Tragic Power Loss!!!!

[under_water_ninja]

My fellow reefers! I awoke this morning to find that the power had went out during the night!! For some reason one of my powerstrips tripped and did not turn back on! Of course it was the powerstrip that powered the heater and the return pump!!! From the blinking time on the clock, I assume the tank had no heat and waterflow for about 8 hours!!!! A little while before bedtime we always turn off the heater downstairs and turn on the heaters upstairs for bedtime! When I woke and saw the power had went out, I went dashing for the tank to find it powerless! Temp was 62!!!!! All the corals that had been in the tank were looking real weak but they are bouncing back just fine. All the frags I got yesterday from the meeting were severely damaged!!!! Almost 60-70% tissue loss!!!! They are no slowing kicking the bucket and shedding a lot of tissue!!! My tank is now getting a little cloudy from all the tissue loss!!!! Should I pull them out to save the tank? or should I give the ones that have a little tissue left a chance to come back? I am highly frustrated and severely disappointed! And now I am screwing up the dbtc!!!!! I got most of the corals yesterday from the dbtc program, a couple came from the raffle! The blue polyp birdsnest I got in the raffle that came from Sergio is about the only one that is doing ok(birdsnest are like weeds) and the green monti cap that I got from Minh is looking ok but is now starting to slime! What should I do??? What a horrible day!!!!!!!!

 

[saltwatersig]

take a minute to gather your thoughts and think positive....its unfortunate that you have losses due to equipment failure but look at it this way, get your parameters back on target ....wait out and see what survives, now would be a good time to aquascape or rearrange corals, don't forget the frag swap is coming up in a couple of months. let me know when your tank has stabalized and I will help restock your frag losses.


sergio

 

[sfsuphysics]

If you have a spare tank with fresh SW mixed up that's heater properly you might want to save some, however I would put them in a container with water and float them to allow them to acclimate slowly (i.e. don't just toss them in).

If not try to toss in some carbon, run your skimmer extra wet and change the cup frequently.. and hopefully the heater is back on.
Also mix up some fresh SW for some serious water changes. (However nothing drastically like a 100% change)

When everything is getting better, do some math on how much power is on that strip, might want to replace it if it's no where near max capacity.

 

[Elite]

That's suck to hear. How did you bring the temp up?

 

[under_water_ninja]

I just turned the power back on, so I thought it would heat up slowly! I think the cold really shocked them good! I am about to do maybe a 50% water change. Do you think that is to much?

 

[tuberider]

If your water quality is crappy by all means do a water change, make sure you don't heat the tank up too quick.


BTW, that sucks Kenny, I hope things work themselves out.

 

[drdoolittle]

That sucks Ken. do a water chance and get your water paramenters back to normal condition. Like what sergio adviced, if you need to re-aquascape. Now is a perfect time. dont worry about the corals. I'm sure, we could all help on restocking your tank back up.

 

[under_water_ninja]

you guys are awesome!! Waiting to get a true reading on Ammonia right now. Will do nitrates and nitrites after. I just did my weekly tests on Wednesday and everything was perfect! We will see how they are now and after a water change! Thanks again guys for the advice and the help!!!

 

[under_water_ninja]

Watching Step Brothers right now to try to turn this frown upside down!!!

 

[alve]

Sorry to hear that Kenny. Hopefully your losses will not be too big. I can give you a replacement of all frags you got from me yesterday except the blue polyp birdnest. The one I gave you was bigger than the one piece I kept so that one will need some time to grow out first.

 

[under_water_ninja]

Thanks a lot Aldie! We will see if the birdsnest comes back, you know these guys are pretty tough! I got another one from Sergio I won in the raffle! It looks like he might make it but will have some damage!

 

[under_water_ninja]

Thanks Sergio, Ed, Mike, Jeremy, Aldie!

 

[under_water_ninja]

Ammonia looks good! No spikes there. Now for the nirates and nitrites!

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Power loss doesn't have to be a big problem if your tank isn't overstocked and you can keep your dissolved O2 from dropping down too far.

Stuff that's losing tissue, I would get out of the tank. I'd go ahead and do the water change.

If your tank has established nitrogen cycles, and you measure any ammonia at all, I'd say it's too much ammonia.

If your tank is cloudy, you have organics in the water just waiting to feed a bacteria bloom and crash your O2 levels and kill more stuff to grow more bacteria etc.

 

[under_water_ninja]

Dang, Lost my atl meteor shower!!

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Ammonia may not rise right away too. Depends on how much dead stuff is in the tank, and how long it's been. Also the low temp actually helps with O2 and slowing bacteria growth.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Worst would be having a bunch dead stuff releasing organics that you don't skim out, then leaving it in there and raising the temp. Good way to crash your tank.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Your meteor shower may come back. I've seen it loose tissue but still recover.

 

[under_water_ninja]

No its gone! I just took everything out that had severe tissue loss, which was about 9 different pieces. I am going to do the water change now and I will wait until tomorrow to do a full parameter test.

 

[Elite]

must be a bad full moon last night. Couple people lost their clam. You lost most of the stuff. Rich lost his tank too :'( ..