• Welcome back Guest!

    MARSH is a private reefing group. Comments and suggestions are encouraged, but please keep them positive and constructive. Negative threads, posts, or attacks will be removed from view and reviewed by the staff. Continually disruptive, argumentative, or flagrant rule breakers may be suspended or banned.

Going Forward After Your Tank Got Cold (1 Viewer)

Users who are viewing this thread

Cody

Vice President
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Content Moderator
Board Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2014
Messages
7,284
Reaction score
4,254
Location
Spring, TX
I know there are lot of people that got hit, and I feel terrible for y'all. I wanted to take a minute to write up what you can expect going forward getting your tank back online though.

As your power comes on, your tank gets back to normal temperatures, there are a few things you need to be on the lookout for.



1) Mini-cycle

Let's assume that 100% of your nitrifying bacteria (aka the bacteria you establish while you cycle your tank) survived. Now, you had a lot of die off whether it be corals, fish, or inverts. You now have a lot more ammonia and/or nitrite in your tank, and you need to reestablish your nitrifying bacteria population. You can accomplish this by adding the bottle bacteria that's available at virtually all stores.

What does this mean for you while you're going through your tanks today and taking out the creatures that didn't survive?

It means that if you have some survivors, your chances of keeping them alive are going to be better if you can transport those living creatures to a tank that did not get cold and have a mass die off, whether it be another one of your tanks, or someone else's. Your tank is going to need to go through another, smaller cycle to get back to where it's safe for a lot of your tank creatures. Can some fish or corals survive the mini-cycle? Of course. However, your best shot is getting them to an established tank asap. I would recommend doing a water change now with saltwater that's the temp that you want your tank to be at, then add the nitrifying bacteria. Once your mini-cycle is complete, you can put your creatures back in your tank once ALL of your parameters are in line, including ammonia and nitrite.


2) Vibrio Bacteria

One of the main culprits to white band disease, or skin loss on sps, is Vibrio bacteria. It is in everyone's water and waits for the opportunity to attack a weakened coral, similar to viruses or bacteria that effect most other species. I'm not sure of the research on Vibrio with other types of corals, but I would assume that since it's opportunistic, it would probably go after other types of corals as well.

How do you combat Vibrio?

If you've lost most of the coral but there's a little piece hanging on, I'd go ahead and remove the coral. You're allowing a breeding ground for the bacteria and it could potentially elevate the concentration in your tank water. However, if you have a super rare specimen, or your one of your favorites, then I would hang on to it just to see if it can pull through. Also, get the corals you want to try and keep alive to a different, established tank will help build up the strength of the coral and allow it to naturally fend off the bacteria. Another way to give your coral a hand in the fight against the bacteria is an iodine dip, considering that iodine is an antiseptic and can potentially help with your fight against the Vibrio bacteria.


3) Take The Expensive Lesson

Unfortunately, some of our community had to pay an expensive price this week. However, there is some insight to take away.

What happens when everything goes wrong? This is what we all need to ask ourselves when we design/plan our systems. Do you have one heater? What happens if it fails? If you lost power during the hurricane in August, how would you keep your tank cool? If there was no way to get your tank back online then do you have a network of people nearby that could help you? These are all questions that we should consider going forward. Also, please get a generator. I understand this winter storm was unprecedented, but we also live in hurricane alley and losing power is nothing new to us. I understand that generators aren't cheap, nor are they as flashy as that new torch you got. However, for the price of the torch, you could keep your tank alive and keep yourself more comfortable at home while the power is off.


Anyone else, please feel free to add on to this thread as far as how to help in the immediate future. I know my third point isn't something that anyone should be worrying about today, but my first two points should absolutely be considered as you sort out your tanks. Let me know if I can house anything for anyone while they sort out their tanks. I live near Fish Gallery in The Woodlands.
 
OP
OP
Cody

Cody

Vice President
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Content Moderator
Board Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2014
Messages
7,284
Reaction score
4,254
Location
Spring, TX
Here is a quick video also...

Weather Emergency AFTERMATH & Your Saltwater Tank - Mr Saltwater Reacts​


Good! I wasn’t sure about how cold the nitrifying bacteria could go, but I was certain there would be other die off in peoples tanks. That’s good insight about nitrifying bacteria being able to survive the cold.
 

wazzel

Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
396
Reaction score
59
Location
Cypress, TX (290 & Barker Cypress)
I am going with water changes and time. That is about all I have available to me. Been doing 2 or 3 - 20 gallon water changes a day on my 120 since the power came back on. Probably reduce that to 1 a day or less come Monday. After that I am just going to wait a month or so to start rebuilding.
 
OP
OP
Cody

Cody

Vice President
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Content Moderator
Board Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2014
Messages
7,284
Reaction score
4,254
Location
Spring, TX
I
Don’t throw away the coral skeletons as they make a good bio media once it has been clean and dried out. Beats buying bio bricks and other stuff they sell nowadays. Just my 2 cents.
I save them in my sadness bucket and reuse them for calcium reactor medium.
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
10,899
Reaction score
2,066
Location
League City
Good! I wasn’t sure about how cold the nitrifying bacteria could go, but I was certain there would be other die off in peoples tanks. That’s good insight about nitrifying bacteria being able to survive the cold.
They can survive cold temps they just can’t freeze. So if you order bacteria, make sure to ask if they are shipped in temperature controlled trucks. Chewy has them for sure.
 

decimal

Supporting Member
Build Thread Contributor
Joined
Apr 20, 2007
Messages
2,513
Reaction score
1,152
Location
humble
I read all those and he wrote another series that started with the book “death rides a pale horse” it starts with a desperate guy sitting in a bad spot getting ready to off himself with a gun. Somehow he hesitates and death comes to collect seconds early. The guy gets startled/scared when death walks through the door and shoots death. Funny thing, by “killing” death, he has to assume the duties and responsibilities of death. That’s the beginning lmao.
 

Betcao01

Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Messages
253
Reaction score
379
Location
Katy
I read all those and he wrote another series that started with the book “death rides a pale horse” it starts with a desperate guy sitting in a bad spot getting ready to off himself with a gun. Somehow he hesitates and death comes to collect seconds early. The guy gets startled/scared when death walks through the door and shoots death. Funny thing, by “killing” death, he has to assume the duties and responsibilities of death. That’s the beginning lmao.
That doesn't even make sense. I hope the storyline gets better LOL. Arguably, death shouldn't even be there early. I feel he stole that story line from Family Guy
 

Tenny

Supporting Member
Build Thread Contributor
Joined
Jul 18, 2018
Messages
755
Reaction score
588
Location
League City
First off I am sorry for those that lost their livestock... I am always trying to take a positive spin on negative situations in life (helped me. So I of course am turning this into some positive.

Let's face it... you know how your tank had some issue that you weren't happy with. Some pest that got into your system. Probably Ich (if you don't QT everything... your tank probably had ich but your fish were healthy enough to fight off the visible signs). This is a great time to sterilize your systems, especially if nothing "good" survived. Start fresh and incorporate the proper QT techniques to ensure you have a healthy system for years going forward.

I know it isn't easy, I made the choice last year to tear down a good system to completely rid myself of aiptasia / ich and I am very happy and thankful I did.
 

decimal

Supporting Member
Build Thread Contributor
Joined
Apr 20, 2007
Messages
2,513
Reaction score
1,152
Location
humble
The books were written in the late seventies sooo probably a little before family guy. As far as making sense... well it’s just a made up story that is well told in this particular instance. I found it to be a pleasant mix of magic, illusion based on greek fundamentals involving Thanatos, Chronus, Gaia etc.
 

chewborka

Guest
Joined
Feb 10, 2021
Messages
20
Reaction score
25
Location
houston
First off I am sorry for those that lost their livestock... I am always trying to take a positive spin on negative situations in life (helped me. So I of course am turning this into some positive.

Let's face it... you know how your tank had some issue that you weren't happy with. Some pest that got into your system. Probably Ich (if you don't QT everything... your tank probably had ich but your fish were healthy enough to fight off the visible signs). This is a great time to sterilize your systems, especially if nothing "good" survived. Start fresh and incorporate the proper QT techniques to ensure you have a healthy system for years going forward.

I know it isn't easy, I made the choice last year to tear down a good system to completely rid myself of aiptasia / ich and I am very happy and thankful I did.
It's helpful hearing this because quarantining SUCKS. I'm new to the hobby so I'm trying to do everything by the book, but quarantining is the so. much. work. Surviving this power outage would've been way easier if we only had one tank to worry about instead of three. We don't have enough space downstairs for the QTs because we're following the 10ft aerosols rule, so I'm constantly running up and down stairs between the tanks (upside is my Fitbit is happy with me). QT-ing fish is the worst. The fish get literally poisoned by the medication so I constantly have to stress about them eating, plus they have zero personality (bc again, poisoned) so it's a chore. It sucks so bad that paying 500% markup for a quarantined fish actually seems reasonable. And the frags have to QT for what feels like eternity. Not to mention that our QT tanks are 10gal so much less stable; we're constantly battling one issue after another. At one point our frag QT had a 1) hob filter, 2) mechanical filter, 3) carbon filter, 4) mini protein skimmer, and 5) uv sterilizer. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I'm doing a bunch of whining, just to say thank you for telling me it's worth it. It better effing be worth it.

I guess the upside is that I've put so much time, effort, and emotional investment in QT-ing properly that I feel like I personally gave birth to each and every one of my fish and frags whenever they finally graduate to the DT.
 
Top