ariellemermaid
Well-Known Member
So, we’ve been caught in hurricane Helene since Friday. I finally have a little cell internet. TLDR; we now have some generator gas and have restarted flow after 3 days on a 200 gallon tank. We’re looking at at least a week total and gas is still limited. What factors do I need to consider moving forward to keep our remaining fish alive?
We had 2 clowns, 9 demoiselles, 2 cardinals, 3 beautiful tangs including one of the last yellow exported out of Hawaii, a small transparent and clown goby, watchman. To my surprise, the clowns are ok and one cardinal lives. I removed the (intact) corpses of the tangs but I can’t find any more dead fish in the tank, I don’t know what happened to them. Corals: not a ton, but mostly softies, a few small Zoa colonies, two groups of out of control paly’s, little monti, little GSP, very floppy decent sized Kenya tree.
I’m not running the lights but from what I can tell most of the corals are retracted but don’t look dead. Biggest concern for me is the small zoa colonies and Kenya tree. Paly’s have color still (unfortunately). The clowns live in a four-headed mushroom, and it actually looks fine. We were also in the middle of a cyano bloom FYI.
My 2 biggest concerns are ammonia and coral toxins after restart. I’ve treated with a healthy dose of Safe (Prime), added 300g of carbon (all I had, “med removal” would be ~400g). Water change is basically out; we just have a trickle of contaminated water, no way the RO membrane would work, and I don’t really have enough spare water on hand to make a difference. Sponge baths are the only option, and a lot of people don’t have any running water at all, including the local hospital. So what other things should I think about and any suggestions to keep our oldest fish alive?
I could move the fish to a 20 gallon QT copper tank and just run that tank, but a few concerns there. If the outage and gas shortage is extensive, then the fish might have to go through another period with just a bubbler. Bubbler might be more effective than in the 6’ tank, but the larger tank will hold temperature better and I would think larger volume is better. Plus, it’s at least possible there could be some fish hiding in the extensive rock work, as I’m not running lights.
A note on preparedness. We weren’t exactly planning for a week plus of power outage plus up to 4 weeks without water in Western NC from a hurricane of all things that went from a category 1 to a category 4 in 12 hours. But, I did have some plans. We bought the generator specifically for this tank, but how much gas can you keep fresh on hand all the time? But, we do keep multiple cars and a 40 gallon boat; two of the cars are totaled, and two of the cars are stuck in the garage. 6 vehicles with like 140 gallons of gas. So my plan was always to use vehicle gas in an emergency like this. Word to the wise: all modern vehicles including boats have anti-siphon valves. It’s basically impossible to access the gas without, at minimum, a special siphon kit, if that would even work on a given vehicle. So don’t make my mistake and think you can just rely on extra vehicles without testing that you can actually siphon first. Our entire tank would still be alive if we had known that.
We had 2 clowns, 9 demoiselles, 2 cardinals, 3 beautiful tangs including one of the last yellow exported out of Hawaii, a small transparent and clown goby, watchman. To my surprise, the clowns are ok and one cardinal lives. I removed the (intact) corpses of the tangs but I can’t find any more dead fish in the tank, I don’t know what happened to them. Corals: not a ton, but mostly softies, a few small Zoa colonies, two groups of out of control paly’s, little monti, little GSP, very floppy decent sized Kenya tree.
I’m not running the lights but from what I can tell most of the corals are retracted but don’t look dead. Biggest concern for me is the small zoa colonies and Kenya tree. Paly’s have color still (unfortunately). The clowns live in a four-headed mushroom, and it actually looks fine. We were also in the middle of a cyano bloom FYI.
My 2 biggest concerns are ammonia and coral toxins after restart. I’ve treated with a healthy dose of Safe (Prime), added 300g of carbon (all I had, “med removal” would be ~400g). Water change is basically out; we just have a trickle of contaminated water, no way the RO membrane would work, and I don’t really have enough spare water on hand to make a difference. Sponge baths are the only option, and a lot of people don’t have any running water at all, including the local hospital. So what other things should I think about and any suggestions to keep our oldest fish alive?
I could move the fish to a 20 gallon QT copper tank and just run that tank, but a few concerns there. If the outage and gas shortage is extensive, then the fish might have to go through another period with just a bubbler. Bubbler might be more effective than in the 6’ tank, but the larger tank will hold temperature better and I would think larger volume is better. Plus, it’s at least possible there could be some fish hiding in the extensive rock work, as I’m not running lights.
A note on preparedness. We weren’t exactly planning for a week plus of power outage plus up to 4 weeks without water in Western NC from a hurricane of all things that went from a category 1 to a category 4 in 12 hours. But, I did have some plans. We bought the generator specifically for this tank, but how much gas can you keep fresh on hand all the time? But, we do keep multiple cars and a 40 gallon boat; two of the cars are totaled, and two of the cars are stuck in the garage. 6 vehicles with like 140 gallons of gas. So my plan was always to use vehicle gas in an emergency like this. Word to the wise: all modern vehicles including boats have anti-siphon valves. It’s basically impossible to access the gas without, at minimum, a special siphon kit, if that would even work on a given vehicle. So don’t make my mistake and think you can just rely on extra vehicles without testing that you can actually siphon first. Our entire tank would still be alive if we had known that.
just and idea.
