My first long power outage experience with a reef tank

[Reefkeepers Archive]

If any of you reefkeepers live in Maine that you'll know the current situation, first long power outage for me, currently in the middle of it. First night, 9:00 PM, when the return pump shut off it cut the distance between the display and the sump, I plugged the WaveMaker into a battery backup and sat down, at 2:30 AM the battery backup ran out and I had to manually stir the tank every 15 min. 1:00 PM, got a small generator and plugged in tye lights and wavemaker, 4:15, got a smaller heater and a replacement return pump (I plugged it in to the generator and it refused to turn on, at some point during disassembly the impeller snapped) the tank is normally at 72 degrees Fahrenheit and dropped to a low of 64. Since I keep %90 LPS they weren't too fazed by the temp drop, acquired replacement return pump and plugged it in, the sump dropped much lower in temperature, didn't measure it but if someone wants to do the math, tank is 120 gallons, probably more like 90 or so with the rocks, at 64, sump is I think 30 gal, when they mixed the display dropped to 63.5 ish.. Anyway GHA algae refeugium started to decay, caught that maybe 5 min after I turned on the pump, took all of the gha out and replaced it with the overgrowth in my system, the only thing I'm really concerned about is any ammonia mixing as this is a no water change system and doing any water change would be tricky, no i dont have an ammonia test kit at the moment, some things like brittle stars and pods were alive in the refeugium so I don't know if it was that high of a concentration, only fish is a 2 in yellow assessor basslet (tank is 1 year 1 month old). 4:45, removed filter socks and replaced filter floss, tank is now 63.9 degrees. Now, 5:20, water still cloudy from mixing though should settle soon, temp is now 64.1 degrees, will clear out overflow grates and keep you updated, any advice appreciated

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

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[Reefkeepers Archive]

Would appreciate some advice/reassurance


Especially since I haven't slept in 48 hours

 

[Ol’Murph]

Would appreciate some advice/reassurance


Especially since I haven't slept in 48 hours

First of all…. You’re doing a great job!

Secondly, I wouldn’t be overly worried about ammonia during the outage. Stirring the tank for flow… good idea. When I’m in a power outage, I like to take a gallon pitcher, fill it up with tank water, and raise it up above the tank, and then pour it back in. Helps with flow as well as oxygenation.

Is there anyway you can take some of that water out and warm it up and pour it back in?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

First of all…. You’re doing a great job!

Secondly, I wouldn’t be overly worried about ammonia during the outage. Stirring the tank for flow… good idea. When I’m in a power outage, I like to take a gallon pitcher, fill it up with tank water, and raise it up above the tank, and then pour it back in. Helps with flow as well as oxygenation.

Is there anyway you can take some of that water out and warm it up and pour it back in?

I did just hook up a small heater to hopefully stop it from crashing, I may pick up a small airstone now that you mention it

 

[New&no clue]

Hey another Mainer here. When the power goes out I use a battery air stone. It helps with oxygen and water movement. For heat if you have a gas stove I boil water and then put it in water bottles and drop in the tank. This helps to warm up the water

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Hey another Mainer here. When the power goes out I use a battery air stone. It helps with oxygen and water movement. For heat if you have a gas stove I boil water and then put it in water bottles and drop in the tank. This helps to warm up the water

Did you also loose power this weekend?

 

[Ol’Murph]

I did just hook up a small heater to hopefully stop it from crashing, I may pick up a small airstone now that you mention it

Always good to have a few battery operated air stones for such an event. If you can get one, great, if not, try the pitcher idea. It works fairly well.

At this time, little improvement are a big deal. Temp up a few degrees would be huge and some oxygen/gas exchange would help immensely

 

[New&no clue]

Did you also loose power this weekend?

No, but I lost it for almost a week in that storm right before Christmas

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

No, but I lost it for almost a week in that storm right before Christmas

Are you in northern Maine by any chance?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Always good to have a few battery operated air stones for such an event. If you can get one, great, if not, try the pitcher idea. It works fairly well.

At this time, little improvement are a big deal. Temp up a few degrees would be huge and some oxygen/gas exchange would help immensely

Sometimes I feel like I have too much oxygenation lol, return always spits out microbubbles

 

[New&no clue]

I’m in the Bangor area

Are you in northern Maine by any chance?

 

[Lohr]

I’m in the Bangor area

Bucksport here, no power as well but running the genny and Woodstove.

 

[threebuoys]

I think you are doing about all you can. I assume the sump is remote and in a colder location? I would turn the sump off and just aerate the main tank. Warmer water and oxygenated water would be the two issues that worry me most. My guess is you have enough bacteria in the main tank to process ammonia unless you overfeed and have a big die off of algae.

Good luck.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Just like every great aquarium heater, the one I have is reading at 72 when the thermometer is reading 67.. time to crank it up!

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I think you are doing about all you can. I assume the sump is remote and in a colder location? I would turn the sump off and just aerate the main tank. Warmer water and oxygenated water would be the two issues that worry me most. My guess is you have enough bacteria in the main tank to process ammonia unless you overfeed and have a big die off of algae.

Good luck.

Below tank sump like most, I assume it's just lesser water volume but the house reached 54 last night... I turned it on as I wanted mechanical filtration for all the debris I kicked up while stirring, and also to prevent the fuge from dying, the gha wasn't lookin too hot and I didn't want to risk a nitrate or ammonia spike..

 

[crazyfishmom]

Massachusetts here. We had a four day power outage back in January. The air stone was super helpful. I also found that as long as I was able to oxygenate for 2-3 hrs that it was ok to sleep for 2-3 hrs and then get back to it. I didn’t lose any livestock during that storm. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Apart from the GHA covering every coral (from the aggressive tank stirring last night) everything's looking OK.. galaxea is the most ticked about the Temperature swing but other than that it looks decent...

 

[REEFRIED!]

I agree. You are doing great. Your normal temp of 72 seems low to me? If you have the small generator then I wouldn’t worry about lights. Unless you are going to be without power for 3+ days. I would be concerned about heater and water movement.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

Apart from the GHA covering every coral (from the aggressive tank stirring last night) everything's looking OK.. galaxea is the most ticked about the Temperature swing but other than that it looks decent...

Are you still out? Mine came back at ~8:30. Worst is when none of the gas stations have power. But yeah, like 9:05 it went out. Still a lot of people out