Disaster Tonight - Power Cut

[David J]

Hi

We had a power cut here in east Lothian from 6pm until 12:30am. A fire at the power plant apparently. Despite all my efforts I lost a panda cory. Absolutely gutted.

Here is what I did. Please let me know if anyone would have done anymore as I want to learn from this in case it happens again.

6:10pm - power goes off. Helpline stated it should be back on by 8:15pm. I think about doing water changes but figure I have had the filter off for upto 2 hours several times over the months while cleaning etc so decide not to do anything other than keep an eye on the fish. I decide not to feed them.

8pm - Power not back on. Helpline states the engineers are working and advise power should be back on by 2am. I realise I need to act. I test the water for ammonia and nitrite. Both are zero but I figure ammonia will not be zero for long so decide to do water change. Before doing anything I realise that I won't be able to temp match the new water because I have no power therefore worry about doing a standard water change of 30% because it will probably lower the temp by quite a bit. The temp has been a stead 27/28 for a few weeks now due to the heat wave'. I decide to do a 10% water change every hour.

8:10pm - 10% water change. Temp drops from 27/28 to 26/27. Fish look fine.

9pm - 10% water change. Temp drops from 26/27 to 25/26. Fish look fine.

10pm - 10% water change. Temp drops from 25/26 to 25. Fish look fine.

11pm - 10% water change. Temp drops from 25 to 24/25. Fish look fine.

11:30pm - Panda cory found dead. I take a water sample and figure I must now do a larger water change. I do a 20% water change and decide to put the media from my external canister into the tank itself. I know that the water needs to pass through the media for any benefit to occur so decide to stir the water gently.

12:15am - Power comes back on. I put everything back together and get the lights on. All other fish accounted for but lemon and glowlight tetras all very pale as is my ram. The lemons are staying very close together which they don't normally do. All 8 were in a space about the size of a tennis ball. Gradually all the fish started acting normally again and colour starts returning. I decide to feed a very small,amount. I normally feed every day and I know they would be fine without food until tomorrow but I more wanted to see how they'd react to the food than anything else. Gladly, they acted absolutely normally.

12:30am - I test the water sample I took at 11:30pm. Ammonia was 0.25 and nitrite was zero. Since then I had done a 20% water change so decide not to act further.

I will test the water first thing in the morning.

Would any of you done anything different? Will my bacteria be ok? They were submerged in tank water the whole time.

I know this type of thing doesn't happen often but I will not be unprepared next time. It's been a busy night. Panic stations. I'm knackered and gutted to lose a fish. I am now thinking of looking into getting a back up power supply for these instances. Something like this perhaps.

http/www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-7-amp-rechargeable-power-tank_d2939.html

I've been thinking about getting one of these anyway for my telescope but will need to see if it will do for aquarium emergencies also. If not, something else. Does anyone use anything like this?

Thanks for reading, please let me have your feedback.

David

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You did everything by the book... 
 
The only change I would have considered would be trying to better temp match with the water changes.
 
 
A few quick questions: 
What's your tap water situation? 
Does it have ammonia or chloramines?
What dechlorinator are you using?
 
 
Chances are the ammonia was either a 'false reading' because of the dechlorinator, or that it was already detoxified by the dechlorinator anyway.
 
 
I don't think the power outage was responsible for the death of the panda cory, it was probably just coincidence.
 
 
As for the paleness of the tetras... that's normal nighttime behavior.  They lose their color and they will school more tightly... nothing to worry about.

 

[mbeer21]

I had a powerout for that long about a fortnight ago - I didn't do any water changes at all.  No issues, no lost fish.  I just figured if my fish could cope being in bags for 6+ hours when I moved house then they'd be fine in a much larger space with no filter for that time.  I'm surprised your tank was actually affected like that, to be honest.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The only thing I can suggest is to put the media into the tank sooner. But you should also buy a battery powered air pump. Its a great backup item.

 

[David J]

You did everything by the book... 
 
The only change I would have considered would be trying to better temp match with the water changes.
 
 
A few quick questions: 
What's your tap water situation? 
Does it have ammonia or chloramines?
What dechlorinator are you using?
 
 
Chances are the ammonia was either a 'false reading' because of the dechlorinator, or that it was already detoxified by the dechlorinator anyway.
 
 
I don't think the power outage was responsible for the death of the panda cory, it was probably just coincidence.
 
 
As for the paleness of the tetras... that's normal nighttime behavior.  They lose their color and they will school more tightly... nothing to worry about.

Hi eagles,

The dechlorinator i use is nutrafin. Your question about my tap water made me slap my forehead because when tested it reads 0.25 for ammonia. So ive basically been putting ammonia in the tank whick cannot be processed due to the filter being off. Right?

I'm not sure about chloramines. Never looked into that. How do you test that?

To try and match the water temp as best I could, after each water change I filled the next bucket up and left it at room temperature hoping it would rise a little in the hour before putting it in the tank. The house was boiling last night.

The only thing I can suggest is to put the media into the tank sooner. But you should also buy a battery powered air pump. Its a great backup item.

Yeh I wish I had put it in earlier but we live and learn eh. I'll check out battery powered air pumps. I've since read your thread about your power cut. Sounds like a plan. Hopefully it never happens again but you never know and I want to be prepared for it next time.

 

[coolie]

I think, if anything, you over reacted to the situation.

 

[Sickbound]

Only 4 hours? I wouldn't have done anything, honestly. Maybe gently stirred the surface of the water and tested for ammonia. You were right not to feed them, though.

 

[David J]

Only 4 hours? I wouldn't have done anything, honestly. Maybe gently stirred the surface of the water and tested for ammonia. You were right not to feed them, though.

It was 6 hours.

I think, if anything, you over reacted to the situation.

I disagree. I think 6 hours is too long with no filtration. While I don't know if I handled the situation perfectly, which is the purpose of this thread....to learn, I do feel some kind of action was required. As fishkeepers we all know how crucial the bacteria is. With the filter off, and with most if the bacteria living in the filter media, I effectively had a tank full of fish with no bacteria. We wouldn't fill a tank with water and throw some fish in without cycling would we?

 

[coolie]

 
We wouldn't fill a tank with water and throw some fish in without cycling would we?

 
No - but that's not a comparison with a power cut is it?

 

[David J]

I know but what I mean is that while the filter is off, there is effectively no bacteria. Anyway, what's done is done. I did what I thought was best.

 

[Tim_UK]

Too late now of course but to cover you in the future get yourself a little inverter, there's loads about this is the first one I found on amazon - £24:
 
http/www.amazon.co.uk/Ring-Automotive-RINV120-12V-240V/dp/B002XDERD8/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1374833144&sr=8-10&keywords=12v+inverter
 
just connect this to a 12 volt battery and you will have 240 volts to power your filter. Don't bother with heaters or lights - the less you plug in the longer the battery will last. Doing simple maths my large external filter is about 50 watts - using a typical car battery (say 70Ah) it would last for at least 16 hours.

 

[Essjay]

Spring last year we had a planned power outage for 8 hours (upgrade work on the substation). All I did was not feed the fish the day before or the day of the power out. I never saw any ammonia or nitrite in any of the three tanks, and I did check quite a few times. Admittedly we did have some warning so I could not feed the fish, something you can't do with an non-scheduled cut. And before the electrity went off, we had the heating on to warm the house so the tanks didn't get cold.

 

[coolie]

David, what you are basically looking at is a graph of very slowly increasing Ammonia and Nitrite levels over a period of days as opposed to an "on  - off switch". The amounts at the beginning would be negligible, like amounts you would get in nature or a river, and then slowly increasing over a period of time. You can actually google this graph, because it's similar to the one for starting an aquarium, although the recovery when the filter resumes, would be far far quicker and more efficient, that is, on the assumption you have a healthy bacteria filter bed.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

There is also some bacteria on the other surfaces of the tank, so there is some bacteria at work for you.
 
 
 
I wouldn't stress any of the steps you took, including the tap water.  Its normal to have a bit of ammonia like that in the tap.  More than likely that ammonia is coming from the breakdown of the chloramine (chlorine and ammonium bonded together).  The reason I ask the dechlorinator is that the easiest solution is a dechlorinator like Prime which deals with the ammonia in the water.  (Nitrite is a much smaller concern in this case, as the nitrite happens as a result of the breakdown of ammonia... so if you don't have your bacteria at work, the ammonia will build up alone.)

 

[David J]

Cool thanks. I will have a look for that graph coolie as it would be good to see how long before I would need to act. Eagles, I will check out prime when my current bottle of dechlorintor runs low.

Happy to report all ok with the tank. I will be looking to get another few panda cory's to add to the 4 remaining next weekend.

You can plan all you want in this game but it is a constantly changing plan. Before this happened, I was looking into getting a QT tank then adding a male bolivian ram to go with my female and after they settled I was going to get some ottos. Now, I will still get the QT tank but pandas will have to come first due to their low number in my tank. And I will also be looking to get a contingency plan in place for power outages in the future. Geez!

Thanks again,

David