We've been without power for over 48 hours. It came up for about 30 minutes earlier, so I thought all was well - but it went right back out again, and has been out since then. . .
(posted another thread seeking advice on the other life-forms here - any help appreciated!)
The 3 tanks are in a room that is kept brightly lit from the windows. There is no direct light on the tanks - and of course the hood lights have been off for 2 days. My understanding is that during daylight hours, the plants photosynthesize - absorbing toxins/nutrients and releasing oxygen. At night, they stop the process of photosynthesize, and also stop releasing oxygen. . . but continue to respirate - thus removing oxygen from the water.
Obviously, with no power, I've been trying to figure out what my plants are doing in there - are they helping the situation, or making things harder? Could there be enough ambient daylight in the room to 'wake' the plants up and cause them to start photosynthesizing?
In this situation, are my plants adding oxygen or taking it away . . .and *if* the beneficial bacteria is dying off due to lack of oxygen, is the plant-life 'awake' enough to help absorb any toxins that might be present in a tank thrust into a new cycle?
I have one more random question to ask. . .
When the power came up for a brief time earlier today, I noticed that there was far more algae in my tank than there was before the power outage. I've been battling a mild infestation of black brush algae for a few weeks now, and had almost eradicated it except for a few bits of what I assumed to be the thread-like version of this type of algae. It looks like wispy little hairs, and was almost entirely gone, but for a few threads on the grassy plants closest to the top of the water (and the lights)
Somehow this algae has flourished and spread a ridiculous amount over the last 2 days - I've been doing very frequent small water changes, and the tank lights have been off.
Is it the lack of water circulation that has caused it to get so awful so quickly? I can't think of anything else it could be - but with such low light compared to normal? Please, someone! Explain this to me!
And THEN, I beg you, tell me how do I get rid of it?
Thanks always for any advice you can offer! I really appreciate the guidance!
If the tank is moderately planted it should be fine. Algae is likely due to nutrient imbalance from the lack of light. The plants themselves really don't pose any risk to the fish as far as O2 goes. I have let tanks sit stagnant with lights off for longer then two days and none of my tetras seemed bothered at all.
Thanks guys! I'm in Maryland, which is apparently a third-world country this week. We're on day 3 with no sort of time-frame on when the power will be restored.
Still baffled about the algae, though. . . why is it growing like crazy with such low light! Nitrate levels are all as normal, and phosphates are at 0. Hopefully it dies back when I get power back and things start to circulate again.
We've just gotten ahold of an ancient generator (it's owners got power back!) So I now have a filter running in each of the tanks, but that's it. The generator doesn't have enough power to run everything (lights, heater, bubbler) as well as the AC. I'll take what I can get at this point though, and hope the plants and fish pull through okay!
Another question: How long do you think plants can survive without light?
I have a 10g QT tank in my attic bedroom. I took the inhabitant out, as the water was getting too warm, so it's empty now, but there is almost no lighting up there, and the water is quite toasty. Should I just yank the plants out and bring them down into the other tanks, or will they be okay where they are. Hopefully we get power, like, right NOW and this can all be over, lol!
You can move them if you want. I have power here but current heat wave of 90-100 the last week and is suppose to continue. I can keep my room 80-82 with the little AC we have but tanks say hotter especially if I run the lights. I've been cycling frozen water bottles between the tanks and the freezer to try to cool them. Lights are off 2 days then on 1 day I have not had any issues. Vast majority of plants ship just fine 1st class or priority mail and thats 3-4 days no light. I've gotten some plants from overseas before too that was 6-8 days and they still survived.
If you have running water don't be afraid to do water changes. I did 70% yesterday after I ran the lights to cool the tank down from 84 to 78. Just when you do cold water changes try to run the filter to mix it and add the cold water back slowly. I use a hose and just run straight cold from the shower as just a little stream. Takes longer to refill then normal but doesn't freak out the fish.
Thanks, Mika! Thankfully, the 3 other tanks are keeping a fairly stable temperature - it's just the one upstairs that was getting way too hot. Since our 'master' bedroom is in the attic, without power temps get insanely high up there. I moved the one lonely frog out of that tank, now it's just the plants living there. I think I will bring them down, even though they'll do okay without light. Maybe I'll wait until tomorrow in the off-chance the power comes back on... I've been doing water changes throughout, anyway, just to keep waste/toxins down in the water, and to get oxygen into it. Not sure if it matters, but I was without ANY power or the internet for 48 hours, so I was being super cautious!
The newest update from the power company says that we could be out of power until the weekend, though they're hoping to have the majority of people back up by Thursday. Ug. THURSDAY! *cries*
Thanks for all the help and advice - I really appreciate it! :-D
well, my plants went about 3 weeks with just ambient light (long story), and while the duckweed all died (didn't really miss that) the java ferns didn't care, and the Vallisneria and amazon swords survived, though not as well as the java ferns.
Wow, sorry hear about your troubles over there!! with all those tanks it must be a veritable nightmare!
sheesh though I had it bad when I woke up to a power cut last friday, lasted all of about 15 minutes.. I was straight onto the power company, but by the time I had found the number to call, by using cellular data on my iPhone, which in my area is non existent the power had come back on... So scary. I couldn't imagine 48 hours plus.. without the internet... *wipes beads of sweat off of his furrowed brow at the thought of no internet connection....
Any casualties yet? can't believe the filters can be off for all that time with no detrimental effect. I thought Byron was telling someone the other day the the bacteria in the filter needs oxygen to survive so by leaving filters off for anything longer than a water change could endanger the bacteria, causing cycles to take effect. urghh.. what a nightmare.
Thanks, Simon. Nightmare, indeed! All else aside - 100f heat (umm almost 38C) with humidity high enough to slice with a knife has been a trial, to say the least. . . Would have been tough enough, but worse with two little girlies (just turned 2 and 5) who are way overtired because they can't sleep in the heat and just don't understand what's going on. But we're blessed, we still have running water, and I am SO happy that we've gotten a loan on this generator! At least we now have two rooms cool, filtration on the tanks, and the INTERNET (including vids that the girls can watch when all else fails!)
I've also read that having the filtration cut for any length of time can endanger the bacteria - and I'm glad that I had that information BEFORE losing power. I did small water changes as often as I could - going no more than 3 hours at a stretch, in the hopes that agitating the water surface would add much-needed oxygen to the water column, and remove any toxins that might be building up in there.
So far *knock on wood* it seems to have worked - there have been NO losses, and the fish and frogs seem to be coming though this with flying colors. Tanks tested perfectly today, but for the betta tank, which is still showing a low reading of nitrItes. Even with the filters on, I'm keeping up with small water changes (not as frequently, more on the betta tank, as I know things are off in there), as I know that things can nose-dive quickly when tanks get wobbly.
That said, obviously I'm feeling MUCH more comfortable with the whole situation now that I have filters going in the tanks, and access to information online (AND AIR CONDITIONING!!!) Glad to hear that YOUR outage was short and sweet! Hopefully our power will be up and running again soon - and all will remain well with the wet pets!
Thanks for the well-wishes! I'll keep you all posted as long as I am able - hopefully with good news and full power soon!
Just be optimistic and consider it training incase there is ever an apocalypse. rhymon78 I'm not sure about your chances
Filter bacteria actually survives a long time as long as it is kept wet and has oxygen. Another forum I use members actually ship mature filter media 3-4 days in the mail and it does just fine at consuming ammonia when it reaches its destination. Plants consume ammonia as well and will help keep the tanks from spiking.
BWA HA HA!!! Mikah - you crack me up! Thanks for the reassurance. I need it. . .
In case of apocalypse, you'll be rockin' it Tank Girl style (pun intended) while I starve stupidly to death tending a bowl full of fat, healthy fish, which I can't eat to save my own life because they have NAMES and I LOVE them!!! ;-)
Hopefully you can come and rescue both Simon and me, and we can save the world together!
I did NOT know that it was possible to actually MAIL filter media! Considering that there are bacteria-in-a-bottle products out there, I guess this makes sense. . . . but it's the lack of oxygen that poses a problem in a tank with no filtration, right? Though I suppose the same would be true in a mailing bag. Hmm. I might have to try an experiment on this at some point. Like when my power comes back on and I'm sure everything is okay in there!
We've just stepped into the beginning of day #4 without power. This is getting really old. . .
LOL That was a good movie! I fish would get eaten, half of them are little ***** that I both love and hate. The rest I am indifferent about lol. But honestly they would be safe for awhile cuz you have to eat all that fridge and freezer food before it goes bad:-?.
I'm just optimistic about everything. This sad excuse for a college town has a $200 fine for chasing squirrels, which is more then underage drinking. I'm convinced there must be a logical reason and that no one likes squirrels leaping out of garbage cans that much. I have concluded they are just letting them breed so when the apocalypse comes there will be loads of retarded squirrels for everyone.
I personally have little trust in bottled products. O2 is an issue and thats going to be extremely lacking in a bottle. However they don't really consume that much O2, especially if there is no food to be had. Metabolism slows and so does respiration. Mature media ships pretty well just via priority shipping. There is some loss but its not very significant unless shipping is slow. It can be lessened if you add a small amount fish food or ammonia to the bag. Sometimes when I have fish shipped in there will be a chunk of filter media in the bags with them.
In a tank with no filtration O2 will still diffuse into the water naturally. If this is fast enough to keep fish alive depends on everything from plants, to biomass, to surface area. I've personally let my 20 gallon high sit stagnant for a week with light, a medium bioload and tons of plants. The point was to see how long it could just sit there before things started going south. After the first week O2 was the problem, however if it had not been a soil substrate tank I would not of been surprised if it could of gone much longer.
Optimism is a good thing - Today I'm being optimistic because the power was restored across the street! HUZZAH! Sadly, they're on different lines than we are, but we MUST be getting close.
That was a cool experiment to do... I wonder how long things would have lasted WITHOUT the lights on? That's been one of my concerns, because without the tank lights, I don't know how well the plants are going to be able to absorb nutrients/toxins OR provide oxygen to the tank. But at least they should all be alive at the end of all this - like you said, they DO survive shipping very well. At least now I have filtration, and I really think we're reaching the end of this debacle. . . hoping, anyway! Of course then there's the problem of getting rid of all the algae that appeared during all of this *sigh* 's okay, though! We'll cross that bridge when we come to it
Yeah, I'm a dork and just totally dated myself, but the POINT is??! HUZZAH! My electricity is back ON!!! *DANCES* Almost 5 days to the minute - and it had BETTER not go out again or someone might find me babbling and drooling in the corner!
Thanks for all of the help over the last few days! *HUGS*
Yeah, I'm a dork and just totally dated myself, but the POINT is??! HUZZAH! My electricity is back ON!!! *DANCES* Almost 5 days to the minute - and it had BETTER not go out again or someone might find me babbling and drooling in the corner!
Thanks for all of the help over the last few days! *HUGS*
Lol! All you BABIES around here don't remember He-Man! He was the coolest thing in the 80's. (Simon, you're from another country, so you're off the hook. I 'dated' myself by even knowing who He-Man is, lol!) *luffs babies*
I was born before He-man, but not by much. By the time I can remember watching cartoons, the "in thing" was TMNT and X-Men. He-man, GI Joe, and Transformers were on the decline.
I know who He-Man is! Used to love that cartoon when I was a kid, I had all the action figures. I also knew what you meant by dating yourself, just my sense of humour, the double meaning.... Glad you got light, I could not go that long without the Internet I would have crumbled... Posted via Mobile Device
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