Joel Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Hey all, Alot of you have probably heard about the weather and flooding around Newcastle and the Central Coast. I have just been evacuated from my house on (or now in!) Tuggerah Lakes on the Central Coast. My garage is under 6 inches of water at the moment (thankfully not more ). We havent had power since 3pm Friday and I am hearing it could take upto a week for power to be restored I have a large setup of 12 tanks (4 - 4 foots and 8 - 3 foots) all running on the one sump. I have had a generator running the tanks through the day but cant keep returning home to refuel\restart during the night. I have the setup running and circulating the water most of the day, but its off most of the night. I am wondering, is it worth adding prime conditioner every 24hours to neutralise and make sure nitrite\ammonia dont back up? And when the sump is running the following day, the excess will be cleaned up? I am also concerned about the temperature. When i got home today the temp was around 17 Deg.!! I have wrapped the tanks is reflective sarking and have 4 300watt heaters running. I think this is all i can do. Can anyone suggest another alternative? All fish are still alive, but not sure if they can last a week of this. Can anyone suggest anything else that may help? Thanks all for your help. Good luck to anyone else in the same situation as me. Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luket Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 I went 18 hours without power on saturday, the lfs said the worst possible thing that could happen was lack of oxygen. Lack of oxygen means your fish stressed at the surface gasping for air....your bacteria in your sump and gravel dying off and not doing their job, leading to an ammonia/nitirie spike. I read somewhere that the bacteria converting ammonia/nitrite stop doing so at 50 degrees F, whatever that is in degrees C. So my advice is - Aerate the tanks/sump as best as you can (cycle what air pumps you have for an hour or so in each one if possible....your fish can probably handle the lower tempretures better then we think - my fish survived a night at 16 C and now the heat is back on my Saulosi have started spawning. The warmer the water the more O2 will deplete from the water and the faster the fishes respiration will be so its a tricky situation. - And read this article - http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/power_failure.php Good luck and I hope that normality can be restored to you and your family ASAP. P.S. Just remembered my friends tropical (some cichlids) tank survived for a month or so without heat - he hadn't plugged it in when he set the tank up again after moving house. The fish were not in great shape ( eventually led to ich outbreak) but they did maintain their health for some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 Thanks Luke, Read the article. I will get battery air pumps tomorrow. They dont seem to be gasping at the moment but im sure its only a matter of time before they run low on oxygen. Hopefully electricity isnt too far off being restored. Cheers Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huzzy Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Your water volume and number/size of fish will decide how long your fish will go without fresh oxygen. My 200L with 30 4cm fish in it went 24 hours with no heat and oxygen. There was no visible stress on the fish, other than being a little bit more subdued due to the low temp. If you can keep heat and o2 in the tanks for the week and just change as much water as you have time for when you manage to get back into your house. I have a spare 6 footer setup and running at the moment if you have anything valuable that you would like looked after. PM me if i can help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share Posted June 11, 2007 I have a spare 6 footer setup and running at the moment if you have anything valuable that you would like looked after. PM me if i can help. Thanks for the offer mate. They all seem to be doing well so I will hold onto them for the moment. My sandsifters have been digging pits, probably breeding again. Will keep you in mind if I run into some trouble. I did however lose a female 'cobwe' overnight. These were in another tank that got overlooked when the blackout started on Friday. They went at least 48 hours with no heat, filtration or oxygen at all. Silly me the rest of the fish that were in that tank (Now in my large setup) are doing fine now. Most are still a little sluggish due to the low temps. I have put some sponge\air filters in the tanks today so they should now be getting plenty of aeration as well as water turnover. I put some more prime in aswell. Hopefully this will neutralise any nasties for the next 24hours? Also refilled the generator. Should last a while. I suppose I will just continue refilling the generator and adding prime daily? I heard that our electricity should be restored by Thursday. Some good news though. The water level of the lake has dropped alot today. There is no longer water in our garages. Smells a bit though Going to try and clean up tomorrow. Cheers Thanks again Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted June 12, 2007 Author Share Posted June 12, 2007 Hey all, We got power restored to our house today. Just wondering how best to try and avoid an ammonia/nitrite spike? Should I be doing large water changes every couple of days? or is it safe to go back to maybe one a week? Should I clean the filter media or let it be? Maybe add some kind biostart chemical to boost the bacteria? Thankfully the temp of the tank is gradually rising. Havent seen any white spot yet. I have only lost a female cobwe and a few different kinds of fry at the moment... Thought I was going to lose the lot. Thanks Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 Until your tanks are stable again, any changes you make should be small and/or gradual. Bring your temps up slowly. Make your water changes small but regular, gradually building back up to your previous water change routine. I'd look at doing maybe 5-10% every day if you have the time, and feed very minimally during this time also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 Just wondering how best to try and avoid an ammonia/nitrite spike? Should I be doing large water changes every couple of days? or is it safe to go back to maybe one a week? Should I clean the filter media or let it be? Maybe add some kind biostart chemical to boost the bacteria? Thankfully the temp of the tank is gradually rising. Havent seen any white spot yet. Joel G'day Joel I would add some biostart to your sump if you have any and give your filter(s) a gentle clean in tank water (NOT tap water). The biostart will also help cycle your new sponge filters. I agree with Baz frequent small waterchanges are the go. Consider using something like melafix as this will help the fish cope with the recent stresses placed upon them. Keep an eye on your fish, ie actually watch them and look for behaviour changes. Be prepared for future disatsers. Battery Airpumps and Battery inverters are very useful also consider building one of these. PS I cannot get any more of these hth Matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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