6 days no power

[grbspecb]

Well my tank is toast and starting over once the power comes back. Hoping some stuff may survive. Didn't think things would last this long, kept the backup going for a day but then ran out of juice.

Going to start to clean up the debacle, cook the rock, dump the sand and get new sand and start over.

Any suggestions? e.g. how long to cook the rock in this case?

Maybe I'm just looking for support after I lost 5 years of a nice 65 gallon tank.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Sorry to hear the bad news. These kind of incidents keep reminding me that I need to get a generator.

It's hard to say how long you'd need to cook the rock... depends on how much died and how long it's been dead to know whether you need to "kill" it all completely and start over, or if you can just give a good scrub/rinsing and get it right back to cycling.

Replacing the sand entirely is probably the best bet and once you get it all back up and running with the rock back in the tank... it will take the normal cycling period your tank took originally. You could always jump start it with adding some live sand and/or live rock from someone elses tank... or even using one of those additives. Whatever you do, just do your testing and make sure your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all zero before adding livestock.

Again, sorry to hear this. Good luck with the rebuild. Where are you located? Maybe some fellow reefers can give you a hand with the cleaning, etc. or to offer some frags once you get back in action.

 

[trivan]

Sorry for your loss, during Irene I bought a small generator for the tank, since I bought a large portable one (5500 watts), which has been a life saver as I'm too with out power since Sat. I'm in Summit. I think the hour counter on it is 88 hours and counting. I think I'm going to go buy shares in a generator company soon...

 

[malulu]

sorry to hear that, and hope you can get back up soon.

note:
for other reefers, in the future, please try to post in the emergency forum, may be other reefers lives near you that have power and can host some of your corals and/or live stocks until the power came back up.

good luck to us all.

 

[The_Codfather]

Sorry to hear about that.. Here are some tips if you have power out next time http://www.njreefers.org/showthread...Hurricanes-and-Power-Outages-–-What-do-you-do...

 

[grbspecb]

Thnx guys, getting a generator and hooking it into the whole house so we can power the heat, wash, etc. and keep the tank going.

I didn't think I would be out that long, by the time the 2nd day rolled around the temperature dropped quick the heater sucked my backup dry.

Rock has been scrubbed really good, its sitting in nice new water with a heater and my octopus 150 skimming the crud out. Im thinking of cooking it for at least 3-4 weeks. I had some hair algae which all died with no light for 6 days and the cooking now hopefully will get rid of any residual hiding. Im upping the magnesium also in the tub just in case.

Im in Bridgewater, Frag donations when the tank is going would be awesome. Plus I would get to meet some fellow reefers as I don't really get a chance to come out to the meetings.

Now to think how to redo the tank. sand bed size, etc.

If anyone has any recommendations on where to get sand and rock at a good price let me know! I want to add some more rock when I redo everything.

George

 

[howze01]

I'm in Bridgewater. Once you get going again I have some zoos I could frag for you.

As far as rock and sand, I just got some very nice rock and sand from ReefRocks.com. Pretty good price too. They do 50lbs of dry rock and 80lbs of sand for $100 delivered. Really nice, porous rock.

 

[grbspecb]

THanks Jonathan. Their sand is a good price.