Damn Power Cut!

[ShoC]

Last night I had a 6 hour powercut
Just changed the water in my tank and ammonia check comes back with 1.0ppm
Great now goes the daily water changes

 

[erk628]

Last night I had a 6 hour powercut
Just changed the water in my tank and ammonia check comes back with 1.0ppm
Great now goes the daily water changes

Been there done that!

 

[ShoC]

well one of my fish is allready showing signs of stress..
Will using a converter to make my ammonia into ammonium cause it not to cycle or can ammonium be used by the bacteria?

 

[rabbut]

Half correct, the converters will detoxify the Ammonia by converting it to Ammonium, as you say above. Ammonium can be utillised the same as ammonia by the filter bacteria Most converters (ammolock being the most common by API) are perfectly safe to use on Cycling tanks. They give fasle highs on some test kits, so be aware of that, but are otherwise a good product.

Waterchanges are still recomended during this time if you do use a converter

All the best
Rabbut

 

[ShoC]

Water change then add product after?

 

[rabbut]

Aye and keep up the waterchanges thourghout. The less ammonium there is in the system, the smaller your following nitrite spike will be when that happens, and this is your next concern... Ammonia/ammonium in the cycle convert to nitrite. If AOBs have died back, the NOBs will have also, as AOBs are harder wearing than the NOBs, so nitrite conversion won't be as effective as before, making a nitrite spike amost inevitable

All the best
Rabbut

 

[ShoC]

Cheers buddy,
shame as I have a UPS on my tank but it couldnt hold this powercut

 

[rabbut]

I would only rig the essential equipment; The Filter(s), to the UPS, then you get the longest time possible out of it. It don't matter too much if you loose the heater and the lights, the two biggest power eaters, in a power cut, but as you are finding out, loosing the fliters can leave a painful hang-over afterwards

All the best
Rabbut

 

[P&J]

Question: A 6-hour loss of power can really kill that much bacteria? When fishlessly cycling, you get to a point where ammonia and nitrite are processed in less than 12 hours, but you don't add more ammonia for another 12 (to add it once every 24 hours). This would mean not feeding the bacteria for at least 12 hours, with no real setback in the effectiveness. So, why would 6 hours of not feeding the bacteria make such an impact? Is there another factor I'm overlooking? Thanks!

-P

 

[keenonfish]

Bad luck mate I was recently up all night tending to my UGF with a footpump and hours of boiling pans on the gas hob! I really wonder if it is worth investing in a second hand generator sometimes!

 

[SharonCC]

Question: A 6-hour loss of power can really kill that much bacteria? When fishlessly cycling, you get to a point where ammonia and nitrite are processed in less than 12 hours, but you don't add more ammonia for another 12 (to add it once every 24 hours). This would mean not feeding the bacteria for at least 12 hours, with no real setback in the effectiveness. So, why would 6 hours of not feeding the bacteria make such an impact? Is there another factor I'm overlooking? Thanks!

-P

I think it's the lack of aeration that harms the bacteria. I didn't realize that 6hours would do that much damage, if the media was kept wet...

 

[ShoC]

it is indeed the lack of oxygen going to the bacteria
and canisters suffer the most from this compared to internal I beleive

 

[ShoC]

Well I'm Happy but miffed

I thought I'd do a check on my water param before I change my water to fight this damn power cut.

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate between 5-10ppm

so I either had a mini cycle but it ended quickly (tetratec ex1200) on my tank (22gal) so high filtration
Or I caused the stir up by dismantling my filter as it sprung a leek and got loads of Detrius from my filter go into my tank (unlikely the cause for obvious reasons)

I'm going to keep a real close eye on it tho

p.s Rabbut My UPS is for filter only but its a small 600 ups I'll upgrade to a 1400xl UPS one lying at my work not on the records
1k ups for my tank tomorrow

 

[P&J]

it is indeed the lack of oxygen going to the bacteria
and canisters suffer the most from this compared to internal I beleive

Good to know, thanks! Is there anything that can be done to help if the power goes down?

-P

 

[rabbut]

"babby sit" the filter, manually syphening a bucket of water through every couple of hours will get you there The main thing is to keep the water in the filter fresh, as it will only become oxygen depleated if left to stand a while.... Tip the bucket back into the tank, or you will be pulling the temperature down more than needs be with replacing with fresh

UPS's can help increase run time after the power goes down. I'm suppried even only a small UPS diden't last you out the 6h TBH with such overfiltration on the tank. The TT EX1200 uses 21W of power, and the small ones give mebe 10mins run time for a desktop of 400W consumption... This said, doing the maths just now, a small one running a 400W PC for 10mins would only give an extra 3 hours coverage with your filter...

All the best
Rabbut