Power outage

[Waters]

I lost power over the weekend for about 10 hours. Unfortunately the tank is in the basement and it was roughly 5 degrees outside. The tank temp dropped to the low to mid 60s for about 7 hours. The three coral (Torch, Duncan, Frogspawn) all seemed to open back up normally once the temp returned to normal. All of the inverts (snails, crabs, shrimp, starfish) do not seem to be affected either. Will there be any long term damage to any of the livestock being at temperatures that low or are they all pretty resilient? I think I am headed out to Home Depot to pick up a small generator :-(

 

[Mike J.]

Only time will tell. Saltwater critters can handle a lower temp better than a high temp change.

 

[vlangel]

I don't think you will have any residual affects from lower temperature. In December my tank experienced a controller malfunction and in the middle of the night it kicked the chiller on. Luckily my husband woke up and noticed the chiller was running so I investigated right away. My tank was down to 50 degrees and the fish I could see were lifelessly swirling on the sand. I began half gallon warm WCs over a 3 hour period. Amazingly all my coral, (even a crocea clam) and inverts survived and 4 of my 7 fish and no residual affects.

 

[Waters]

Ok, that is good to know. Fortunately I don't have any fish at the moment so my main concern was the coral/inverts. Once the power came back on I brought it back up to 79 over a 2 hour period using a couple extra heaters.

 

[ithk21620]

I had a controller malfunction too and my tank was in the 60's when it was noticed and the only things that took a hit were the SPS. Everything else was fine. The SPS bleached out but since has come around so I don't think you will have an issue but like Mike said, only time will tell.

 

[bearjohnson]

Time will tell as previously stated but if all seems fine then I think your chances are pretty good that everything will be fine.