A Power Outage Story

[Griz]

The following is a brief account of how the 2 tanks in my sig fared during a recent power outage which ended up lasting more than 3 days.
It was quite an adventure!

Thursday, October 12, 2006
**16:30
I arrive home from work. Heavy wet snow has been falling since 13:00 (we will eventually get 24 inches of it) and the drive home is an adventure!
10 Minutes after getting home the power goes outand it's getting dark.
We hunker down for a wild night of natures fury!
The next three days are spent with chainsaws, generators, food, gasoline, heat, and helping neighbors being the focus. Trees and hydro lines were down everywhere - it looks like a war-zone. Myself and and a few neighbors deal with trees falling on our homes, fences and decks. It's going to take a long time clean the mess up and as a write this, many are looking at going into their fifth night without power.
http/www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...hub=CTVNewsAt11
http/www.canada.com/topics/news/national...6c6&k=91002


Sunday, October 15, 2006
**01:00
It has been about 56 hours since the power to the filters, heater and lights went out.
I finally have some time to spend with my fish. The Amazon tank has dropped to 68F and the Shellie tank is at 67.5F
I've been running the house on a generator but have had to use the power to run my sump pump in the basement and keep the refridgerator going. It's only now that I can connect power to the tanks.
Over the last 2 1/2 days I have been pouring water into the top of the filters (both are AquaClears) every 3-6 hours in an effort to keep the bacteria in the filters alive.
I test the water and both tank read 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrites.

**06:00
After 5 hours of running the filters and heater I must shut down the tanks to pump the basement out again.

**10:00
Generator is connected back to the filters and heaters.
I turn on the lights for the first time.
The Amazon tank is now up to 74.5F and the Shellie tank is 73.5F
I test the water again: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0
I decide to feed them a very small amount of finely crushed flake food. This is the first time they have fed in nearly 3 days. I'm very surprised at how good they all look. I haven't lost a fish, they all have very good colour and really go after the food. I resist the urge to feed more until the hydro is restored.

**16:00
Generator disconnected. Must pump out basement again.

**19:00
After more than 3 days the power is finally back on !!!
The tanks are finally plugged back into the wall sockets!!!

**23:00
The water temperatures have dropped again to 72F Amazon / 71F Shellie, but now they will return to the 77F I try to keep them at.

Monday October 16, 2006
**10:00
Fish look great and I feed them.
0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite
I'll do a 20% water change tonight on both tanks.


It looks like everyone has made it through and and that neither tank has been sent into a cycle.

 

[Egmel]

Wow!

Congratulations on keeping your fish alive and well.

I dread to think what would happen at our end if we had a power cut for that long! I have a UPS but it's only good for a few hours.

In some ways it's a blessing we don't have weather like that at all where I am, in other ways it's quite annoying because the slightest snow fall and everything grinds to a halt, no trains, roads closed etc etc. Usually though there aren't any major power cuts and they only last a few hours at most.

 

[Griz]

This sort of thing is all too common around here. The main problem where I am is that it is heavily treed and a lot of them are absolutely huge. I have a dozen on my property that are 60-80+feet tall. (minus 1 now which landed on the house) When we get heavy snow or ice and the wind picks up the trees come down. I'm also just a few hundred yards from the north shore of Lake Erie which can turn out some pretty nasty storms. When you hear that Buffalo, NY is having a major winter storm, I'm getting it too. I'm just a few miles to the east. Mid October is unusually early for this sort of weather though. Global warming eh? Bah! (j/k)

 

[Egmel]

Global warming eh? Bah! (j/k)

Climate change!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Griz

You did a good job under trying circumstances.

AquaClears are good filters to work with in this situation. While you were trying to save your bacteria, you were also circulating the water and adding much needed oxygen to it.

Just keep an eye on the fish to be sure there are no delayed reactions, especially to the low temperature and then the fluctuations. If you see no problems within a week or so, you will know everything is OK.

If you get the same weather as Buffalo, I feel sorry for you. I live on Long Island and that's bad enough.