Tank crashed from the storm....not sure where to start

[fogcutter]

Our neighborhood's power was taken out by the storm.....7 full days without power. I had my tank working on a generator but it gave out after a day and a half....lost all living stock...i.e. crab and hermits. Fish are gone. All corals but two gone. Now's there cyno on the sand bed and turf algae growing near the top of the tank.

Do I just tear down and start over? I've done a few water changes so far but call me crazy....I want to try and revive the corals I have left. I'm adding some cleaning crew after my next water change and test. Still trying to get rid of the dead Kenya Tree and Xenia corpses but it's slow going.

Any advice?

 

[Seancj]

I'm really sorry to hear this. I feel your loss. We lost power yesterday for about 8 hours, far shorter than your experience, but still quite a worry for me. I was lucky to have a battery power station handy that could run the return pump and a couple air stones in the tank throughout the duration. As of today, all looks well.
I don't know the tank volume of your system, but if its not too big, I'd do the following.
If it were me, I would remove all the rock and do a 100% water change to the system. Any rock that has dead coral tissue or algae attached should get a good scrub in some of your waste saltwater and then give it a good soak/rinse in another batch of fresh saltwater, before putting back in the tank. Try to scrape off as much of the turf algae as you can.
If any coral looks like it might make it or bounce back, I would add that back to the tank.
You are basically starting over in a sense, but you keep all the beneficial bacteria within the rock. This should allow for a fairly quick re-cycle and quicker return to livestock being added. I'd begin with a good CUC to start work on the algae that you couldn't scrape off during cleaning.
Best of luck with the rebuild!

 

[JustAnotherNanoTank]

Anyone near by with power and a tank to save what’s left?

LFS?

 

[Oldreefer44]

Had a similar experience a couple of years ago. Was very disheartening but was also an opportunity to start over. I was surprised how many things came back to life with water changes and getting parameters back to normal. Good luck.

 

[fogcutter]

Had a similar experience a couple of years ago. Was very disheartening but was also an opportunity to start over. I was surprised how many things came back to life with water changes and getting parameters back to normal. Good luck.

I'm hoping the same....on my 4th water change today.

 

[fogcutter]

I'm really sorry to hear this. I feel your loss. We lost power yesterday for about 8 hours, far shorter than your experience, but still quite a worry for me. I was lucky to have a battery power station handy that could run the return pump and a couple air stones in the tank throughout the duration. As of today, all looks well.
I don't know the tank volume of your system, but if its not too big, I'd do the following.
If it were me, I would remove all the rock and do a 100% water change to the system. Any rock that has dead coral tissue or algae attached should get a good scrub in some of your waste saltwater and then give it a good soak/rinse in another batch of fresh saltwater, before putting back in the tank. Try to scrape off as much of the turf algae as you can.
If any coral looks like it might make it or bounce back, I would add that back to the tank.
You are basically starting over in a sense, but you keep all the beneficial bacteria within the rock. This should allow for a fairly quick re-cycle and quicker return to livestock being added. I'd begin with a good CUC to start work on the algae that you couldn't scrape off during cleaning.
Best of luck with the rebuild!

There's still coralline on the rock and just a couple of heads of a small coral. I don't mind doing the work and scrubbing rock but I also have a DSB. I'm hoping that it's ok but I don't relish the idea of digging it up and starting new.

 

[Seancj]

I'd leave the DSB alone.

 

[OrionN]

The best way is to set up a smaller tank to hold all the living animal and redo the set-up. (Or board your living animal with someone/LRS)
To keep the tank stable until you can remove the living animals, you must remove as much of the dead animals as you can. The more the better.

 

[Doctorgori]

I have several air pumps and air stones for outages, they are low power consumption so even a solar powered inverter can power a few airstones for a while…
you would be surprised how much difference any water movement makes for short term coral survival