Restarting a tank days after Helene

[ariellemermaid]

I’m in the Asheville area, and was fortunate enough to get power back. I have a battery powered air stone I can lend you. I also have rodi on hand and can mix up fresh saltwater depending on how close you are. Also, I as able to get gas today at an ingles without a line, so it seems like it might be getting better? Glad to hear you’re safe (physically). Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help!

Appreciate it! Have all of those things finally in north AVL and hoping for power restoration soon. Not sure if my lousy bubbler kept everything but the tangs alive or not, but hard to believe everything else could live for 2-3 days with nothing. I braved the electrical circuit today with some reef light and I think a lot of the demoiselle’s actually made it! In fact the only coral that looks dead is the Kenya tree; still lots of bright colors elsewhere. Glad I didn’t abandon tank for QT! Not that this tank has exactly been a beautiful star…

To deal with this much ammonia I think we’d be looking at 100-200g worth of water changes, so not really practical under our current conditions.

I did add my refugium light back and extra mechanical filtration. Hopefully the bio filter catches up soon, and just glad I added Prime when I did!

 

[Webbed Feet]

My heart goes out to everyone in NC.

For those following the thread. If you have a portable generator for backup that runs gasoline only, I would very much recommend, if available for your model, getting a conversion kit installed so that it can run on gas/propane/natural gas. While I appreciate the earlier suggestion to get non-ethanol gasoline, propane will last perfectly as long as the propane tank lasts. So no worries about the fuel getting too old at all. Generally, for myself at least, I feel more safe storing a few, larger than barbeque size, propane tanks than a bunch of five gallon cans of gasoline. I would convert the carburetors myself or sell off the gas only model I had and go purchase a new one that was factory setup for duel or tri fuel use.

 

[Jcantrell]

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.

I will caution you about restarting the pumps. I lost everything in two tanks during the storm. Massive die-off. When the power was restored and the pumps kicked back on it flooded my home with hydrogen sulfide gas. Hydrogen sulfide gas can be extremely toxic at high levels. I suffered from mild symptoms but it could have killed my family and I. Luckily, I didn't let them immediately enter the house as we were in the car trying to keep cool. I had to buy a respirator to clean the mess up. Use caution folks.

 

[JayM]

For future reference, propane stores indefinitely and dual fuel generator conversions are relatively cheap.

 

[ariellemermaid]

I will caution you about restarting the pumps. I lost everything in two tanks during the storm. Massive die-off. When the power was restored and the pumps kicked back on it flooded my home with hydrogen sulfide gas. Hydrogen sulfide gas can be extremely toxic at high levels. I suffered from mild symptoms but it could have killed my family and I. Luckily, I didn't let them immediately enter the house as we were in the car trying to keep cool. I had to buy a respirator to clean the mess up. Use caution folks.

Good point. My 20g reef I use for invert and coral QT has been completely off for a week now. I’ll unplug it in case the power suddenly comes back on. Poor serpent star; he had so much personality!

 

[ariellemermaid]

Final update and summary of our experience.

When the power went out for the first 12 hours or so I had gas for the generator. However, it would be 3 days before I’d get gas. The day after the generator ran out I noted a demoiselle swimming at the top struggling the breath. I did what I could and added a Penn-Plax bubbler. I had another, but only 2 more D-cell batteries so I figured one with replacement batteries was better than 2 with no backup. Shoutout to the bubbler; the batteries really did last on the order of 70 hours plus. I couldn’t really face looking at the tank and figured everything was dead. But, I persisted and managed to extract 1-2 day’s worth of gas from a boat by directly accessing the gas tank after 3 days. I could only manage to siphon about 5 gallons but my generator only uses about 2 gallons a day. The next day I was able to buy gas.

To my surprise, my clowns were still alive! The demoiselles were nowhere to be found, but the tank was dark and they hide in the rocks. But remember, without the bubbler (rated for 29 gallons, presumably for freshwater, and this is a 6’ tank) one was at the top struggling. Once I turned on a light with flow the demoiselles began to come out. In the end, it appears basically everything survived except our 3 tangs! A large Kenya tree melted, but the rest of our corals including encrusting montiporas survived. Eventually I found our 3 gobys and Randall’s shrimp. The snails, crabs, and conchs all made it; only the cleaner shrimp is gone. So the tangs were less hearty than the inverts in the end.

Lessons learned:
- It’s impossible to siphon gas from modern vehicles and boats. There’s a ball valve in the way.
- A Generator is critical to have, but a multiple day supply of fuel is equally important. When gas stations don’t have power, there is no gas. If there’s gas at all, the lines will be insane and they might not even let you fill containers.
- Bubblers might not fix everything, but it kept our hearty fish alive for 3 days without flow. But that’s only viable if you also keep batteries to power them.
- Pay attention to generator fuel usage. In a crisis such as this (2 weeks without power), having a generator that sips fuel, but provides the tank’s needs is invaluable.
- Severe weather events, resulting in weeks of power outage are possible no matter where you live. We suffered a hurricane in the mountains, 300 miles from a coastline.
- Keep 5 gallon cans of gas because you’re not going to be able to purchase the cans or the gas in a disaster.

I now upgraded our generator to a dual fuel that has more power outlets and power capacity. This means that keeping the extra grill tank(s) full is not just a matter of convenience, but also part of the disaster plan in addition to gas reserves. I also recommend an inverter generator for cleaner power vs. a traditional generator which uses more fuel and provides a much less clean power supply. They’re also more fuel efficient.

We’ll definitely be more prepared for the next disaster!

 

[ariellemermaid]

Bonus tip for Neptune Apex users. For one week we had power but no internet. This presented the dilemma that 1) the failsafes on my ATO had tripped, so the system was off, and 2) I couldn’t see pH, turn outlets on that are normally off, etc.

To remedy this, you need to directly access the Apex via your local network. In my case, I could not resolve the host names of my Apex systems, I needed the IP addresses. Going through the client list on my router was not helpful; I even tried every IP address that made sense, but perhaps I didn’t wait enough time for the sites to load because there were so many IP’s to try.

The solution is to download the Apex browser app right now, before you lose internet. Here’s the link (you can change “pc” to “mac”):
www.neptunesystems.com/ApexBrowse_pc.zip

That will let you search your network for Apex devices. The alternative is that you can assign manual IP addresses and label them on your Apex units. If you’ve never done this before and changed the local user/password, then it’s admin/1234.

 

[voelter76]

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.

This has been a horrible ordeal for so many people. Sending prayers and wishing you all the best. As others have said I would recommend relocating what remains to a smaller tank. Again, all the best and hang in there!

 

[ariellemermaid]

This has been a horrible ordeal for so many people. Sending prayers and wishing you all the best. As others have said I would recommend relocating what remains to a smaller tank. Again, all the best and hang in there!

Thanks! Our tank went without power for about 60 hours total. I added a single Penn Plax bubbler (up to 70hrs battery life) to a 200g system after the generator went out when I saw fish struggling. During that time I couldn’t really face looking at the tank and figured everything was dead. But, I managed to get some gas for the generator and powered half the tank flow after 60 hours. To my surprise, basically everything survived except for our tangs. When I first posted I only saw our clowns, but once I got flow going and added a little light I began to find more and more fish and the corals opened back up. To be clear, we’ve never been successful with acropora and the like, but of the corals we have, only a Kenya tree died outright. Our montiporas are our only SPS and those survived.

So, my instinct to save what we could and abandoned the tank would actually have been a mistake. I would have killed up to 12 fish hiding in the rocks, along with all the corals. We did have an ammonia spike for which I added Prime, but it seems there’s debate as to whether it does anything for ammonia. But in the end I’m glad we didn’t abandon the tank.

Going forward, I found a Penn Plax 3-way valve splitter at Walmart. It takes a single air input and spits to 2 bubblers with a hang-on check valve. I had to use a Dremel on the support piece to make it fit my Red Sea XXL, but it makes a ton of bubbles with a battery Penn Plax bubbler. So I now have 3 of those with 6 total bubbler heads plus 3 bubbler pumps that turn on when the power goes off. That’ll be the fist-line up to 3 day disaster plan, plus always having fuel on hand for the generator.

 

[voelter76]

Thanks! Our tank went without power for about 60 hours total. I added a single Penn Plax bubbler (up to 70hrs battery life) to a 200g system after the generator went out when I saw fish struggling. During that time I couldn’t really face looking at the tank and figured everything was dead. But, I managed to get some gas for the generator and powered half the tank flow after 60 hours. To my surprise, basically everything survived except for our tangs. When I first posted I only saw our clowns, but once I got flow going and added a little light I began to find more and more fish and the corals opened back up. To be clear, we’ve never been successful with acropora and the like, but of the corals we have, only a Kenya tree died outright. Our montiporas are our only SPS and those survived.

So, my instinct to save what we could and abandoned the tank would actually have been a mistake. I would have killed up to 12 fish hiding in the rocks, along with all the corals. We did have an ammonia spike for which I added Prime, but it seems there’s debate as to whether it does anything for ammonia. But in the end I’m glad we didn’t abandon the tank.

Going forward, I found a Penn Plax 3-way valve splitter at Walmart. It takes a single air input and spits to 2 bubblers with a hang-on check valve. I had to use a Dremel on the support piece to make it fit my Red Sea XXL, but it makes a ton of bubbles with a battery Penn Plax bubbler. So I now have 3 of those with 6 total bubbler heads plus 3 bubbler pumps that turn on when the power goes off. That’ll be the fist-line up to 3 day disaster plan, plus always having fuel on hand for the generator.

I’m very glad that all has worked out as well as it did for you!