Now This Will Make You Mad

[offutt_chris]

ok, as well all know this is Christmas time, and with that comes a very long break from college. and with that i leave it up to my forgien student friend to look after my tank.. which he does a great job, havent lost a fish at all. but then i get an email today saying that our dorm has no power at all. and its been out for all day today and since he went to bed last night. and since i have a corner room it has windows on two walls, so it gets very cold if the heaters arent on. and as well all know, fish do not do well in extremely cold water. but i guess none have died yet...they are just almost all dead. and tomorrow he is leaving for FL to visit his brother for a couple of days. so hopefully the freakin power comes back on and everything goes alright, or im going to make the school compensate me for the 50 dollars worth of fish and the 40 dollars worth of plants that i will lose this break. well thats enough ranting for me, its time to go to bed becuase i am going skiing tomorrow. lol

 

[Durbkat]

Why don't you go to school and get the fish and bring them to your house? That's what I would do that way hopfully you won't lose any fish or plants and you won't have to recycle the tank.

 

[Synirr]

Most schools turn off the power during the holidays, so I imagine that power outage was supposed to happen. If that's the case, it's not gonna come back on until a few days before classes start back. Good luck with the fish, I hope some make it.

 

[andyj]

By the sounds of it, it's like a halls of residence at a University, and people sometimes stay over, especially forgein studnets, so I wouldn't have thought the power weas turned off on purpose.

FIngers crossed the power comes back before your fish suffer too much

 

[piper]

Sorry to here that but I doubt you will get any money out of them, I know at my uni I wasn't allowed to keep a tank, are you sure you can ??

 

[Synirr]

By the sounds of it, it's like a halls of residence at a University, and people sometimes stay over, especially forgein studnets, so I wouldn't have thought the power weas turned off on purpose.

It depends on individual university policy, I believe. My local uni turns the electricity off during breaks.

 

[Jules H-T]

You could ask him to float a plastic bottle full of hot water in there for a while, and replace it as it cools. Labour intensive, but might keep the fish alive that critical bit longer. Also wrap the tank in towels.

I'd be just as worried about the state of the bacteria in the filter. Get him to swish the media holder through the water for a bit to feed the bacteria.

Other than that, fingers crossed.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Maybe you could post some heat packs? Nothing fancy, just some of the ones that last for a while, and stick them to the tank. See about getting a battery powered air pump, too- that way you could run a sponge filter.

 

[Durbkat]

Why don't you go to school and get the fish and bring them to your house? That's what I would do that way hopfully you won't lose any fish or plants and you won't have to recycle the tank.

Or you could do this, this way you can watch your fish and be able to feed them and clean the tanks as needed.

 

[sylvia]

Heat packs may result in cracked glass (just so you know). Under these sort of sircumstances, I change water every couple of hours. that keeps the water aerated and the temp. up. Water doesn't lose heat too quickly so it's ok if you keep an eye on it with a thermometer (though how prepaired your friend is to do all this is a different matter).

 

[pica_nuttalli]

they make these heat packs that you stick to the insides of your clothes that are pretty cheap. i know CVS carries a brand called BodiHeat that comes in 3-packs for about $5 each. they only put off heat for about 12 hours, but if you stuck a bunch on the sides of the tanks and wrapped a blanket around them...

i doubt that'd be enough to break the glass unless the tank is already ice-cold. i know i've worn one for 12 hours without any damage and i'm scientifically documented as a thermal wuss.

best of luck.

 

[offutt_chris]

sorry for the lack of updates, i was out of the state yesterday. but i got the chance of running back to my college today to see what really was going on. and it turns out that all of the fish in my larger tank were dead. the only life form was the cray-fish. but my room-mates two fish in his ten gallon were still alive. i figure mine died from lack of O2 and being freezing cold in the room. but luckily one of the outlets in the room was working today. so after netting out all of the floating/sunken fish i decided to just turn the lights and heater off, and just kept the filter running to keep me from recycling the tank. and the school never turns the power off over break due to the fact that we have quite a bit of foreign students. one of the perks of going to a small private liberal arts college. so this was a total surprise. i guess though this will give me a chance to try out some new fish though. and the friend would do the water changes with hot water, but if the power is out there will not be any water pressure once the pressure tank ran out. and he was leaving for FL the morning i got the email anyways.

 

[Synirr]

Oh no! So sorry to hear about your fishies

 

[Jules H-T]

and just kept the filter running to keep me from recycling the tank.

With no fish or other ammonia source, your bacteria will be dead by now and you will have to recycle the tank.