Lost Electricity For 16 Hours

[guppy77]

Hi all
My electricity went last night at 10.30pm and has just come back on (2.30pm). obviously tanks had no filtration or heating. the water went quite cold in this time. is there anything i should look out for as regards fish behaviour now the water has started to warm up.
thanks for any info
john

 

[fishyfeet]

why not do a good water change and give your filter a hand in getting rid of some of ammonia, if you have ammo lock now would be a good time to add some. di

 

[raptorrex]

Hi all
My electricity went last night at 10.30pm and has just come back on (2.30pm). obviously tanks had no filtration or heating. the water went quite cold in this time. is there anything i should look out for as regards fish behaviour now the water has started to warm up.
thanks for any info
john

try to take the temp up, slowly. you are going to be doing big water changes, for a few days. the bacteria in your filter will have taken a knock. (not killed). i would back off feeding, do large (ish) water changes, till the filter recovers. water test kits should help you decide how things are going.

 

[guppy77]

thanks for your advice. i am doing 50% water changes now.
thanks again

 

[rdd1952]

try to take the temp up, slowly. you are going to be doing big water changes, for a few days. the bacteria in your filter will have taken a knock. (not killed). i would back off feeding, do large (ish) water changes, till the filter recovers. water test kits should help you decide how things are going.

Nitrifying bacteria are quite slow to die off. Most estimates are only about 7 to 12 percent per day so you should not see enough bacteria loss to make a difference. You can do a water change to help raise the temp a little and remove any ammonia that may have built up but I doubt you will see any issue with the bacteria not being able to handle it.

I have left my filters off accidentally for over 24 hours and had no problems at all.

 

[guppy77]

try to take the temp up, slowly. you are going to be doing big water changes, for a few days. the bacteria in your filter will have taken a knock. (not killed). i would back off feeding, do large (ish) water changes, till the filter recovers. water test kits should help you decide how things are going.

Nitrifying bacteria are quite slow to die off. Most estimates are only about 7 to 12 percent per day so you should not see enough bacteria loss to make a difference. You can do a water change to help raise the temp a little and remove any ammonia that may have built up but I doubt you will see any issue with the bacteria not being able to handle it.

I have left my filters off accidentally for over 24 hours and had no problems at all.

thanks for that advise. feel a bit better now.
john

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with RDD, usually the filter comes through these things much better than expected.

There are two suggestions from TFF over the last couple years that have really stood out I thought:

1) To refresh the bacteria with oxygenated water, simply lower the outlet hose into a bucket that's lower than the cannister filter (assuming that's the type you've got) and when the bucket has received about the volume of water the filter would hold, stop. Pour that water back into the tank to keep the level up. If its convenient, 5 hours would be a good interval for this operation. (with other filter types you can devise other ways for the 5hour water refresh)

2) Many houses still have operating gas stoves when the power goes out or water still hot in the heater tank. If so, you can give your tank a "hot water bottle" by simply sealing somewhat hot (not too hot) water in a container with enough air to enable it to float in the tank. This will give off some heat to the tank and you can monitor the tank with your thermometer and home in on the right temp/frequency of this.

WD

 

[rdd1952]

Just to add to what waterdrop mentioned, if you use the bio-wheel filters, you will need to make sure the wheel stays wet. Bacteria can survive as long as the media is wet but if it dries out, you will lose most if not all bacteria. Just pull the wheel off and float it in the tank. You can also dip water from the tank and pour over the wheels or into the HOB filters to keep a little flow through them and keep them wet.

 

[OldMan47]

The filter will come through the loss of power and recover quickly. If your stocking levels have not been pushed too high, the water quality will also recover quickly. If you have allowed your stocking levels to get too high, as some people feel is fine, you may well experience water quality problems for quite a while after the power comes back on. It is one of the main reasons that I always favor what some would consider a light stocking level. I do not like a power loss to become a major crisis in my tanks.