mlinden84

We lost power around 10 am on tuesday (12/11) and just got it back on this morning (saturday) around 11 due to the ice storm that went through. Hundreds of thousands of people in the state were without power. There was a natural gas leak on thursday night and they evacuated the area until friday night... meaning I had no way to put warm water in the tanks or keep some water movement in the tanks. It was a disaster.

We lost the ENTIRE tank of tiger barbs.
We lost 8 of our african cichlids
We lost ALL of our baby Socolofi cichlids

When I got home on friday night the tanks were at around 45 degrees. It's amazing we didn't lose all of them with temps as they were.
This sucks...

0morrokh

That's horrible!! I'm so sorry you lost so many fish! So some of the fish survived? That's pretty amazing. But now you'll have to re-cycle all your tanks and stuff...man that's gotta suck.

Coryd55

Aw man. Thats horrible. Sorry about losing all of those fish.

capekate

Hi Mlinden
OMG... what an awful thing to have happened. Not only to the fish but for what you had to go through without power for so long. Theres not much we can do when a ice storm/snow storm power outages occur. And it has been a great concern of mine as to what can be done if we loose power since it happened to me, but in the summer. Losing power in the winter months means sure death to our fish. You have been doing so great with your fish and to come home to find so many of them dead must have been really horrible.
I am so sorry.....

What are your plans now? Are you going to restock?

~ kate

armadillo

Oh Michelle. What a horrible thing to happen. I am so sorry. You must feel so frustrated and angry. How can we stay without power for so long in western countries? I am really really really sorry. I hope you are not totally disgusted.

FishnFry

So sorry to hear about your losses.

A terrible thing to happen during the winter season especially when you have your treasured fish. Hope the rest are doing OK.

We are forecasting a bad snowstorm today as well. Hopefully, it's not a big one.

Chief_waterchanger

Sorry for your loss.

This is for everyone talking about worries of cold temps and power outages, please, save money and get a generator. It may not have helped Michelle due to having to be evacuated, but in most instances it will help.

zigmeister

Excellent idea Chief. I don't have to worry about ice storms and snow but I do have to worry about losing power due to hurricanes.

Michelle,,, I'm very sorry for your loss. Best of luck with getting your tanks up and running again.

Allie

That is awful...and one of my biggest worries. I am so sorry you lost so many fish.

Allie

I hope not too...it's been snowing too much for my liking as it is.

Dino

Sorry to hear of your loss.

lili70

Oh my God ! I am so sorry ! RIP.
L

mlinden84

I hadn't even thought about having to re-cycle everything. Great.... now I have to do it with the fish in there, as if these guys haven't been through enough!

mlinden84

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

I do plan to eventually re-stock. Although I've decided to not put anything in the 10 gallon where the Socolofi babies were, or in the 20 gallon where the tiger barbs were for now. That way if this happens again, I don't have as many tanks to worry about. I think I will wait until spring, or possibly a few months, to re-stock them. And... then I can have a while to think about what I want to put in them.

I will re-stock my 55 gallon african cichlid tank.

Somehow my 20 gallon community tank did fine through all of this, as well as "betta" (although it appears he may now have fin rot).

It's hard to think that we lost power for so long.... but the workers had so many people without power. They had to get the most populated areas up and going first. I'm just thankful they got it on as fast as they did.... some people I know still are without it. It's been so cold that none of the ice can melt off the lines or the trees.

neverendingninja

Sorry to hear you lost all those fish, after all that time you spent wondering what to do in case of a power outage...and then you were evacuated.

Where is COBetta with his flamethrower when you need him? Jeesh.

mlinden84

Funny...my friend wanted to use his blow torch to melt the ice off the sidewalks. I haven't even worried about the sidewalks yet... maybe tomorrow. I have to go today and get all new groceries, as everything in the fridge/freezer went bad.

timg

I'm so sorry for your loss. There's not a lot that anyone can say to make a lot of difference and most would be "if only", which really doesn't help.

The positive side is that you now know what can happen, and you can take steps to minimise the impact in future, such as getting a generator as Dino suggests for the future, or setting up an alternative heating source.

I hope you are able to re-build everything the way it should be without too much trouble. One other thought.... the re-cycling of the tanks shouldn't be so bad, as most will only go through a mini-cycle, as the bacteria will still be there, so long as you don't totally clean everything.

Drea

So for you Michelle and your fishies.

mlinden84

I did do a water change of about 50% in each of the tanks, but no deep cleaning. So hopefully most of the bacteria survived. So far the water tests are ok.
I did float all the biowheels and filter media in the tanks after the power went out, hopefully that saved some of the bacteria.

We did have battery operated air pumps... but the batteries had died after we were evacuated. We were given 5 minutes to get all our stuff and get out of the area due to the gas leak, so we didn't have time to put in fresh batteries before we left.
Someone needs to invent a battery powered heater....

COBettaCouple

that really sucks! especially them forcing you to evacuate. I don't think it should be legal to force people from their homes, but i believe in that forgotten constitution we used to have.

anyway, i'm really sorry you lost all of those fish. it's a shame the local gov't won't reimburse you for all the money they cost you. How is your Betta doing? I'm glad he made it and yea, i'm really surprised any of the fish did. The survivors must be really tough fish!

mlinden84

Well I'd rather evacuate than blow up.

The area has been declared a national disaster area... so I know they are covering replacement of food and such... I haven't contacted anyone yet to see if they would cover the fish or not. Either way, my boyfriend works at the LFS, so I get a good deal on the fish...but that won't bring back the others, and of course they were almost full growth and so pretty!!

Betta is doing pretty good considering. He's still kinda pouty, hiding in his house and ignoring me when I come to the tank, but he'll get over it. I am just making sure his water is really clean and using vitachem on his tail to see if that will heal it (it looks shredded, but it could be just due to stress). I will wait to see if I need to medicate.

It's weird, the Otos (which are supposed to be sensitive) survived, as well as a few of my 4 month old yellow lab. cichlids (about 3/4 inch long) but my big healthy tiger barbs and 4 inch african cichlids died. I would think the bigger guys would be stronger. And the poor baby Socolofi cichlids....

timg

A small propane heater would be better, like the ones in trailers that heat the water. It wouldn't be difficult to set one up to do the job if you have external filtration! A battery heater wouldn't do the job, try using a 12V kettle! Just work out the power consumption needed at 12v to give the same output as a 100W mains heater, and you would need a constant 10amps at 12v to do the same job. That's why inverters kill the car battery so quickly!

If i was in your situation now, I'd scrap the mains reliance completely and go for DIY systems full time, but that's me, and I have a reputation for doing extreme things to get the results I want!

COBettaCouple

yea, that's true.. just hate to see you lose those fish. Best of luck with Betta and the others.

timg

IMO, larger fish lose temperature control more rapidly due to the larger surface area of the body and that adversely affects the internal organs. If you think about it, a child doesn't feel the cold and is less susceptable to frostbite on their extremities than an adult, the same goes for fish. The size of the body directly affects their ability to survive in these situations.

When you think about it, it makes sense. In disease situations thing may be different because the immune system is better established in adult fish, but this was not a disease.

mlinden84

What about a battery operated heater for a tank? Is that something that would be possible, or is it the same as a heater for a room?

Really it wasn't TOO cold staying here...once we were allowed back we stayed in the house (my daughter went out to my parents since they had the generator and a fireplace) Nothing a bunch of clothes and blankets couldn't take care of... but obviously too much for some of the fish to handle.

There is some good news though... the pair of Socolofi cichlids survived and are breeding already... so I guess they didn't suffer much damage.
My boyfriend said they are getting a large shipment of cichlids in on tuesday, so I may have to go pick a few out.

COBettaCouple

I'm not sure that there are any battery powered heaters, i've never heard of any at least.

Good news on the cichlids - those are Blue Morphs, right?

darkwolf29a

Wow! I'm sorry to hear about the frost.

Good news on those cichlids though.

Good Luck

mlinden84

I don't think there are any batter powered heaters for tanks either... someone needs to make one!!

I think the Socolofi are the same as Blue Morphs....I've never heard them called that, but I was reading another thread where you posted a link about them, and I think they are the same. The LFS' have a lot of them around here, and they also have the "snowflake socolofi" (all white version).
They ended up having 54 fry last time (poor little guys only lasted 2 weeks, and through 2 power outages!) So I am hoping the parents will do it again, I love the periwinkle/blue color they have.

Betta is doing better, his fins are healing, so it looks like I will hold off medicating for now. His color is still a little off (used to be very vibrant, now its more dull, and almost irredesent). But hes swimming around happy now, which is all that matters.

darkwolf29a

One thought for a "battery backup heater" is a UPS hooked up to your system. You can get a, fairly inexpensive, UPS from Best Buy, CompUSA, or some place like that. That should be able to run everything but lights for a pretty decent price. I'm investigating that route as well.

timg

It depends on how long you are looking to maintain the heating on the tank. A UPS, or Inverter, will run at around 300W for up to 12 hours hooked up to a car battery, depending on the capacity and condition of the battery. Running the engine at the same time may prolong the supply, but at a cost. A self-contained UPS, such as for computers would not last much more than 30 minutes, which is why they have a software shut-down option.

My camper-van had a 300W inverter built in, a second heavy-duty battery to help and would still shut off after 13 hours. If I was lucky, the camper would start afterwards!

If you are trying to cover a power outage for longer than an hour or so, the only safe way is with a generator. The inverter/UPS option may be a short-term solution, but would not last for any length of time. Under normal circumstances, most tropical tanks can withstand power loss for a couple of hours without any problems, simply by throwing a couple of blankets over it, so I would consider the latter a waste of money and time.

If you are going to the expense of a backup system, you may as well look out for a bargain and get a decent sized generator, which can run the tanks, the heaters and the lighting for the house during cuts.