Cyano going to cause me to shut down my tank

[rushbattle]

Well guys, major unrelated problems tonight. I’m pretty disheartened.

Power has been out for about 13 hours or so now. It was off for about three hours when I came home from work, my battery backup was working with one mp10, so I didn’t think much of it. Tank was 75 degrees, I didn’t really look in the tank because it was all dark. Hydro company was saying power should be on about 6, which was in about an hour. I ate dinner, walked the dog and figured I would break out the generator if power was not on when I got back from the walk. Got home and nothing so I turned on the generator and plugged in the return pump and heaters.

Hour later I went downstairs and my two favourite fish were dead. I don’t know why. My clowns seem ok and two other fish I can’t find them. I ran the generator for a couple more hours while my wife boiled water on a gas camping stove and we filled two liter bottles with hot water. I’m in the suburbs and had to turn the generator off at 9:30. I borrowed some battery powered air stones from a friend, at this point pretty much just hoping the power comes on soon or all my fish are going to die. The hydro company has not updated their site and it’s now after 11. The frustrating part is the houses across the street have power.

I also have a 210g Frontosa tank I have grown those fish from 1” to now 12”+ for 5.5 years. That tank is a lot easier to deal with and will probably be ok until morning when I can fire the generator back up, at least I hope so.

If I lose my fish that pretty much settles it that I am going to just run this tank with nothing in it for a while and determine what to do from there. This is really sad.

I’m sorry I just had to vent, it has been a very stressful evening. If the power does not come on I don’t think I will sleep much tonight.

As for now, hope the power came back on and everything is fine. I agree with the others, get as much air exchange as possible. Make it frothy!!!!!

 

[Potatohead]

I know this doesn’t help now, but in the future you might want to think about setting up a bank of deep cycle batteries to run your tanks overnight while you can’t run generator. Then obviously charge them during the day with the generator. Can you run the heaters with the generator you have?

If you think they are quiet enough, the inverted gens are good for small loads like the tanks and a fridge. What generator do you have?

It's just a somewhat cheap generator I got from Sears a few years ago when I was in a pinch, it works, and I typically just run my return pumps and heaters off of it. I borrowed some battery powered air pumps from a friend and they seem to be helping. I have been fishkeeping for fifteen years and why I don't own those, I have no idea. I thought with the generator and battery backup I would be covered. At this point I am just trying to save my clowns and my large Frontosa tank. I don't have much hope for my coral, my reef tank was down to 71.5 degrees this morning. I started the generator and it has been running and heating the tanks now for about three hours today.

If I ran about 350w (one of two heaters on each of my tanks) of heaters for say eight hours, does anyone know how many large 12v batteries I would actually need? I have no idea how to figure that out.

I am really quite mad at myself because I am a very proactive person and I thought I was prepared well enough. Power is still off, it has been 24 hours.

 

[roberthu526]

One thing I noticed is when I over dose NOPOX which is a carbon source, I will get cyano but not terrible. If I cut back on the dosage of simply stop dosing for a couple of days, the cyano will disappear. I don't run GFO and I don't know why some people run it to be honest. I have both LPS + Softy tank and SPS only tank and I never had the need to run GFO. The only time I tried out GFO my tank crashed. Now I just let the tanks play themselves out.

 

[Potatohead]

So the power just came back on after 27.5 hours. My clowns seemed to have pulled through which is great. About 1/2 my acropora has rtn’d and I lost four of my six fish, including my two favourites my flame hawk and my yellow tang .

Not really sure what I am going to do from here. I’ll probably basically start over and leave the lights off for a few days, maybe change the aquascape a bit, maybe start removing sand. My desire to have a nice acro dominant tank is just so strong and I don’t want to give up yet. This really sucks though.

 

[Reef man 89]

So the power just came back on after 27.5 hours. My clowns seemed to have pulled through which is great. About 1/2 my acropora has rtn’d and I lost four of my six fish, including my two favourites my flame hawk and my yellow tang .

Not really sure what I am going to do from here. I’ll probably basically start over and leave the lights off for a few days, maybe change the aquascape a bit, maybe start removing sand. My desire to have a nice acro dominant tank is just so strong and I don’t want to give up yet. This really sucks though.

Man I know the pain when power goes out. Last winter our power was out for 3days and tank got down to 46. Lost all my coral and fish and had to restart. Just when you think your fully prepared your not. Sorry this happened to you. At least your not ready to call it quits.

 

[rushbattle]

It's just a somewhat cheap generator I got from Sears a few years ago when I was in a pinch, it works, and I typically just run my return pumps and heaters off of it. I borrowed some battery powered air pumps from a friend and they seem to be helping. I have been fishkeeping for fifteen years and why I don't own those, I have no idea. I thought with the generator and battery backup I would be covered. At this point I am just trying to save my clowns and my large Frontosa tank. I don't have much hope for my coral, my reef tank was down to 71.5 degrees this morning. I started the generator and it has been running and heating the tanks now for about three hours today.

If I ran about 350w (one of two heaters on each of my tanks) of heaters for say eight hours, does anyone know how many large 12v batteries I would actually need? I have no idea how to figure that out.

I am really quite mad at myself because I am a very proactive person and I thought I was prepared well enough. Power is still off, it has been 24 hours.

I wouldn’t run the heaters on battery power, will take too much juice.

I would see if you can find a knockoff inverter generator. Better quality power and they are quieter. Possibly could run at night, I did at my last house and the neighbors slept ~20ft away from it running all night. They said they could hear it but didn’t bother them and they have trouble sleeping. I’ll look for one if you are interested.

 

[CherBear811]

So, I wrote to Dr. Tim's and asked what is in these 3 products (I excluded One and Only as it's pretty clear those are nitrifying bacteria).

Just got this response:

All of those products contain bacteria.

Re-Fresh bacteria produce bacteriocins that inhibit the growth of cyano bacteria and certain algae and other organisms.
Eco-Balance bacteria are probiotics that bind to certain binding spots and prevent bad bacteria from binding to those spots - a process called competitive exclusion.
Waste-Away bacteria consume nitrates, phosphates and organics basically acting as a competitor to other bacteria and algae and starve them out.


Someone previously mentioned that they had success using one of them and then waste away after. Made me want to know more than the blurb you get in the product description. For what it's worth, they also attached their dino eradication instructions that essentially call for using Refresh in concert with a 3 day black out, then dosing Waste Away at the end; if the dinos come back, repeat. Note: they do have specific dosing instructions for especially the Waste Away, so if anyone is considering this method, I would write the company or tag me and I will see if I can attach it. I am moderately tech literate and functional but I have a horrible time with trying to do attachments on this site. Lol

 

[CherBear811]

So the power just came back on after 27.5 hours. My clowns seemed to have pulled through which is great. About 1/2 my acropora has rtn’d and I lost four of my six fish, including my two favourites my flame hawk and my yellow tang .

Not really sure what I am going to do from here. I’ll probably basically start over and leave the lights off for a few days, maybe change the aquascape a bit, maybe start removing sand. My desire to have a nice acro dominant tank is just so strong and I don’t want to give up yet. This really sucks though.

Oh man, I am so sorry to hear that. If you need any help on managing a power outage in winter for future planning, let me know. I have gotten my own tanks and several others through in such scenarios. Again, so sorry for your losses.