Would you kill your fish during an emergency to save your tank?

[RamsReef]

I just saw this
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...-power-hurricane-maria-in-puerto-rico.336851/
amazing thread and I got to wondering...

During an emergency / prolonged outage, would you be willing to kill your fish to keep your nutrients / toxins lower to save your tank?

 

[coil1002]

Yes if all was that bleak and I figure they would die any way. That is why I own a generator and a huge solar back up for the tank and house. Solar by day generator at night if the battery bank does not last till morning.

 

[Palyzoa]

I would relocate them to buckets with prime and battery operated air pumps. That should increase everyones odds considerably.

 

[flsalty]

Living in a hurricane area, I have protocols in place to try and save everything. That includes the dozen cats I brought inside for Irma lol.

 

[Waters]

I agree with Palyzoa...I would remove them and place into buckets if possible.

 

[mort]

Which toxins or nutrients are you thinking of?

Tanks can cope with increases of nitrate well and need only low flow to deal with most of the other things your fish will produce. It's not just fish that need oxygen and even without them you will still need basic flow and heating for the tank to live. You also need to consider that if you are in an area where power is likely to fail, you should have a back up plan or stock appropriately.

 

[RamsReef]

Which toxins or nutrients are you thinking of?

Tanks can cope with increases of nitrate well and need only low flow to deal with most of the other things your fish will produce. It's not just fish that need oxygen and even without them you will still need basic flow and heating for the tank to live. You also need to consider that if you are in an area where power is likely to fail, you should have a back up plan or stock appropriately.

Yes I understand that and a lot of great posts above.

Im talking end of the line here, your battery backups are almost gone, etc, etc.

Prime only goes so far until ph drops due to no circ / air.

Like I said all great ideas.

Hard decission of course, but I'm about mental preperation as well, not just equipment.

Also in my climate buckets would probably cool off to much, I would need to wrap my tank in insulation quickly...

 

[ReefJake123]

I would try to relocate the fish into a bucket and buy a generator I have one just in case even though I rarely need it in Illinois

 

[danreefman]

I was asking myself this question yesterday. Well not the same exact question. I was torn weather I'd keep my generator for my tank, or just pray for the tank, and maybe go find someone or peoples that need my effort and generator more than My tank and I. Than I thought I should have two generators. One to help and on for home.

I really like my tank. But I think we prioritize our tanks to much. I have no problems killing a fish. Especially if it is suffering. Or if I caught a keeper.

Tanks, fish, and things are totally replaceable!!

 

[samnaz]

No... I️ wouldn’t let it come to that.

 

[miyags]

I'd rather save my fish.People spend ridiculous amounts of money on corals,even mushrooms. And won't spend 300 hundred on a cheap generator.

 

[brandon429]

The unrinsed sandbed that 88% of the hobby holds dearly to is the greatest liability in a struggling reef even above the fish loading. It is out of the order of operations triage to have anything but bare bottom or 100% cloudless sand due to perfect rinsing/cleaning if an oxygen event is expected

Regarding the building nutrients and nitrogenous waste agree fish are biggest liability, but a typical reef sandbed is the biggest oxygen sink and consumer

 

[mort]

Yes I understand that and a lot of great posts above.

Im talking end of the line here, your battery backups are almost gone, etc, etc.

Prime only goes so far until ph drops due to no circ / air.

Like I said all great ideas.

Hard decission of course, but I'm about mental preperation as well, not just equipment.

Also in my climate buckets would probably cool off to much, I would need to wrap my tank in insulation quickly...

On the flip side I'd rather take the corals out and devote whatever energy I had into keeping the fish alive. They can cope with a bigger ph drop and corals should be fine in sealed bags for much longer than a fish would ime. I've had corals take 3 days to reach me and they were in a much better condition than the fish that were with them. You can also frag corals to reduce their needs which is harder to do with fish.

It would be interesting if our decision was determined by if we prefer corals or fish. I'm a fish guy and whilst I like corals I'd always try and save the fish first.

 

[TheHarold]

No... I️ wouldn’t let it come to that.

Update your phone xD

 

[RamsReef]

On the flip side I'd rather take the corals out and devote whatever energy I had into keeping the fish alive. They can cope with a bigger ph drop and corals should be fine in sealed bags for much longer than a fish would ime. I've had corals take 3 days to reach me and they were in a much better condition than the fish that were with them. You can also frag corals to reduce their needs which is harder to do with fish.

It would be interesting if our decision was determined by if we prefer corals or fish. I'm a fish guy and whilst I like corals I'd always try and save the fish first.

Like this answer.

But corals just need light. I could not feed a tank, provided I can supply 200 w or so of led power I can sustain them nostly.

 

[MapleReef]

I think by being responsible and having enough fail safes it shouldn’t have to come to that. Personally I wouldn’t be able to do it.

 

[Radman73]

I'm doing my best to prepare for saving everything. I have a generator, we're installing solar. Next will be a battery system so that the solar will work during the day in case of a power outage. Marine batteries and battery keepers are fairly cheap insurance too and can run days on a charge. I have a chiller too. My end goal is to be able to support the tank off grid for at least 30 days. If a power outage lasts longer than that in central Fl then I might have bigger problems. I have a ways to go to get there though.

I think if push came to shove, I consider my fish more "animal" and the coral more "plant" so I would try to save the fish over the corals. But hey, why not plan for saving both?

 

[Palyzoa]

Yes I understand that and a lot of great posts above.

Im talking end of the line here, your battery backups are almost gone, etc, etc.

Prime only goes so far until ph drops due to no circ / air.

Like I said all great ideas.

Hard decission of course, but I'm about mental preperation as well, not just equipment.

Also in my climate buckets would probably cool off to much, I would need to wrap my tank in insulation quickly...

If all my back ups were failing I would then opt for a straw and start blowing bubbles! Haha all joking aside, I try to be prepared with back ups for my back ups.
Question, if all else failed, would manually stirring the water with a turkey baster or simply scooping and re dumping water into the aquarium or buckets be sufficient for air exchange?

I wouldn’t want any of my fish to suffer, so I suppose keeping some clove oil on hand is always a good idea, as a last resort effort to avoid suffering of live stock.

 

[SDReefer]

would manually stirring the water with a turkey baster or simply scooping and re dumping water into the aquarium or buckets be sufficient for air exchange?

It would work for a short-term solution, but not for long. You would definitely get some gas exchange if you used a bucket.

 

[mort]

Like this answer.

But corals just need light. I could not feed a tank, provided I can supply 200 w or so of led power I can sustain them nostly.

With 200w you could run most or all of the life support, whereas lighting would be the least of my priorities. Corals would cope with days of darkness without much difficulty but flow is far more important and that would benefit the fish and keep the tank healthy. I'm lucky to live in an area which isn't prone to long blackouts so maybe my thinking around them is a little different as its hard to imagine losing power for more than a day. My opinion would probably change if that wasn't the case.