Electricity interruption

[cleo]

Can anyone advise what to do when the power is going to be turned off for 7 hours. My son says it should be okay as long as the water stays warm. Also I would like to know how much bleach to run through a tank to sterilise it. Thanks

[ILLUSN]

theres not alot you can do if your power is being turned off, i'd not feed the day before to reduce the ammount of waste the fish produce, and try to make sure the tank stays warm.
a 1:1000 dilution works well for sterilizing a tank(1ml/L of tank volume), be warmend that you will have re-cycle the tank and start over with everything, thats just what i used other people may have done it diffrently

[cleo]

Thanks for answering so promptly. I am seriously considering the bleach as I lost all my discus to smoething not sure what but have still got a few bristlnoses and I am not sure whether to do the bleach thing before I attempt more discus.

[ILLUSN]

dont bleach with fish in a tank!

[cleo]

No I wouldn't bleach with the fish in the tank but it is a 6x2x2 tank and it would be a very big job to take all the gravel out and also I imagine that I would have to discard all the plants and some of them are on wood and if I took them out and put them in another tank they could still have some nasties on them and re infect when put back. Would this be correct? Also it would take a while for the tank to mature again after I did this.

[Merrilyn]

Sorry Cleo, I must have missed your post.

Put some blankets or thick towels over your tank to keep the heat in, and you should be fine. You have a very small fish load in that tank now, so oxygen shouldn't be a problem. If you're concerned, you can get a battery powered air pump for under $20 from your LFS.

As far as the bleach goes, yes I do think it would be a good idea. Obviously you can't have any fish in the tank while you sterilise it, so you'll need to find a temporary home for your current fish.

I don't actually measure the amount of bleach, generally half a bottle of bleach in three or four foot tank is about right. Use the very cheap bleach, the generic brand with no detergent added. Chlorine bleach is easy to remove, but detergent lingers through many, many rinses.

Pour the bleach into your tank (btw your plants won't survive the treatment) leaving the driftwood, rocks and gravel in place. Run your filters for 24 hours with the bleach in place. Stir up the gravel a few times, so the chlorine has contact with all surfaces.

After 24 hours empty out the tank and filter and flush carefully with clean water several times. Replace the filter wool and carbon but you can keep the ceramic noodles after a thorough rinse.

Refill your tank with clean water, and set your filter running, then add triple the normal amount of chlorine neutralizer. Let the tank run and you can begin your cycle all over again by adding pure ammonia or even toss in a uncooked prawn and as it rots down, it will provide ammonia to feed your bacteria.