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Freeze Survival (1 Viewer)

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GMay

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My house was without power from 4:00 am Tuesday till 6:20 pm Wednesday. The house temperature dropped to 56 - 58 overall. My tank had no power during the entire period. This is a picture to the tank just a few minutes ago.

FreezePic.jpg

Temp fell to 66 and I did not feed during this time. There was no flow either. I was surprised at the robustness of the critters.

The system restarted while at a friends that had power. We are very lucky not to see any losses. Fish were hungry but fine. I expected a lot worse.

Hoping other fair as well I did.

Best Greg
🙏
 

BigRick

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It looks good maybe stress a little next couple weeks but keep the parameters stable and small <10% daily water change. You can't afford to loose the bacteria. Need to build it back up.
 

mwilliams62

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I used those battery power air bubblers and wrapped my tank with a blanket as soon as the electricity went out to keep the warmth in there. Power was out for about 18 hrs tank temp dropped to 65ish and the apartment temp was 56.. I would rather electricity to be out during summer time than winter.


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phhoth

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got a bit innovative and used my hunting hand, boot and body warmers attached to the tank. Wrapped the whole thing with a survival blanket. Finally yesterday found an aquarium heater. Before I was 40hrs out of power. EVERYTHING survived and looks pretty good.
 

BigRick

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got a bit innovative and used my hunting hand, boot and body warmers attached to the tank. Wrapped the whole thing with a survival blanket. Finally yesterday found an aquarium heater. Before I was 40hrs out of power. EVERYTHING survived and looks pretty good.
Pics
 

mwilliams62

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I was watching a video from BRS yesterday and they mentioned those hand warmers, generators of course, inverters and some kind of heating unit that one guy uses for his small house where they do ice fishing in to keep the room warm. Plus fire place to keep the room warm if the tank happens to be where the fireplace is at.


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TX_Punisher

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Probably one of these which I have for the garage and hunting blind


ACE hardware has them but you’ll want the hose adapter to run 20lb tanks which will
last a few days on low heat.
 

Huang21921

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Glad your tank made it. My fish and coral was OK the first 24 hours, but with more than 2 days of no power and inside the house temperature in the low 20s at nights........everything everything......Man, this hurts......
 

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Looks like my LPS and zoanthids are going to pull through. All SPS are dead. I was prepared for a hot time power outage with battery air pumps and fans. Never ever though a winter storm would knock out my power for two days in Houston. Think I will give the tank 6 weeks or so then start looking for new SPS.
 

Maga

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We were 48h without power, room temperature dropped to 42-45F. I have a 4k generator, but the problems started around 3 am so initially believed Centerpoint it will be "45 min" or "just a bit over an hour", not fun to start you generator outside in the middle of the night in subfreezing temperature ... Fell back asleep around 4 am while "monitoring" the situation ... tank temps where 63-65F in 65G SW tanks and 51F in FW one. Turned out that my SW heaters, that I was normally not using, and powerful chiller that was supposed to be also a heater, were not much for this situation, so I resorted first to topping of with boiled RODI water and the second day, when even this was not enough to stop temps falling, I started to warm/boil small amounts of saltwater and dump it directly into the sump. It seem to work, I only freaked out a bit seeing that one stainless steel pot I used developed rusty spots on the bottom, but everything seems to do great, now that I gradually raised temps to 74F (my normal temps are 78-80F, but house is still just 60F). I iniatially was warming saltwater in the microwave, but it was too slow and temp in one tank dropped to 62.8F what freaked me out. Fish was acting normal, just a bit less active at 63-65F, corals and nem seemed unhappy/retracted, but definitely alive. We lost only one FW fish, probably from trying to raise he water temp too much, really bummed about it, since it was my son's favorite (and the only) fish :(. But other than that, the generator was a life saver and I learned that normal heater ratings are for raising water temp no more than 10F above room temperature, definitely buying a (couple) really powerful heaters now.

Do you have any experience with rusty spots/possible iron contamination? I was planning to do (close to?) 100% water change when situation stabilizes in the next couple days. I know many people are aginst such changes, but I had good experience with them before as long as I kept temperatures matched and did not disturb the sand bed.

Sadly, I had no internet when tank temperatures fell - does anybody know what is the maximum safe temp raise per hour? I have read somewhere now it is 4F, I fought before, based on what I was reading on acclimating fish shipped in bad weather, that I can got away with much more as long as it is spread over an hour, but did not work in our case.
 

sneezebeetle

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I have a wood stove and burn skids...you would not believe the heat you get off of them.
Being from N. Idaho myself, I know what you mean! Our wood burning stove was a heat generating beast haha!
 

Erin

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Probably one of these which I have for the garage and hunting blind


ACE hardware has them but you’ll want the hose adapter to run 20lb tanks which will
last a few days on low heat.
I was very thankful for my camping gear this week! Love my Mr. Heater but luckily didn’t need to use it. I’m super careful with it even in a tent and have a CO detector that I sleep with when it’s on, lol. Got extra propane and new batteries for the CO detector Saturday :)
 

Erin

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We were 48h without power, room temperature dropped to 42-45F. I have a 4k generator, but the problems started around 3 am so initially believed Centerpoint it will be "45 min" or "just a bit over an hour", not fun to start you generator outside in the middle of the night in subfreezing temperature ... Fell back asleep around 4 am while "monitoring" the situation ... tank temps where 63-65F in 65G SW tanks and 51F in FW one. Turned out that my SW heaters, that I was normally not using, and powerful chiller that was supposed to be also a heater, were not much for this situation, so I resorted first to topping of with boiled RODI water and the second day, when even this was not enough to stop temps falling, I started to warm/boil small amounts of saltwater and dump it directly into the sump. It seem to work, I only freaked out a bit seeing that one stainless steel pot I used developed rusty spots on the bottom, but everything seems to do great, now that I gradually raised temps to 74F (my normal temps are 78-80F, but house is still just 60F). I iniatially was warming saltwater in the microwave, but it was too slow and temp in one tank dropped to 62.8F what freaked me out. Fish was acting normal, just a bit less active at 63-65F, corals and nem seemed unhappy/retracted, but definitely alive. We lost only one FW fish, probably from trying to raise he water temp too much, really bummed about it, since it was my son's favorite (and the only) fish :(. But other than that, the generator was a life saver and I learned that normal heater ratings are for raising water temp no more than 10F above room temperature, definitely buying a (couple) really powerful heaters now.

Do you have any experience with rusty spots/possible iron contamination? I was planning to do (close to?) 100% water change when situation stabilizes in the next couple days. I know many people are aginst such changes, but I had good experience with them before as long as I kept temperatures matched and did not disturb the sand bed.

Sadly, I had no internet when tank temperatures fell - does anybody know what is the maximum safe temp raise per hour? I have read somewhere now it is 4F, I fought before, based on what I was reading on acclimating fish shipped in bad weather, that I can got away with much more as long as it is spread over an hour, but did not work in our case.
I can’t speak to what’s going on with your steel pot, but since iron is a trace element that is in salt mixes, etc, it is probably fine. In the past I had a few SS clamps start to get rusty in the sump and it didn’t cause a problem; when I looked into it, the consensus was that it wouldn’t harm anything (unless the clamp gave way... but that’s another issue entirely :) )
If you are considering the 100% wc just due to the possible rust contamination, I think it would do more harm than good.
 

Maga

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I can’t speak to what’s going on with your steel pot, but since iron is a trace element that is in salt mixes, etc, it is probably fine. In the past I had a few SS clamps start to get rusty in the sump and it didn’t cause a problem; when I looked into it, the consensus was that it wouldn’t harm anything (unless the clamp gave way... but that’s another issue entirely :) )
If you are considering the 100% wc just due to the possible rust contamination, I think it would do more harm than good.

No, i was planning to do anyway, I had an old sand bed and could get rid of residual algae. I was also hoping that the amount of iron I may get into the tank will not be toxic, I remember at some point even testing if I have enough iron and some people supplementing it. Thanks for reassurance!
 
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Probably one of these which I have for the garage and hunting blind


ACE hardware has them but you’ll want the hose adapter to run 20lb tanks which will
last a few days on low heat.
I had a lot of carbon monoxide poisoning roll through the ER in the last few days.

Laterns in house
Coleman Stoves being used in house
One guy used a charcoal grill in the house to keep warm.
 

Cody

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I had a lot of carbon monoxide poisoning roll through the ER in the last few days.

Laterns in house
Coleman Stoves being used in house
One guy used a charcoal grill in the house to keep warm.
I’ve always thought of the saying:

Think of the average intelligence person. Half the population is dumber than them.
 
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I’ve always thought of the saying:

Think of the average intelligence person. Half the population is dumber than them.
Ohh and I forgot to add that people were sitting in their cars in the garage with door closed to stay warm.

But....the most brilliant of all. A family of 4 actually bought a generator and ran it wide open in the middle of the living room. Yes you heard that right. The wife was in the bedroom and stared to feel sick along with a child. Headache and nausea. She came out and the two males were both dead on the floor with white stuff frothing out their mouths. She and the child made it out thank God.

Quick reminder:
Don’t run anything in the house or a garage with door closed!
 

Cody

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Ohh and I forgot to add that people were sitting in their cars in the garage with door closed to stay warm.

But....the most brilliant of all. A family of 4 actually bought a generator and ran it wide open in the middle of the living room. Yes you heard that right. The wife was in the bedroom and stared to feel sick along with a child. Headache and nausea. She came out and the two males were both dead on the floor with white stuff frothing out their mouths. She and the child made it out thank God.

Quick reminder:
Don’t run anything in the house or a garage with door closed!
Jesus. I have sympathy for folks like that but damn. It’s very sad but I can’t understand that level of self harm.
 
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