10 Days without power - HELP!!!

[kdluhy]

I live in Western New York and jsut suffered the largest snow storm in history that left me 10 days without electric power. My 125g reef tank has been destroyed after 4 years of meticulous care. The smell is out of this world. I'm open to any suggestions, ideas, etc.

P.S. Power outages are not common in WNY. I have never lost power in the past 30 years!!!

 

[FB]

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry bout the loss. I am not sure what you want suggestions about.

 

[kdluhy]

I'm trying to get rid of the smell quickly - I'm doing daily water changes with carbon. Any other ideas? I realize I will need to be cautious about when to restock.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, terrible loss. I wish I had know earlier, I would have offered to keep your animals & rock for a couple weeks.

After 10 days without power I think you're looking at a total loss. I woudn't even keep the rock or sand.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Guy. I tried to reuse rock after a similar incident. It grew a lot of algae. I figure all the worms, bacteria, etc that were in the rock gave off the nutrients necessary for a great algae monster.

 

[Len]

kdluhy,

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. What organisms did you lose (trying to get a magnitude to determine salvagibility)?

I know it's probably not what you want to hear, but I agree with the others about ditching the existing rock and substrate.

 

[bleedingthought]

If you can salvage it, you would need to get all the dead/decaying matter out, which might be hard considering small organisms.

Really sorry to hear it!

 

[SnowManSnow]

 

[kdluhy]

Thanks for all the replies. I agree with most of you to repalce everything but it's very hard to just throw out 200lbs. of rock. :x

 

[Anonymous]

You could take the rock out and recure it in tubs for a few months. That might help.

 

[SnowManSnow]

personally, I think you can reuse the rock

If nothing else lightly pressure wash it.. lay it in the sun for a week and use it as most of your rock structure when you set up again. I used dead base rock for mine and it picked up in a few months .. now its covered in purple and all sorts of critters. I definitly WOULDNT throw it out.

 

[Anubis1]

that's what I would do.. just re-cure the rock... you MAY have to add a new piece here of there though once you get your tank set back up.. just to re-populate it with all the good stuff... but that's still cheaper than replacing it all...

 

[Anonymous]

Before you reinvest, think about preventative measures - a generator, battery air pumps, etc. ...just a thought. That really stinks (no pun intended).

The good news though is that you can restart a new tank!