Two weeks ago, the power went out during an intense thunder storm. Generator was not working and the intense heat created the perfect conditions for an oxygen deprived reef tank. The fatalities included all of my acro crabs and most of my fish. Oddly enough, most of the SPS came through unscathed. My large green Acropora millepora lost patches of tissue on some of the peripheral branches. Apparently some of the coral tissue died and was sloughed off after the pumps were powered up. 48 hours afterwards, my yellow watchman goby and his tiger pistol shrimp emerged from their burrow looking for food. This watchman goby is around 10 years old and I was glad to see him alive and well. To remedy the situation, I removed all dead fish and crabs and started water changes. I also added additional carbon and Phosban for absorption of organics and phosphate. I gave the tank 4 water changes over the next 4 days to remove some of the bacterial bloom and excess nitrogen. After 1 week, water tests showed nothing too unusual with the following parameters: pH 8.4 Ammonia 0 Nitrate 15-20ppm Phosphate 0 (undetectable) KH 8 dKH Calcium 350 Salinity 1.026 This tank has a history of high nitrate levels so additional water changes will be made to keep it within acceptable levels. There is a small dinoflagellate bloom and some cyanobacteria activity. I have also been adding 4 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide which is keeping the dino's in check and dosing kalkwasser at night. I will be weaning the tank off of peroxide when the dino population starts to die back and the oxygen debt has been reduced. Finally, I purchased an APC 450 watt UPS battery back-up and will keep my DC return pump running for 30 hours. Oddly enough, the acros coloration has intensified and polyp extension is quite good. I am hoping to slowly add some fish and replace some of the specialized organisms that live with the acros. Until then......................Jim
Reef Tank Recovering after 12 hour Power Outage
Two weeks ago, the power went out during an intense thunder storm. Generator was not working and the intense heat created the perfect conditions for an oxygen deprived reef tank. The fatalities included all of my acro crabs and most of my fish. Oddly enough, most of the SPS came through unscathed. My large green Acropora millepora lost patches of tissue on some of the peripheral branches. Apparently some of the coral tissue died and was sloughed off after the pumps were powered up. 48 hours afterwards, my yellow watchman goby and his tiger pistol shrimp emerged from their burrow looking for food. This watchman goby is around 10 years old and I was glad to see him alive and well. To remedy the situation, I removed all dead fish and crabs and started water changes. I also added additional carbon and Phosban for absorption of organics and phosphate. I gave the tank 4 water changes over the next 4 days to remove some of the bacterial bloom and excess nitrogen. After 1 week, water tests showed nothing too unusual with the following parameters: pH 8.4 Ammonia 0 Nitrate 15-20ppm Phosphate 0 (undetectable) KH 8 dKH Calcium 350 Salinity 1.026 This tank has a history of high nitrate levels so additional water changes will be made to keep it within acceptable levels. There is a small dinoflagellate bloom and some cyanobacteria activity. I have also been adding 4 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide which is keeping the dino's in check and dosing kalkwasser at night. I will be weaning the tank off of peroxide when the dino population starts to die back and the oxygen debt has been reduced. Finally, I purchased an APC 450 watt UPS battery back-up and will keep my DC return pump running for 30 hours. Oddly enough, the acros coloration has intensified and polyp extension is quite good. I am hoping to slowly add some fish and replace some of the specialized organisms that live with the acros. Until then......................Jim
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