How is everyone's tank?

[Baggerhog]

Did you and Scott get that generator from Sams Club? If so its the same one I have and it was great. I did not try and run as much stuff as you guys did. How long did a tank of gas last you with all of that running? Just Curious I went through about 10 gallons of gas for a 26 hour period.

[Todd W.]

Well no power since Sunday.... I have been rotating 2 car batteries using a 140W power converter for my 46 gallon.  The converter runs a very small 25watt heater and a power head with rotating wave maker that I have placed an air line in to suck and infuse air into the water.  So far everyone is still alive as I have covered the tank with blankets to keep everyone alive.  All the softies that I have, have gone dormant.

QUESTION... should I continue to cover the tank for warmth retention or move to a window to get some natural sunlight for the corals??

ANY opinion would help....

[slandis3]

i would just keep it covered. Moving it may stress out everything worse than it is now. If you need a bigger inverter meijers in troy has 410w continous for $50. I wish you guys and gals without power the best of luck. My work is closed again today so i will be home if someone needs my help   we have some extra room here in our tank if you want to bring us some stuff.

[JoeAyers]

I have an extra 750w APS if anyone has batteries they can use and I have about 40 gallons of saltwater if anyone needs it bad enough to drive to cincinnati to get it.

[mrs. justcoral]

Did you and Scott get that generator from Sams Club? If so its the same one I have and it was great. I did not try and run as much stuff as you guys did. How long did a tank of gas last you with all of that running? Just Curious I went through about 10 gallons of gas for a 26 hour period.

Last night, we only had the tanks, the alarm system and one light on and it went through 5 gallons in 14.5 hours. We haven't really payed attention during the day when we have all the other stuff on but I can tell you that we are tired of driving over 30 minutes to find a gas station that has power AND gas! And then they only take cash! Ugh!

[mrs. justcoral]

we got it at a lowes in troy. It was the closest place to us that still had any generators. It's a Coleman.

[Amstar]

I have a coleman 5500 I am running a big screen tv, dvd player, a fan, the fridge, a heater, return pump and light on the sump and I am going through 6 gallons a gas every 14 hours.. not bad. 

on the side note.  If I have the capability should I turn on the metal halides for a few hours to give the coral some light?  the tank has been in the dark since sunday at 1pm.

[mrs. justcoral]

It is good to run some light. This will keep your coral from fading and healthy. We are running a halide on each of our coral systems with our generator.

Scott 

[Todd W.]

Whew....

Former neighbors in Enon are loaning us their generator.... When I get home I will have to check it out, not sure what size it is.  Thank goodness my wife was visiting them for lunch when she asked...

[larrynews]

my power just came back on i lost 3 fish in my fish only the first night..my fault but the 125 reef seems to have made it...48 hours to the minute almost..bought a 100w generator back in the winter when i thought we were going to have an ice storm...best thing i ever did

[jjw2121]

What a night last night.  I drove 2 hours to Indiana to buy a generator to make sure my tank would make it.  I was told we would not get power until Sunday.  I was halfway there and got a call that the power was restored.  I still bought the 5550 watt generator for another emergency.  All my fish and coral made it.  I guess my tank was better than I thought. LOL

[slandis3]

has anyone heard from verper or reefed up? I havent seen them post anything in a while.

[MSUJenn]

Nikki and Will came over to my house last night. She was using a generator on her tank (I belive it was Scott's, so he must have power back). I gave her my battery airstones for the frag tank. It sounded like her tanks were doing okay, but they had bigger problems to worry about, with the tree down in their front yard, and DP&L said they wouldn't have power back for a week, so she might not be on for awhile.

[Midwest Express]

I wish there was something I could do to help since I never lost power at all, but with the crash of my 125... only thing I have established is my 14 gal biocube.  It hold the only fish that made it out of the 125 alive.  My 3.5 in tomato clown.  He looks crazy huge in there.

Sorry guys and hope all get through this as best that be done!

This thread makes me glad that I joined this forum and make me sure of wanting to gain membership to the group!

[Revaltion131]

I hadn't even thought about airation the first night our power was out, and I lost my little cherub angel overnight, after my fairy decided to jump despite the lid on Saturday morning.  We were able to rig a little converter and set up an airstone and my clown and gobies made it.  The anemone that's been hiding in the back corner of the tank starting moving towards the light, and I was worried he'd move all the way across the tank and sting every last coral on his way.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  The only casualty was the angel and the return pump that we must have shorted out trying to plug into a converter.  The tank is small enough to wrap in sleeping bags, so we did that, but the temp was down around 74, when I normally keep it at 81-82.  We tried to get a generator last night, made all the way to Indy, but no one had one.  I'm certain we'll try to get one when people have them back in stock, just to have.  I do have one positive, the time without lights looks like it's taken care of the cyano problem that was starting to come up.   

I'm glad it sounds like most people made it out alright.  I was worried about Joel's shop and customers because I know Centerville and Bellbrook got pretty messed up on the power front. 

[bigray]

 I have lost 2 fish and the others are not looking so hot. The coral are all closed up. I not even sure when the power is even going to be restored. I would just like to thank Dodd at ndr once again for helping me out. I am so sorry to hear about everybodys loses. I wish everybody the best and am so happy to see how all the members are helping each other, What a club!!!!!!!!!

[Jon in SW Ohio]

.......................

Well I left for Houston on Saturday to help clean up after Ike and got the call on Sunday that power had gone out. I left my tanks in the hands of my mom who can follow directions very well for top ups and basic stuff but I was not prepared for a week long power outage. I'm still down in the Houston/Galveston area and got the call today from my mom that power is still not on. I asked her to go and check the temperature on the tank and she said it's at 64....but it smells really bad and is getting cloudy. I feel pretty helpless and just told her to keep an eye on the skimmer cup once the power comes back on because it's probably gonna fill up pretty quick. I'm gonna be down here for a least another week or two if not longer and I just hope something stays alive long enough for me to see it when I get back. If I come home to a dead tank I think I'm done with the hobby for good.

[Todd W.]

Update on my tank...

Hooked the generator up yesterday at about 4:30PM, had to heat water to warm up the refuge on propane stove... The main tank was staying at the coldest 75, nominally at 77 and the fuge was down to 65.

Turned everything on following bring the fuge temp up to 75 and everyone is alive and kicking including the bowtie damselt that I temporarily banished to the fuge... tough little bugger...

Lessons learned that saved my butt...

Airiation - hooked a airline into the bottom of a maxijet 1200 with a rotaing wave maker makes lots of bubbles....
Heat - I have a 25watt heater designed for a nano -
2 car batteries - rotate every 12 hours, took the extra to be charged at brother-in-laws house
power converter - 140W runs the pump and heater
blankets to wrap the tank and fuge in

I did the above for 48 hours and everyone lived.  I will keep doing the same at night when we will turn the generator off to save gas and it is REALLY noisy.

We plan on hooking the generator into the house electric tonight when we have more time.

Believe it or not during the 48 hours the tank was in complete darkness the green hair algae grew!

Anyone have a decent skimmer for sale?  I have needed to upgrade and am almost positive a decent skimmer would do the trick....

[ohioreef]

We plan on hooking the generator into the house electric tonight when we have more time.

How are you planning on connecting into the house? You need to make sure you isolate the circuits connected to the generator from the main grid. Flipping the main breaker is the easiest way.

[mrs. justcoral]

Our power is back on!!!! YAY! Hopefully it stays on! It's a good thing too because our CO detector went off last night. Somehow the fumes from the generator were getting into our house! If you are using a generator, make sure you have a CO detector in your bedroom or close by!!!

[Todd W.]

How are you planning on connecting into the house? You need to make sure you isolate the circuits connected to the generator from the main grid. Flipping the main breaker is the easiest way.

Thanks for the concern, there has already been one death in Ohio from a generator....

Yep, I have an electrician in the family (father...retired from GM) who will be helping me.  I do all my own electrical wiring thanks to the hands on education that he gave me...

Things could get ugly if you don't disconnect from the grid 

[Revaltion131]

Our power is back on!!!! YAY! Hopefully it stays on! It's a good thing too because our CO detector went off last night. Somehow the fumes from the generator were getting into our house! If you are using a generator, make sure you have a CO detector in your bedroom or close by!!!

Definitly!  Also, if you're running a converter that requires your car to be running, and the car is in the garage, make sure you leave the garage door open so you don't have CO2 problems.

[JoeAyers]

68+ hours. Battery is starting to get low. I'm running a tunze only now to conserve. We are hearing rumors that our area will not be back on until Saturday at the earliest.

Got to throw a big thanks to Andy for making sure I got the last available room at his hotel. No power, no hot water and a 6 month old doesn't mix too well.

[Revaltion131]

If you can't get your battery charged, we have a couple lawn mower batteries that we may be able to loan you.

[rmstevensiii]

Update:

Monday, I was busy cleaning up the yard and trying to make sure that my local family and friends, my team (based in Cincy) and my extended team members (in the Houston area) were ok, so I didn't get to the tank till late.  By the time I got to it, I wasn't sure that anything could be saved.   1 tank was down to 70 degrees and the other was at about 68.  I pulled out my dead fish, and connected a battery and inverter to 1 PH for circulation on the 75.  The only fish I found alive were the clowns and the LMB.  The Tang, Mandarin, Alleni, Neon Dotty, and 6-Line were all gone.  The sand bed was covered in, what I thought were dead, pods, brittle stars, and bristle worms.  I sat down, in shock, and posted to the forum, what I thought was a total loss.  I was seriously contemplating draining the tanks (before they started to stink), and taking a break from the hobby or finding a hobby which didn't require a full blown life support system on standby! 

After posting, I rec'd a PM from Dodd (NDR) informing me that he had an empty 180 that I could use to store any surviving coral in and and hope for the best.  So yesterday, I rushed home, pulled out and bagged all of the large SPS pieces and took them up to his shop.  I'm still not sure what to expect, but I have my fingers crossed.  At his suggestion, I also began floating bottles of hot water in the tank to try and bring the temp back up into the mid 70's.  Not too long after I floated my first bottle, the power came back online, and I was able to fire up the heaters and PH's for both tanks.  Today, I'm planning to top off the 75 with freshly mixed water, and plan for large water change in a few days, and weekly for a while, to dilute any toxins released by the decay.  I'll be testing the water today, and daily, to keep an eye on the parameters and hopefully avoid a major cycle. 

The 29 is in about the same shape.  Warmed it up slowly, and hoping for the best.  Most of the Anthelia appears to be dead (which is OK by me) but some survived.  The GSP and other soft stuff also appear to be ok.  I'm planning to run thru the same water change cycle on this tank and hope for the best. 

I'd like to thanks Dodd and everyone else who offered space in there tanks to help me out in a time of need.  I really do appreciate it!!

Maybe, just maybe, I dodged a bullet on this one. 

RIP: 
Lg Yellow Tang (2/2004 - 9/2008)
Green Mandarin (3/2006 - 9/2008)
Alleni Damsel (9/2008 - 9/2008 ... added 9/12!)
Lg Neon Dottyback (1/2004 - 9/2008)
6-Line Wrasse (1/2008)
Coral Banded Shrimp (2/2004 - 9/2008)

Surviving:
2 False Percs
LMB
2 Stars (brittle and sand sifting)
Most of my snails and hermit crabs

Mitch