# No Power. Everything dead.



## em2 (Nov 26, 2013)

So everything in my tank has died, I wasnt able to get anything to even keep a bubbler and heater running. I am wondering if my tank will bust because of the cold and if I should drain it? Also should i keep the liverock in buckets of the water from the tank?


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*sucks*

what area in scarb are u in that u don't have power yet ...
that totally sucks man .I don't think the house will get cold enough to freeze the water .if everything is dead u can drain some water out ,I don't think the live rock will be any better in a bucket or the tank , my heart goes out to u 
im sorry man .


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Sorry to hear this and it hurts all of us when we hear it. I know you are new here but we are a very tight family of hobbyist that all care about each others tanks. Especially the saltwater family!! I just wish you might have said something earlier so one of us could have save it.

Clean her up and start over again


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## PaulF757 (Dec 9, 2013)

my condolences


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## em2 (Nov 26, 2013)

Thanks for the quick replies. I wish I would have known people were nice enough to take my fish and corals in. It sucks a lot because im fairly new to saltwater and ive spent close to $500 on fish and corals over the past 3 months. I dont even think I will have money to start up the tank again for months. What can you do though... Will my liverock and filteds still have the bacteria in it if the water is cold to re-cycle the tank when I am able to do so? 

Thanks everyone.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank crash*

I think like alt said u basically will have to start over ...clean em up and prepare it for its next start up . I don't think your live rock and stuff will stay ,that's not a big concern to get u going all it will take is one live rock loaded with stuff to get u going and start getting u the beneficial bacteria ,lots of us out here who can certainly help with that .all I can say about livestock and corals is that we are all here and certainly can help.get the tank started up and go from there ,also include a back up plan after this power outage that has reaked havoc on so many tanks .I am myself planning ahead this time .
cheers and good luck 
tom


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## em2 (Nov 26, 2013)

Yea. I will be getting a generator so it doesnt happen again.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank*

good start.. u still without power what area are u in scarb.
there are lots of ways to keep things alive with out the expense of a generator .read thru the site lots of great ideas out there a generator is awesome but a huge expense ...its top on my list .


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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

altcharacter said:


> Sorry to hear this and it hurts all of us when we hear it. I know you are new here but we are a very tight family of hobbyist that all care about each others tanks. Especially the saltwater family!! I just wish you might have said something earlier so one of us could have save it.


My tank was out for about 20 hours until I got power back. I would frequently move the magnetic cleaner for some flow and warmed up some tank water near the fireplace to try and keep the temp up. The temp dropped from 26 to about 19 deg by the end. I guess another advantage of a large tank (120 gallons) because looks like everything survived .

I thought about all the saltie folk willing to help but trying to get a hold of anyone with a power outage is almost impossible. Irony is after reading teemees "need help" thread I was thinking about suggesting some sort of a friendly GTA saltwater emergency support system. This site is pretty good but a post may go unseen until it is too late.


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## em2 (Nov 26, 2013)

Yea. I am still without power. The reason we will have a generator next time is because my dad wants one. So I wont have to front the money for that.


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## Mikeylikes (Nov 22, 2013)

My heart goes out to everyone whom have lost valuable fish and corals.


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## Letigrama (Jul 6, 2008)

Dax said:


> My tank was out for about 20 hours until I got power back. I would frequently move the magnetic cleaner for some flow and warmed up some tank water near the fireplace to try and keep the temp up. The temp dropped from 26 to about 19 deg by the end. I guess another advantage of a large tank (120 gallons) because looks like everything survived .
> 
> I thought about all the saltie folk willing to help but trying to get a hold of anyone with a power outage is almost impossible. Irony is after reading teemees "need help" thread I was thinking about suggesting some sort of a friendly GTA saltwater emergency support system. This site is pretty good but a post may go unseen until it is too late.


+1 on using the mag-float, never thought about that to give circulation!

It is really bad, I have offered my help since Sunday Morning, yet I see a lot of people with dead stuff. Someone emailed me but got power later on.....

Like you said, if you dont have internet access.... but GTA is the first place i would check!


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## Letigrama (Jul 6, 2008)

em2 said:


> So everything in my tank has died, I wasnt able to get anything to even keep a bubbler and heater running. I am wondering if my tank will bust because of the cold and if I should drain it? Also should i keep the liverock in buckets of the water from the tank?


I am really sorry. 

Liverock needs to be in buckets with an airline and heater. If everything is dead in the rock, I guess it wont matter but they will stink like crazy,

I will let the experts to tell you about the LR as if they are stinky and dead, might have to bleach them and start all over again?

You should drain the tank anyhow, because everything is dead and the water wont be good..... i dont know if draining the whole thing..

The experts are saying start all over again..


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## Mikeylikes (Nov 22, 2013)

90 000 people still without power with Scarborough being hit the hardest! Definitely building a back up plan for power loss in my build.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Ok guys who's with me! Lets get this kid back on his feet once his tank is up and running. I'll start off by donating a few pieces of coral and some salt if he needs it.

Really all you need to restart your tank is some fresh saltwater and some livestock.

Who else wants to pitch in and help!! It's christmas!!


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

don't drain the tank.

My blood shrimp and looks like all snails are survived more than 30 hours with approximately 45-50 F and no flow at all.

Few corals probably gone. Will give them day or two., but I see zoas from Alex already started to open
Just do big water change and you should be OK. At least I hope so

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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Yike I am so sorry, if there is anyway I can help let me know.


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## Nicole (Aug 2, 2013)

I can give you some filter media to seed and cycle your tank. Beneficial bacteria, pods, fanworms. All the good stuff.


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## zoapaly (Jul 10, 2013)

Sorry to hear your lost , why don't you use back up battery for water pump and heater ?


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## bobbyjoe (Jan 30, 2013)

I had the power go out as well for abit more then 24 hours, 19 gallon tank with a 15 2.5 inch yellow labs, first thing I did was remove the filter Biomax and dumped it in the tank, removed all filters (cleaned them out well), tried not to bother the fish, happy to say, they're doing great. Water temperature reached 66 fahrenheit, I didn't do a water change.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*stuff*

hit me up when u get the water change done I can slip u some stuff , plus I got lots of colt leathers that no one wants .... can certainly find some stuf to help u get started deff can offer up some snails .


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## cica (Feb 10, 2013)

sig said:


> don't drain the tank. .....
> Just do big water change and you should be OK. At least I hope so


+1

+ take out all the dead bodies (fish and corals that are dead for sure).
I would keep checking the water for bad smell, amonia, nitrits...
I had a live rock in a bucket in water on the basement floor with no circulation, no heat. Even after 3-4 days snails, bristle worms were alive in it.

I'm sorry for your loss.


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## clubsoda (Oct 10, 2009)

Terribly sorry to hear that the weather got really cold fast between Monday and Tuesday. I need to go shopping for power gen in the summer when the stores stock them again. Good luck I have a good feeling you'll do really awesome in your second run at it.


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## Steel_Wind (Oct 26, 2013)

I live in Scarborough and as of Xmas day our power is still off. If I had my tank setup it would have completely died by now. I guess there is a bright side to not being up and running yet.

Turns out, there is another bright side. My wife has INSISTED that I buy a generator as part of gearing up to set up my tank this January. So I will call that a plus. Not sure yet what generator I will get but I am happy to hear suggestions from you all.

That said, this power outage is an extremely unusual event. It is by far the longest of my life and I hope I never have to live through a longer one. Brutal. On the plus side, my ex-wife and I remain good friends and my current pregnant wife and our two kids are staying for Xmas at my Ex's in Brampton (she has power). It could be worse. I know as my family bedded down in our living room under five layers of blankets on the 23rd. We could see our breath in the air. God damn that was cold.

Sorry to all of those on GTAA who have lost their tanks (or portions of same) to this Ice Storm. Total B.S.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

Power has been out for 4 days and is still out. No heat either. Room and tank temp 46F. I imagine I will be starting over again at some point.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Robbie!!! Why didn't you call me????


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## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

Hi Dave. I was away the first two days and after that there wasn't a lot that could be done.


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## Taipan (Feb 12, 2012)

We'll start over together......


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## notclear (Nov 5, 2011)

Sorry to hear so many sad stories.


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## dllowe (Feb 20, 2013)

Unfortunately I am in the same boat as may others. My power went off on the Sun Dec 22 at apx. 2:00am. To date, at 11:00am on Thus Dec 26, there is still no power at my place. I of course am a “lucky” one to live in the one are of the city that still in purple state, with more then 5000+ effected homes.

To make matters worse, I left for vacation on Saturday night, for two weeks, so there was absolutely nothing I could physically do remediate the situation. I had my in-laws watching the tank during our trip, and I trained them to change filter floss and make sure my fresh water ATO supplies where full, but they were of course never prepared for this. 

They did a valiant effort, they stated at my place in the freezing cold, trying to keep the water warm with hot bottles of water, stirred the tank to keep circulation, when the UPS was being recharged (my ~1000w UPS only keep my MP10 going for about 6 hours, during last summer’s outage it lasted for 9).

The most amazing thing was my clown, yellow clown goby and skunk cleaner ship lasted 4 days in this situation, with the water temperature down to 59F.

There was some hope at one point, power did return for 3 hours on Monday night at 6:00pm, but it has not been seen from since.


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## em2 (Nov 26, 2013)

Thanks for all the support. Ill update when i get the tank back up and running. Im still without power and no clue when it will be back. Hopefully others in my situation saved all or some of their tank and if not i feel your pain. Hopefully in the new year we can feel better when we setup new tanks. We should all prepare for something like this next time it happens.


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

very sorry to hear of the losses some of you suffered.

we should start a thread devoted to people that lost tanks so that we can organize a relief effort.


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## rburns24 (Jan 31, 2011)

The ironic thing about it, from my viewpoint, is the day before the power outage, I decided to go back to Zeovit, as I had much better results keeping SPS with Zeo than without. So I get my reactor going, do the first dose of ZeoBak and ZeoStart3, and very early the next day, the power outage occurs. 

Ontario Hydro still has 48,000 customers(I'm one of them) without out power. I dropped by the house this morning and the tank water was 31.5F. Good thing saltwater doesn't freeze until roughly 25F, or the tank would crack. 

Despite the devastating effect of the power outage on my tank, and my more or less limited success keeping corals over the last few years, I really like(love) the hobby and would never consider not starting over.


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## Steel_Wind (Oct 26, 2013)

rburns24 said:


> Despite the devastating effect of the power outage on my tank, and my more or less limited success keeping corals over the last few years, I really like(love) the hobby and would never consider not starting over.


Glad to hear it.

I guess the biggest lesson in all of this for me is to get a generator. I have only avoided this painful lesson due to timing. Our power was off for 100 hours straight. If my tank was up and running - it would be flat out dead right now. The only thing this screwed up for me as far as a tank is concerned is that it shut off the flow and skimmer to my tank that is curing dry rock. Who cares? Nobody. Consequences? None at all. BFD.

Pure luck though. A few months from now and its crash city.

A generator seems a profligate expenditure until you need it. Then it seems like the only important thing to have and you don't have one.

So I'm getting one. No doubt about it. I'm bummed enough about this happening to other people here on GTAA. I'm sure as hell don't want it to be me.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

Richard, my condolences, but probably it is time for upgrade finally 

I was lucky that Alex got generator and store few my corals. All other live stock gone.

I am already ordered this one. Not sure it will start furnace, but for heaters it will be enough

http://www.costco.ca/Champion™-3100-W-Portable-Inverter-Generator-.product.100054908.html

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## notclear (Nov 5, 2011)

Greg, didn't know that you also had no power! So look like Inverter is better than Generator according to the link you provided.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

notclear said:


> Greg, didn't know that you also had no power! So look like Inverter is better than Generator according to the link you provided.


yest they are, but they are more expensive. In my area we have power failure very often in the summer and I was always using converter from the car, but I got sick an tired of it.

Let's assume gas station also have no power and you need a gas for your generator. As result you should always have a gas in storage, but gasoline can not be stored forever in our conditions.

I planning to have a few canisters and replace it every 6 months

1)with Champion 3100 inverter/generator
2) go back to the gas stove. We had it before, but wife wanted electrical and she is sorry now

No gasoline - you have stove for heating
No natural gas - you have gasoline

no gasoline and no no natural gas - get guns and start hunting

you can install natural gas generator on standby, but there is no end to it...$$$$$$$

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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

My inverter was $77 for 800w at Walmart. Yes an inverter is better than a generator and I only used 1/4 tank of gas for 24 hours so it cost me $12 in gas. I'm so k with that price to save my tank

Rob when you get started back up if you need help or a hand give me a shout. I have 20g of saltwater mixed and ready to go


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

altcharacter said:


> My inverter was $77 for 800w at Walmart. Yes an inverter is better than a generator and I only used 1/4 tank of gas for 24 hours so it cost me $12 in gas. I'm so k with that price to save my tank
> 
> Rob when you get started back up if you need help or a hand give me a shout. I have 20g of saltwater mixed and ready to go


We are talking about different inverters, I need one to run furnace also 

http://www.costco.ca/.product.10005...rypageHorizontalTop|PopularProductsInCategory

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## cica (Feb 10, 2013)

notclear said:


> ....So look like Inverter is better than Generator according to the link you provided.


I would be carefull with that link. No question the inverter can provide that power, but only if you can supply it with enough 12V power. If you have a lots of fully charged bateries, than yes. But running it off of the car? An avarege car has about a 1kW altenator. If you are running more power off of the inverter, you'r discharging the car batery too, eventually draining it to empty. If you have a big truck, than you probably have a biger capacity alternator.
Cost of near $0? Running a car on your drivay does cost money, plus when the car is only idling (low RPM), the alternator creates even much less power.
The other thing is running it off of a batery. If you have only one fully charged batery, let say 115Ah. This has stored power of max 1.380kWh (12V x 115Ah). So you can have for example 400W load for about 3 hours and 27 minutes.
This means if you want 400W power for 3 days, you will need 20.87 fully charged 115Ah bateries.
These calculations I made for everything to be ideal, not counting losses on the inverter and bateries.
Running your tank for a short time is deffinitelly more convinient from an inverter but for longer time I would stick to the generator.
Sorry for the long post.

Joe


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

Sorry guys I posted the wrong link. I was talking about *inverter generator *vs generator

here is the correct one

http://www.yamahaef2000is.com/conventional_generator_vs_inverter_generator.html

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## cica (Feb 10, 2013)

sig said:


> We are talking about different inverters, I need one to run furnace also [/url]


This one looks as a good solution. It has a gas engine, so you don't depend only on bateries.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Yes and they have them at Costco in stock!


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## em2 (Nov 26, 2013)

*Update.*

I got the tank cleaned out and up and running again. Does anyone have a dirty piece of live rock that can cycle a tank fast for sale?


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

I have tons of rubble in my sump with pods, stars, and bacteria. Come on over today and pick a few up.


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