My tank lost power for what might have been 3 days...

its a hard thing to go through, keep your head up and give things a few days to recover. I would keep doing smaller water changes for the next few days and clean out whatever dead things you can. things can almost always be replaced sometimes people even give you stuff cause your day sucks (hint hint). Let the next few days work things out and keep us posted. J

 

WOW that sucks !!!!!!

Don't give up, Get that skimmer working over time.
Do more small water changes.
Get some carbon going in there as soon as possible, if you haven't already.
Test your water! (test everything you can) To see whats out of balance.

You may not be in to bad of shape!!! take the proper measures to ensure it cant happen again. (maybe put you return pump on a separate circuit)
Sorry about your loses!!

 

you should never hook anything more than pumps to a gfci, it takes so little to trip one you could have a heater or anything else for than matter go out and you'd never notice. I would move everything back to a direct power source asap

 

It doesn't take much to change your gfci to a standard outlet.

 

So sorry to hear of your problems gb. I know it's a constant worry to leave for any length of time. B-Rad gave you the run down of what you should do now. I would think that if those corals made it this far, they will pull through.

I'd be glad to donate something to help you get back on your feet! Stop by and see me at the Fall Fest, I'm going to have a booth.

 

Sorry about your tank....

Probably what's the worst right now in your tank is the ammonia, so do water changes DAILY until it can come down and the beneficial bacteria can catch up and help knock the levels down. Move anything that's still alive into temporary tanks/tubs if the ammonia reading is high. Run your skimmer very wet.....

 

good luck! You would be surprised at what some corals and fish can live through. Don't lose all hope yet.

Lee

 

I agree with most everyone except for test the water. There is no point. You should be doing large enough and frequent enough water changes to pull all parameters back in line. The last thing you want to do is use any additives in the tank unless you have Pure or Amquel laying around to lock up that loose ammonia. I personally would keep doing what you are doing and add an airline to the tank. A little extra dissolved oxygen in the solution never hurts. You will also want to run phosphate remover in the near future. Phosphate is leached by many dying organisms and is a huge source of hair algae.

 

I'd say the most resistant things in your tank live in your rocks and sand. I wouldn't worry about them! Bacteria are pretty tolerant of changes.

So, not to be a dick or anything, but why didn't you ask someone to watch your tank while you were gone? It's like having a really expensive cat or dog. I only have fish in my tank now and I still ask the neighbors to poke in and see if everything is ok when I leave for a couple days. They were too expensive and I'd feel terrible if I knew any of them died because I was negligent.

 

i lost power a few years ago due to a ice storm, and lost most of the fish and some corals. i did what you are doing, the water changes, i also added a second skimmer to help. my rock was okay and the corals and fish that made it throw the power outage was okay after time. be patient, keep doing what you are doing and you will make it throw this.

 

Yeah, sorry, I know eventhough I didn't want to sound like an ***, it probably still sounded that way.  Just get someone to watch it next time   I'm sure if you're desperate someone on the forum would be more than happy to stop by and make sure it's all pumping and heating!

 

Getting someone to watch will help immensely, but so many times they won't know what to do or things will happen just too fast. This is a hobby where there are so many things that can go wrong, many of which are not noticeable to the untrained eye. So don't beat yourself up too much.
I just re-read your thread and saw that Ammonia was mentioned but hadn't seen you post any tests. I would be testing this daily and possibly get some Cycle or Stress Zyme to help your bacteria cultures if it is very high. If it is extremely I would do a much larger water change, but that is my opinion. Remember the rules of dilution when you do water changes. If your Ammonia is at 10 and you do a 50% water change with fresh RO/DI your ammonia will be at 5. Without the addition of new ammonia if you do another 50% water change your ammonia will be at 2.5. Undoubtedly your system will still be adding ammonia until the bacteria can catch up so if something really looks like it won't make it, get it out of there. You could always move some so-so inhabitants to a hospital tank so they won't pollute the main tank if they don't make it.
Other than that keep up with water changes daily or every other day. Do not add any fish until your tank has re-cycled which can be up to 8 weeks. You said you added a carbon sock, is this just sitting in the tank or in a HOB filter? You will want slow water flow going through the carbon so I would recommend getting the carbon in a filter if it isn't already.
Basically keep a close eye on ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate so you know where the cycle is.

 

what type of algae? Is it loose or does it seem to bind to the rockwork. Either way it could be several things. You've had alot of die off which means your water is going to re balance over the next few weeks. I would say an increase in flow might help other than that your usual water changes until it works itself out.