Snow storm in New England - was out of power for a week

The unexpected amount of snow last Saturday resulted in the worse power outage in the NE area in years. Because the leaves were still on the trees the snow stuck to them and took down trees like I've never seen before. Most of us were out of power for a week (some still out of power). I felt like kicking myself while steering at the $$$ sitting next to my tank that I got from selling frags the last few months, I was suppose to use that to buy a new generator weeks ago but never found the time. I sat there looking helpless at my fish float upside down, the tank looked like soup while temp dropped to 55 in less than 2 days...Between working storm restoration and trying to keep my family warm, I stayed up 2 nights straight taking water out of the tank, boiling it, mixing the hotwater with some more cold water from the tank then dumping it back into the tank....did that every hour the first 2 nights. I was trying to get intouch with anyone I knew to give my livestock away but with no power, land lines, internet or cell phone service I couldn't reach anyone that had a tank. My luck changed Tuesday morning when I found 25 generators about 80 miles away for $799/ea. I put them on hold and drove there with 25 people, when we got there the store owner jacked up the price to $999...didn't matter, we still took them all.

To my surprise, all my fish recovered within a few days (my anemone looked like a softball and the 2 clowns were in it, alive...nature is amazing). Most of my corals partially recovered too....I'm still working my temporary storm duty trying to help get everyone restored, so no time for the tank, parms are bad but at least there is life....it's safe to say I've learned my lesson, this will never happen again.

Hope everyone in the CT, MA area are OK.

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles, hope everything recovers.

It is so disappointing to hear people were without power for 1+ weeks.

 

I really hate to hear that. I'm glad you were able to get a generator though. I plan on buying one myself here within the next week. What kind did you get?

 

Yea, our tanks are important but what's even worse is that it's cold and families with little kids and older folks have to suffer through it with no lights, heat and in some cases water for over a week...sucks

I wanted a Honda but I didn't have much of a choice, all they had were Poulan Pro 6600W models. I bought it over the phone without even asking what brand it was...that's how desperate I was, the reviews seem OK, hopefully it's a good one.

 

Well to my surprise, the tank has made a great recovery. Most of my corals had dead spots that I fragged off and so far everything seems to be recovering, with the tank temp dropping to 55 for a few days and all the fish floating at the surface upside down, I'm very thankful they all recovered and doing great. My 55g sump/fuge/DSB was shut-down for 4 days and smelt pretty bad but I was away working storm duty and had no time for the tank, I hooked it back up and the skimmer did it's thing. The Eheim pump on my CA reactor broke so that was down for another few days. Didn't even get a chance to do a WC yet but I hooked up the new Eheim pump 2 days ago and my parms are back in check...I got very lucky, will do a WC this wknd

 

Wow that is amazing. I'm very happy for you. ;D

 

Wow it's amazing that such tropical exotic species were able to withstand such low temperatures. Most tropical fish would die in those temps. Very lucky

 

I am glad everything worked out for you. Now I have to add a generator to the mix and I live in FL. Good thing Hurricane season is almost over.

 

luck would be an understatement. I still haven't done anything to the tank, and other than pieces of dead SPS that I need to cut this wknd, the tank was crystal clear today....maybe it's a good thing I didn't have the time to work on it, I would have dumped everything in the fuge

Thanks. I had a generator for yrs that I never had the need to use so I got rid of it. After the tornado then hurricane this summer, I knew it was time to get another gen .... but I had to learn the hard way I guess. Very unusual weather for this part of the country.