 F

[rpkneumann]

The Texas winter storms left us for 3 days without power.
I call myself lucky. Next winter season I will have a power backup.

The water temperature in the tank dropped to 45 F.
The room temperature had dropped to a cozy 40 degrees.
I had wrapped the tank with several layers of blankets and put multiple towels on the top cover.

1 day after warmup I find the following:

4 clown fish, 2 cardinals, a watchman goby and a neon goby survived.
They moved a bit sluggish at first but after a few hours of warm water they ate and are back to their usual behavior.
My red fire shrimp looks like he went through a blender. His antennas are bend and he hasn’t left the spot I found him. But he’s moving.
Pistol shrimp is fine.
My long tentacle anemone moved from an open space to a deeper sand bed between rocks.
Tuxedo urchin and pencil urchin moving fine.
My serpent start fish is fine too. He had moved into one of my pistol shrimps deep caves.
Only to be kicked out by the pistol shrimp after the water warmed up.
All the trochus snails survived. Cerites are gone. Have not seen the nassarius yet
Looks like a few hermits are gone.

Most of the soft corals survived. First totally limp but now standing up.
Kenia tree, daisy polyp, gas, hammer head and toadstool seem to come back.
My finicky toadstool starts to show its tentacles. He gets upset with me every time I put my hand into the water then he retreats for several days.

Questions:
1- should I do a water change and infuse new bacteria? Or do the beneficial bacteria survive those temperatures?
2- should I wait and see if the Xenia comes back or take it out? See pic below.
3 - anything I should watch out for?
my Xenia seems a goner .....

 

[itsken37]

1. Yes that will help. then resume normal water change schedule.
2. Yes, unless it looks like it is melting.
3. melting coral and dead things.

 

[DED65]

I was reading a post on here yesterday about the power outages and one of the reef gods (I can't remember who) said the most important thing to do is turn the lights down and reacclimatize the corals to prevent burns.

 

[346700984]

I’m also interested to know what would happen to the bacteria in such a case once the tank is back up and running again. Sorry you had to go through that.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

The bacteria will be fine, as it did not freeze and some can even live through that.

I have been through this before and it sucks.

Just remember, raise everything back up slowly and watch for ammonia spikes. Lots of things will live, as it dropped slowly and was raised back up slowly.

Slow includes lighting. If it was out for 3 days, just ramp back up over 3 days to be safe. No worse than a bad storm on a reef blocking light for a few days, but still take it slow.

Again, watch for ammonia spikes. Little critters that may have died in this process (pods, micro brittle stars, etc.) can add up if enough of them died.

Other than that, glad most things lived and hope all recovers well.

Edit: small water changes will not hurt. But again, if it is going to raise temp, make sure to go slow.

 

[homer1475]

That xenia is probably fine. They are pretty bullet proof.

Just keep an eye on things as some of your microfauna may have died off. If enough of it died qat once, you may have an ammonia spike, but I doubt it.

 

[Don_Jorge]

Maan im sorry this happen to you, I'm in San Antonio, Tx and was extremely fortunate to not be part of the scheduled black outs. Not being able to go to home depot to buy a battery backup still has me anxious, All i can think about what is the lights go out any second now. lesson learned here as well and glad most of the livestock lived. stay warm

 

[Sleepydoc]

First, I hope you and your family are doing ok. (Since you're posting here, I presume that's the case!)

I wouldn't worry about the bacteria. Their metabolism slows down and they hibernate, but I doubt many died during the chill. I'd be more worried about ammonia spikes from the other critters that died.

As for the Xenia, I'd probably pull it before it starts decomposing.

 

[iMi]

I read these horrific posts. I am assuming you guys use electricity for heat down there? Or is there no heat in most buildings and only air conditioning?

Just curious, I guess. We have gas in the midwest, so power outage is not a factor when it comes to temperature in the house.

 

[Nano925]

I hope you can save as much as possible. We are all rooting for your success. Best wishes to you and your family.

 

[Casket_Case]

Same happened to me, If I could go back I would have put more bacteria in. Then resumed with normal water changes and tried to keep the system as stable as possible so the inhabitants can repair themselves.

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

agree with the above on lessons learned.. I will be buying a solar powered generator in the coming months. Like many, I lost my entire tank.

 

[brandon429]

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

we review why no bacteria should be dosed there

 

[rpkneumann]

I read these horrific posts. I am assuming you guys use electricity for heat down there? Or is there no heat in most buildings and only air conditioning?

Just curious, I guess. We have gas in the midwest, so power outage is not a factor when it comes to temperature in the house.

The house uses gas heater (airducts) but that won’t run without electricity. The electric fan in the system needs to run before it fires up.
Thats why the house cooled down to 40 F. We are ok now. Power still cuts out but only for an hour max.
thanks for asking.

 

[iMi]

The house uses gas heater (airducts) but that won’t run without electricity. The electric fan in the system needs to run before it fires up.
Thats why the house cooled down to 40 F. We are ok now. Power still cuts out but only for an hour max.
thanks for asking.

In the Midwest we use a pilot and the air is forced, but we get a his kind of cold almost every year. Houses are just build different. Hang in there, friend.

 

[Pistondog]

Put in a gas fireplace insert so house stays warm if power fails.

 

[BillyW]

Your power is back on? We’re still waiting, this whole thing has me disgusted with Texas. There are a lot of people in Austin that are still without electricity on the Facebook page we’re in. It’s terrible, good luck!!!

 

[Llg]

If you have a spare tank for the xenia, I would move it. I have something in my tank closely related. It shipped overnight and most had melted. I had this one piece that was there. It was layer over like that for at least a week before it actually started to come around. One month after getting it, it is up and growing.

 

[ca1ore]

Less of an issue with softies, but hard corals will expel their zooanthelle as a reaction to very low temperatures. Once the power returns, full strength lighting will finish them off. Must reacclimate them.

 

[Weasel1960]

Glad you are back on the up swing, sorry you folks down south are going through this. From what I have been reading here in the forum...slow and easy ramping back up to normal