Lost Power!!

[L8 2 RISE]

For the first time ever. No hot water, no heat, no nothing. I don't know when it went out, but I don't have anything. Temp still looks alright, but if we have much longer of this, I'm screwed. Suggestions? Should I bag everything up and put them in coolers? What?

[Sikryd]

I guess wrap the tank with as many blankets to keep them warm. There is more oxygen in the water if you just leave them in the tank.

Good luck - I hope it comes back on soon for you.

[Jon Lazar]

Sam,

 

I would expect most of your heat loss is through the top of the tank. Can you cover it with something to keep the heat in?

 

Do you have a gas range? If so you could heat water, pour the hot water into a 2-liter bottle, and float that in your tank too.

 

Good luck,

Jon

[L8 2 RISE]

I now have the tank completely covered. All sides and the top. We dont have a gas stove or gas anything, but we're working on getting to the wood on the other side of the yard to get a fire going and I'll heat water there. Thanks for the suggestions!

[Happyfeet]

I now have the tank completely covered. All sides and the top. We dont have a gas stove or gas anything, but we're working on getting to the wood on the other side of the yard to get a fire going and I'll heat water there. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

When my heat went out last time I used my Grill and got that sucker going hot, put a big metal bowl of water ontop of it and heated it up while I put milk jugs of water in the bowl and when they were warm enough transferred them into the tank to try and keep a steady temp. (Didn't dump the water from the milk jugs just let them sit in the tank)

[astroboy]

Over one Christmas I was gone for 10 days, turned the heat in the house down to 55, and forgot that I had unplugged the heater.

 

Except for one torch, everything surprised pretty much intact, including fish. I had sarcophytons, torches, bubbles, shrooms, a scolymia, and a few sps. I did lose a couple more corals within the next four weeks, very likely as a result of the cold. But still, not nearly as bad as I would have thought.

 

Just my experience. Possibly you're in better shape than you think as regards cold.

 

My guess is that your big worry will be pH, due to accumulation of CO2 (not to mention depletion of O2) in the water. I had the power go out once for 12 hours when I was away and lost alot of inverts and a couple of corals, and expected every living thing to die. It was a heavily populated tank. I think the pH had gone from about 8.1 to the low 7's in that time.

 

Mark

[davelin315]

Sam, if you've got a power inverter then hook it up to your car and run it. If you could get out I'd tell you to swing by and pick up my inverter and a deep cycle marine battery. If you can get to Wal-Mart (which is probably closed anyway) they have both of these things and that can run a pump and a heater for at least a few hours. Worst case scenario, just take a bucket of water every 30 minutes or so and then dump it into the top tank to get the water running through your system. I would be careful of overheating water... never know what you might pull out of the pots and pans.

[ctenophore]

flow is most important. heat second. keep at 71-72 and you should be fine. heating in fire good idea, milk jugs of saltwater in a hot freshwater bath.good luck

[L8 2 RISE]

Thanks all for the help!! I didn't reply in order to save phone battery, but I definitely read! Had the tank covered in Sleeping bags and blankets... the family kept on laughing at me for covering the tank in blankets, but I did what I could. I heated up fresh water on the wood stove, and then floated milk jugs of tank water in it and then poured them into the tank. Temperature stayed VERY stable and I only had to do that twice. As for flow, every hour I went down and spent about 15 minutes taking a measuring cup of water out and pouring it back in again, and again, and again, until my arm got tired... NO losses, power came back on at about 4 yesterday, so was out about 12 hours, and cox came back on earlier tonight.