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Arnold's tank crash - stupid power outage!

Apon

Supporting Member
This is very sad.........OK so last night I go home and find my area and complex with no power. I get a little worried, but I stay calm. I finally get to the tank and see the vortec battery backup is working well, but the tank is alittle cloudy. some of my corals tips are exposed to air for I guess a little while- they were still wet - not totally dry. I add water from my sump to the main tank to raise the level so most of the corals are covered and I go outside and ask a neighbor how long did we lose power? He said 2 twice,...once at like 8pm for 30 minutes, and again after 9pm till when I got home after 10pm. I go back in and add a battery air pump to help with the vortec, my fish are all hiding and some of the sps colors look faded. Then the power comes back on and I see that the water is white cloudy. Strange, the last time I saw this white cloudy stuff is when my clams started to spawn, the clams looked stressed to, but I didn't see anymore spawning. ( last spawn was going on for like hours) I wonder if my corals spawned or something else. I quickly add a large bag of carbon, a filter sock, and do a 10 gallon water change ( all the water I had on had) I thought things would be ok. I go to bed at like 12:30am. 1:00am bamn I hear the complex generator kick in for our emergency lighting! yep no power again, but at least I am wake to notice. Again I raise the water level and put back the battery pump. I figure I can't do anything else so I go back to sleep. At like 2am the power comes back on, I check the tank to see the pumps are all running. Things didn't look at better..... I wake up this morning and all my corals and clams look bad.....lost of the SPS look bleached, not RTN but total loss of color. The lps look stressed and the softies are all closed. I only see my tangs and clowns swimming around....all other fish are still hiding. Nothing I can really do so I go to work. Hopefully I can do a 20 gallon change tonight, I hope I didn't lose too much....

I am wondering why would a short power outages do this much damage? The only thing I did on Sat was add some chemi clean ( which I have used before with no isues) to clear up some red slime...the tank was fine sunday, in fact Ian came over to look at it, and the tank was fine when I checked on it before work yesterday. The last time I had an 8 hour outtage I lost a few fish and only like 2 corals... but that was over 2 years ago, before I had this much livestock in the tank......I wonder if it lost too much oxygen, even with the vortec running? Anyways wish me luck and I hope it isn't that bad. :'(
 
I'm curious you said a couple times you added water? Where did the water go into the sump?

Maybe the stress did trigger a spawning event though, your vortech may have only been partially helpful due to how full your tank is though, could have gotten quite a few anaerobic areas

Anyways, best of luck with your tank.
 
Sorry to hear that Arnold... All you can really do now is cross your fingers... Good luck man!!!! Hopefully you won't lose much..
 
You know Mike, the sump fill up, until the siphon breaks on my return lines. I just added water back from the sump in to the mail tank until it started to drain again. i got like a inch of water back when I did that.
 
Apon: I am wondering if you can claim insurance (Home Insurance) for damages due to power outage? I mean this is an expensive hobby and you have pictures to prove it. You might want to check your insurance details.
 
Last time I made a claim with PG&E and they did pay it out. I am thinking about making another claim, I have to wait to see how bad it really is.

Thanks guys for the support.

Jeremy, what do you think it was? lack of oxygen?
 
[quote author=Apon link=topic=5077.msg62416#msg62416 date=1225826105]

Jeremy, what do you think it was? lack of oxygen?
[/quote]

I'd imagine so, usually once one thing goes it's a house of cards, that wasn't much time though, I'm puzzled. With the Vortech running it should have been fine though. My tank just went 2 hours without power no problem, and like your tank mine is full of coral, I only have a little Koralia 2 plugged into a UPS.

Make sure to check Ammonia and such you may need to do lots of smaller water changes until things come to a stasis.
 
How sealed up is the top of your tank? Even with the vortech moving water, you need to get oxygen into the tank. IF your tank is mostly sealed, then most of your gas exchange likely happens in the sump/skimmer.
 
Arnold, that sucks. Sorry to hear things went downhill so fast.

Let me know how I can help. Temporary housing, frags to fill in, whatever you need. I can even check the tank during the day if needed.

BTW, I have been recommending these a lot lately: http://tinyurl.com/penn-plax-battery-air-pump They automatically come on when the power goes out. They're both inexpensive and effective. Rich turned me on to them a while back.
 
Thanks

The tank is open on top....Tony I think you saw it at the SF tank tour, but the cloudy water could have taken up the oxygen.

Jeremy, I am pretty sure something spawned in the tank causing the problem. The only time I have ever seen a milkly tank water is when that has happened.

Charles, thanks.....I am going to try to get to OT tonight by like 6:30 to get lots of water. You if want to come let me know, if the corals look real bad we can bring them back to your house or OT I guess.
 
thanks Ian, you may have been the last person to see the tank pre-crash! I should have given you some frags to take with you.
 
What ian said. Bleaching is recoverable :) Just takes time. I forgot if your tank was open or not. I remember the sunpods sitting on something but wasn't sure what. I brought up the "sealed" issue because I ran into it before. Keep us posted :)
 
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