Disaster ! What do you think would happen
- Thread starter Coler
- Start date
thanks for reminding me about this thread lol.
what I did - threw a quilt on the tank and fixed the electrics. turned everything back on and warmed it up to proper temp slowly.
over about 3 hours, one by one the fish flickered back into life - was truly great to see - and coloured up.
parameters were 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, nitrate had climbed to above 20 but below 40.
so, I guess the deep sleep shut down everything in the tank. what I was surprised by was that there was no spike in parameters at all, even susbequently over the next few days - I would have expected substantiall bacteria die off because of the deep freeze but this did not happen. I left lights off for the day, and kept the tank covered - figured no external stress would be a good thing. Did a water change next day, normal tank maintenance thereafter.
no fish losses - woot - but I don't think they would have survived much longer and don't reccomend the deep freeze as a good option for a short trip away
I think the smartest thing I did was warming the tank back up gradually. I suspect a panicked water change with hot water could have been disastrous.
What I would have done if the power was still out - I truly don't know...perhaps small water changes with heated water over a couple of hourse, and a quilt to keep the temp up, but with no filtration......eek ! (heavy doses of Prime to detoxify ammonia/nitrite as warranted by testing, and fingers crossed I guess)
and thankfully no symptoms of disease as I type this
what I did - threw a quilt on the tank and fixed the electrics. turned everything back on and warmed it up to proper temp slowly.
over about 3 hours, one by one the fish flickered back into life - was truly great to see - and coloured up.
parameters were 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, nitrate had climbed to above 20 but below 40.
so, I guess the deep sleep shut down everything in the tank. what I was surprised by was that there was no spike in parameters at all, even susbequently over the next few days - I would have expected substantiall bacteria die off because of the deep freeze but this did not happen. I left lights off for the day, and kept the tank covered - figured no external stress would be a good thing. Did a water change next day, normal tank maintenance thereafter.
no fish losses - woot - but I don't think they would have survived much longer and don't reccomend the deep freeze as a good option for a short trip away
I think the smartest thing I did was warming the tank back up gradually. I suspect a panicked water change with hot water could have been disastrous.
What I would have done if the power was still out - I truly don't know...perhaps small water changes with heated water over a couple of hourse, and a quilt to keep the temp up, but with no filtration......eek ! (heavy doses of Prime to detoxify ammonia/nitrite as warranted by testing, and fingers crossed I guess)
and thankfully no symptoms of disease as I type this
I am guessing much like when you bring a new fish home, you keep it in the bag for 25 min or so to have the water reach the same temp to avoid a temp change shock.
Glad you had no loses.
Don't forget a bottle of something something to keep your nerves at ease
reminds me of a story - the LFS keep a 25 foot constrictor, about like 3 feet girth. they feed him (non-live food) and keep 4 or 5 guys handy to help, not that this would mean a thing if the snake decided to have a go. Guy reckons best thing to have on hand is a bottle of whiskey, as if the snake tags you and its not for fun apparently pouring alcohol on their head may make it release the bite and coils of death...and if that doesn't work...you might as well have a drink while you go
I had this very thing happen to my tanks last month went away for the weekend and the power was tripped by a blackout and temp dropped from 30 degree celcius to 19 degrees in just 2 days. My readings were the same as before I left as the fish were not fed while away. I raised to temp to the fish tanks immediately by about 4 degrees with a water change and let the heaters do the rest. Next day fish were back to normal and eating. I didn't lose any fish but had it been longer I don't know whether or not the situation would have been the same.
Cheers
Debbie
Cheers
Debbie
