Reef Tank CPR - power outage biology, crash arrest, and recovery

[brandon429]

Team

Don‘t add bottled bacteria to the display during crash arrest as the cycle bacteria aren’t killed in still water. There are times where bottled bacteria can lower ammonia in fish holding containers especially if travel or transport is occurring, but by rinsing these displays out vs dosing them we will create and sustain the cleanest water and most regenerative condition.

Hold off on feeding until warmth and power and cleaning can be restored


your cycles are still intact. Rip clean the system to remove waste sinks when power is back on, begin anew, drop your lighting intensity way down for two weeks, feed well. Change water routinely on the ramp phase to export new micro losses.

do not toss your live rock much of it will live


preps for when power is back on:


**you must not start the new reef over your old sand** the sand must be 100% skip cycle cleaned and then put back. You must rinse your old sand (or new sand if you buy some) in tap water for hours literally, until it’s cloudless. Final rinse is with RO water, sand can be reused or used new now. You must tap rinse any sand you are about to use in the fixed tank. This seems crazy but it’s not, it’s life and death for your investment. We are ridding your system of excess bacteria for a reason in this post.

Keep corals and try to bring them back under much reduced lighting after the rip clean.

my tank ran at 68 for two months because I didn’t own a temp gauge in a reef lol (heater out) it’s back now from total bleaching. Lots of what you think might be total loss is not. Rebuild when possible and update us, post fix jobs right here for reworks


****in no way has your filtration bacteria been killed, they’ve been slightly bothered it was the macro life that overwhelmed them upon loss*****
your pods will survive. Nearly all live rock animals are insulated inside. Do not toss rocks, those hearts can be used to skip cycle into the fixed reef upon power restoration

your filter bac are being smothered by dead mass so the rip clean resets the tank, re exposes bacteria to oxygen and wastewater from very high surface area live rock. We need it flushed out though so it’s back flushed and back into action.


once cleaned off, all the live rocks here will still have their bacteria in place do not use bottled bacteria these systems are already oxygen-challenged. Biofilms have insulated all your cycling bacteria just fine.

the basis for the recommend comes from here below, we work with distressed reefs using similar action sets

When to lower light intensity as a reef tank CPR move

Team, you need to know that being able to revert back to cloudy day/low lighting is the #1 thing you do as tank CPR before any other action. Water charges come after Preventing light sunburn is #1 temperature insults cold and hot. chemical burns, overdoses. events where you think ammonia...

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A week without power - Recoverable?

So, tank went without power for a week following hurricane Ida. There was no flow(obviously) and temps hit 85-86 during the day. I came back to the city to rescue my 2 clowns who are currently living in a 5 gallon bucket with a bubbler. Basically my question is: what are my options from here...

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[brandon429]

10/25/21 non power outage crash intercept tracing

Tank crash! How to stop it?

I have a tank that is in the middle of crashing. What do I do with the rock and coral? Do I take it out? Leave it in? How do I stop the crash? I’ve moved several pieces that made it through the first couple days. My fish are all okay but all corals are dying. Sps is all gone. My gsp actually...

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while away on vacation, pump malfunction crash in a large system we can’t just rip clean to cheat win. It’ll have to be guided with some of the challenge water present as large tanks often require. Outcome, tbd it’s a fresh job as of today so I moved it to our crash arrest thread

What we are tracing here for future use is the weighted choice large tankers must make between rip cleans which 100% stop the issue, or partial water changes bringing down toxicity and they ride it out and guide the water, not the entire system at once, back into compliance.

for example, nobody with a 560 gallon reef is thinking: let me rip clean that...

they're going to focus more on guiding a body of water back into compliance while managing clouding, coral and fish food ongoing daily needs, cyano and gha risks in the future

comparatively, a 20 gallon nano would rip clean and be fixed in two hours. nano tankers are spoiled on access, large tankers get to choose among all the best fish with the # of gallons they employ.


the threshold I'll recommend there is any further peeling of tissue or obvious recession on current corals, many of which are now back to open, which helps ensure he did change enough water. if that tank looks to be set back again soon, rip clean it. attaining 130 gallons of water = large tankers problems lol that's mean and dismissive from a guy with a fishbowl reef. I get no fish.

He reacted very well, had already dropped light levels before he even posted. he had the carbon filtration handy, he did really the best reactions to guide a body of water back into compliance so let's track it.

 

[brandon429]

**Notice in crash arrest / help threads, the keeper selects from a random set of offers among posts

it sounds mean, but someone who crashed by unknown means isn't qualified to assess how to undo it; the right way to rehab a reef tank is to give the procedure over to someone remotely. If you are reading this thread, don't cherry pick what seems like best practices and apply it to your tank



offer the full control of the tank here for rework, or if there's another crash recovery thread you would like to sample please link that and we'll follow it just the same.


this thread is for honing the best practices to save and prevent crashes

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I will give this a nudge. Not sure how I feel about it yet. Trying to catch a fish that just went through large temperature swings seems like a bad idea.

 

[Jeepguy242]

With as much money as some people spend on their tanks I’m surprised that many people don’t have a 400$ generator from harbor freight.
Not only can that 400$ generator run your tank it will also run your fridge some lights and a tv.
I’ve spent more that the cost of the generator at the aquarium shop in just one trip.

 

[brandon429]

Neon well said.

every keeper has their artists eye trained on the tank, only do the relocation right when full crash is inevitable. Support the main tank until you are internally motivated to act surgically.


even trying to catch a fish and causing a storm at this time can wreak havoc but so can riding out the crash to the very end. Choose the intervention point, then be 100% deliberate.

Leave the main reef in place with water till this power issue resolves and when rip cleaned, 100% of reefs here will be able to begin without recycling.

*some may require light curing, but a rip clean helps there by removing dead attachments. No rock here is going to take any longer than a set of KP aquatics rock takes to allow a new start.


*heating and circulating a tote might be easier than the whole reef at some point.



Team we must NOT be adding bottle bac to any of these systems it is 100% contraindicated

nobody here is lacking bacteria, so we’d add none. We are lacking oxygen so we would not add sixteen million new aerobes we would export and refresh, physical reef CPR

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

With as much money as some people spend on their tanks I’m surprised that many people don’t have a 400$ generator from harbor freight.
Not only can that 400$ generator run your tank it will also run your fridge some lights and a tv.
I’ve spent more that the cost of the generator at the aquarium shop in just one trip.

The last major snow storm in texas was like 30 something years ago. You are surprised that people don't plan for a once in 30 year event?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Neon well said.

every keeper has their artists eye trained on the tank, only do the relocation right when full crash is inevitable. Support the main tank until you are internally motivated to act surgically.


even trying to catch a fish and causing a storm at this time can wreak havoc but so can riding out the crash to the very end. Choose the intervention point, then be 100% deliberate.

Leave the main reef in place with water till this power issue resolves and when rip cleaned, 100% of reefs here will be able to begin without recycling.

*some may require light curing, but a rip clean helps there by removing dead attachments. No rock here is going to take any longer than a set of KP aquatics rock takes to allow a new start.


*heating and circulating a tote might be easier than the whole reef at some point.



Team we must NOT be adding bottle bac to any of these systems it is 100% contraindicated

nobody here is lacking bacteria, so we’d add none. We are lacking oxygen so we would not add sixteen million new aerobes we would export and refresh, physical reef CPR

Interesting point about tank size. People often suggest larger tank sizes withstand power outages far better than nanos/picos but once the tank temperature does drop, its far easier to keep a 1G jar warm than a 120G system. Hell, I can stick my reef jar under my shirt if I start losing heat in the house.

So the idea is essentially to reduce water volume to easier manage heating/cooling, clear out the dead/dying junk in the tank and reset? Still would be concerned about that intervention point!

 

[brandon429]

Yes for sure thats it. If my temps get so bad in home I’ll just cart my pico up to work they’re on industrial generators.

even my little amazon Westinghouse is only as helpful as a tetra preset heater at 78 can produce as the surrounding temps drop. At some point my whole reef will be intervened to twenty blocks away because even with side power it can’t overcome the house.


It is very important that water is moved in these challenged reefs but not any form of detritus casting or clouding from sand if at all possible. If any readers here have a setup such that adding back heated water or bubbling is clearly causing clouding then consider the tote move + a few chunks of live rock to run it now, before total loss.

 

[brandon429]

In my opinion the final clue for tote intercept is any form of deep clouding change thats the harbinger.

if overall large-scope work on the main tank isn’t stopping clouding, fish markedly breathing at the top, that’s pre crash and must be intercepted.

*Now is the time accurate surface area science can be used to slow losses= we do not need more than a few pounds of live rock in a tote to run many fish, the rule of active surface area is about to become handy in tank cpr.

packing in live rock only decreases oxygen availability.

we want a few chunks of very clean live rock in the tote to run the temporary setup, we don’t load the tote with surface area because we never needed it all in the first place and its a huge smelly liability during tank crash interceptions.


Team, the placement of your fish and micro inverts, snails, brittle stars is a *highly* accurate o2 indicator as 99.9999% of reefers do not own oxygen test kits Ive never seen one before either.

when distribution in tank is top to bottom of your animals that’s good sign


when they all gravitate upwards as migration that’s aerotaxis and a hint that we need the tote setup ready. Their holdings will immediately change from high organic retention and rot and mega triple high surface area oxygen demand and very tall tank tough for o2 to penetrate to: not that. A tote is opposite in every way so animals get more oxygen more heat less rot compounds less ammonia cascading, it’s all linked to container shape and timely intercept.


Before anything goes back in the proper reef we need that reef rip cleaned.


Here's 300 rip clean examples

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

and for those who don’t, your stuff still might be fine stacked back on the old sand I’m aware. You will never, ever ever want to disturb that bed though it’ll nuke the whole reef, sign up here for a rip cleaning live time custom run. You‘ll get 4x the cyano and coming months as a normal tank and our rip cleans will be running sharp, bright, unplugged, healthy, ready for round 2.

we will be able to disturb the bed harmlessly. If another power outage happens, these tanks will always live longer under duress than a common pent up waste reef tank.

re ramp all lights back down to low level per here

When to lower light intensity as a reef tank CPR move

Team, you need to know that being able to revert back to cloudy day/low lighting is the #1 thing you do as tank CPR before any other action. Water charges come after Preventing light sunburn is #1 temperature insults cold and hot. chemical burns, overdoses. events where you think ammonia...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jeepguy242]

The last major snow storm in texas was like 30 something years ago. You are surprised that people don't plan for a once in 30 year event?

Generators work after hurricanes too. How many hurricanes have you had?
I’m from FL and moved to NC
My generators have worked in both states for different reasons

 

[brandon429]

I’m most interested in the biological side. Our hobby has such diametrically opposing views on cycling, but time for quick alignment. The basic rules apply universally and we can use those in time for many reefs here I’m certain.

all former posts on rip cleaning, stalled cycles, recovery events, eutrophication vs oligotrophic settings have now converged with thousands of bucks of life on the line. We have no other cpr flows to reference so we better make one, live time, during.

I honestly think many tanks here even with backup gens outside will still be distressed or lost, these tank heaters aren’t meant for 22 degrees ambient.

 

[iMi]

Interesting topic. Thinking about it, I am not sure where I stand. On the one hand, you cannot overdose bacteria. Period. Adding bottled one will help consume the nutrient built up, but that could actually a problem in this case.

Unless you can sustain that bacterial population, it will collapse. If so, nutrients will likely spike sharply at that point before the bacterias recover. Anything happening quickly is usually bad in the aquarium setting and given already tough circumstances could make an exponentially bigger mess. So, I would agree. Let the bacteria and nutrients balance out naturally. It's certainly still there.

What about using something like prime that will make the ammonia/nitrite less toxic but not remove it, so the cycle can recover?

 

[brandon429]

Disagreed fully but appreciate the bump


heres our source material, accepting any counter links of the same. Sans link I’ll recommend to not veer from stated course. We did fifty pages of no bottle bac just for this day.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Eric R.]

Generators work after hurricanes too. How many hurricanes have you had?
I’m from FL and moved to NC
My generators have worked in both states for different reasons

Some folks had generators and still had tank crashes. When your house is 40 degrees for 3 days and your generator can't run your house's heater, there's only so much a tank heater can do.

 

[rhostam]

The last major snow storm in texas was like 30 something years ago. You are surprised that people don't plan for a once in 30 year event?

It's quite clear they were pointing out an obvious flaw in how [some?] people view this "hobby." The fact is we're responsible for the lives of the creatures we bring into our home. We can't plan for every occurrence, of course. And, heck, many of my friends and family in Texas can't even keep themselves warm. But a 400$ generator? Seems like a worthy investment regardless of whether your a hobbyist or need to make up for utility failures. We should talk about how to recover from a crash, of course, but we can also talk about mitigative steps. These creatures don't have options for escaping the environment we build for them.

I've lived in central Texas for half of my life and I can tell you I've experienced more power outages over my lifetime than I ever have here in Denver. So it doesn't have to be just about "once-in-30-year-snow-ice" events. Power disruptions can be caused by stressed grids from heat waves, people driving into poles (something I've witnessed), and a host of other causes.

 

[brandon429]

@LadyTang2

tank rescue methods are being critiqued in another thread, let’s collect replacement ideas here.


what are your listed steps to slow or stop power loss reef crashes related to power loss and external temp losses?

we believe light intensity modulation vs full constant power is an integral step in saving tanks in the very first link posted in first post above, would you agree?

we need something actionable here so if readers have a challenge tank they get some creative ideas and repeatable steps.

Please list a few work steps to preserve life and lessen loss unique to temps and power outages, this thread is supposed to be a repository for actions that can be used to help reefs in distress.

 

[brandon429]

Team


this was designed to be a working tank hospital thread, live time works. If there are any challenged tanks to consider these preps then post and we can get input from multiple tank owners on best plans

look how a large TX reef was insulated with styrofoam here

Power outage - what would you do?

Its not a shed, its a native plant grow out greenhouse

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Gup]

With as much money as some people spend on their tanks I’m surprised that many people don’t have a 400$ generator from harbor freight.
Not only can that 400$ generator run your tank it will also run your fridge some lights and a tv.
I’ve spent more that the cost of the generator at the aquarium shop in just one trip.

I would say the point it's not only valid but extremely sensible. I have nearly $2,000 tied up in my system. Just thinking about a generator is it going to get it done for me. I've got to go out and get one, as soon as I heal up. I've lost too many animals in this recent crash because I couldn't take care of things. I sure as heck do not want to lose anything because of a power outage

I'm going to look up Harbor Freight right now

 

[brandon429]

Help after tank crash w/ uncalibrated ph probe

Well, I crashed my tank. I accidentally went too long without calibrating my PH probe and when it started to show me a Ph of 9.9 i didnt even think to recalibrate (doh!). dumped in what would've been an appropriate amount of white vinegar if the probe had been accurate, and bam, everything...

www.reef2reef.com