No Power, Fish are dying

[Robyn]

At my brother's for dinner and a shower, and there is WiFi here. No power since the horrible storm last night at 11 pm. I have never seen that much lightning and wind. I am pretty sure we got a tornado out front, over a dozen 35-year-old trees had their tops come off with the bark peeled like a banana. It's like armageddon. Spent the day chain sawing and moving limbs in the way. Made over 100 cuts alone to get branches away from the pond area. So far, one 14" orfe has died from suffocation with no water pumps. The fish were all gasping desperately at dawn, some on their sides. I put in 3 puny battery aerators but, we're probably not getting power for days with lines down all over, and I expect my gorgeous koi are all going to die. They do seem better with the battery air pumps but they won't last. The water was clear and is now brownish green. The biological filters are all out of the water but I did pour water down them to try to keep them alive. Our generator is in the shop, and none are available anywhere. I may lose my marine animals too. At least us mammals might survive if we can get through a week of 100 degree F temperatures. Whenever we think things can't get worse, they do. More storms are coming. Too many animal and plant deaths.

[Rosiemeadow]

So sorry to hear that Robyn, does your brother have a generator you can use? Have you checked all the Lowes & Home Depots around you? You might need to travel a bit to anther store, you could try calling a few outside your area, Good Luck! I hope you fish survive.

[Broxandval]

Robyn
Sorry to hear about your predicament here weve had major flooding in the north of the county, with a tornado on the ground in Lincolnshire, flooding in Wales and Rail lines out in Scotland due to land slippage and on one line a frieght train totally delrailed.
In areas around where we live Trees are down with flooding and so far two deaths have been reported on the news from around the UK, we acctually saw monsoon strength rainfall whilst shopping the other day
It seems that Mother Nature is trying her best to tell us that global Warming is a fact.
We permanently have a Generator on standby here for every eventuallity and have done for years .
It may be an idea you invest in one when you can.
I'm confused though wont the plants help with your orfe kio and goldfish for the time being ? if not you could try hiring a generator for now.
We made sure to invest in one because as you so elequently put it ours is a more technical approach to fish keeping and it is because that we invested in one.
For future reference if it helps you any at all, they sell small box generators in the UK for as little as £69.00 so they must do the same in the US perhaps also a koi airpump with a twelve gang multi valve system conected to the generator would help you in the future, if only to keep the air supplied to your ponds but it will help you some.
We are keeping our fingers crossed for you in the mean time.

rgrds

Dave and Val

[Robyn]

We got a generator on a waiting list today. Those for sale and rent are sold out. The ponds and aquariums now have filtration but boy do they stink! Like dead fish or rotten flesh. I lost the orfe and one 8" goldfish but the rest should make it. It's been nearly 100 degrees F daily. I have to sleep in the basement. I've had basically no sleep for two days. I'm at my brother's again for e-mail and shower.

Dave, we have a generator but my mentally ill father refused to have it repaired when it failed last power outage. It's finally in the shop.

I have automatic aerators for the three freshwater aquariums but it's not something that's feasible for a pond because such units are not weather proof.

Plants provide little oxygen when it's so hot.

Anyway, as long as the new generator doesn't break, and we can find gas (which was hard yesterday as the stations were out locally), the fish should survive. Now, my biggest water is the corals who will start to suffer with days of no light. The corals feed from their symbiotic algae. And before you ask, no, it's not feasible to move the tanks!

[Broxandval]

Robyn we are glad your getting everything together and that your generator is up for repair, sorry to hear that about your Father's illness .
Sense of smell is one of the things I use on the pond and find that you can judge what your water is doing by it , backed up by Tetra test kits of course.
I've been looking into Pond air pumps for you and found an American site for you to study.
However I would recomend you buy one of the higher airflow pumps to cover all what you have via way of a multi gang valves.
This would enable you to utilies up to 18 pond size air stones over quite a distance from the pump
It wont take much power from the generator if you use an extension allowing for other use such as lights+ coral lighting, etc, etc :-

http://usakoi.com/air-pumps-accessories.html

It sounds like we are due more of the same here for at least the next three days , thankfully it didn't ruin the Armed Forces day here in Plymouth on saturday but when I popped out to feed the koi at midnight tonight t was heaving it down more akin to rain storms I've come across in America with large heavy drops of water .
We pray your spared any more bad weather.
However Robyn you may have an enemy in the temperature which will cause your water to go off quickly.
Keep your chin up .

rgrds

Dave and Val

[Robyn]

We got power back this afternoon. I managed to rush water changes and maintenance on all 7 aquariums and clean the guinea pig cage (yuck!). I will do the pond filters tomorrow and get in to fish out the leaves and debris. The fish seem to have recovered. As far as I know, only the orfe and one goldfish died. I will look around the plants tomorrow when I get in for more victims. Someone loved the disaster - the raccoons who ate the two huge fish by dawn, probably 10 pounds worth!

[Broxandval]

Thank god for that I think you got off very lightly there Robyn and with the generator being fixed hopefully it wont happen again.
Here in the UK the winds have died down but it is still raining, It's amazing that only a few short weeks ago parts of th UK were in full dought and here an enviromental drought was going on .
All that has now gone and the country is no longer facing a drought.
I pray that for Sunday the weather will brighten up for our annual koi show.
How did the coral fare in all this Robyn ?


rgeds

Dave and Val

[Robyn]

I put the saltwater tank lights on the generator yesterday morning. The corals were mostly open today. I can't find Fireman (my clown goby) though so I'm pretty sure he was the third fish casualty.

I cleaned the pond filters today and removed debris. Strangely, the pond plants weren't knocked over by the winds and yet the winds cut a 10 foot path 500 feet long out front removing the tops off of ALL the 35-year-old trees in that path. It's incredible, so much so that I didn't bother to take photos or video because it just wouldn't do it justice.

There is a white goldfish in the pond whose tail is torn to shreds. I don't know if a predator tried to get him when they were gasping in the shallows or something else happened. My remaining 4 koi and 3 orfe are accounted for and actually normally now.

We were having a drought too so the few inches of rain was the only good thing from the derecho.

[sabrillo]

Hi Robyn. Sorry to hear about all that's been going on. There seems to be a high occurance of natural disaster going around. I am here in Colorado where we've been having that horrible fire. It's 70% contained now, but not after destroying 346 homes and killing 2 people (I guess they didn't evacuate when told to do so). Fortunately for me, I did not have to evacuate. With the exception of having to keep the windows closed in 100 degree temperature with no air conditioning, we survived.

I'm glad that you only lost a few considering having no filtration and stagnating water. It could have been much worse.

I just got back from Florida. I was gone a total of three days and I looked at the pond today and it was down 12 inches. I topped off the pond before I left and can't believe the amt of water loss. Any way, they did fine for no food or care for a couple days.

I have already removed several garter snakes this summer. I really have alot of those surface swimmer bugs and I think they detract the snakes. Because they can't see very well and see movement, I think the snakes watch them instead.

Hope your pond clears up. We need some moisture bad. It's so hot and dry here.

[Broxandval]

Would you believe that here in Plymouth UK its still raining the sky is grey as far as the eye can see even when not raining heavily we have a fine drissle the type that soaks through your cloths before you know it.
It is also very hot and muggy at night due to the summer temperatures but because of the damp in the atmosphere its better to leave the windows shut .
I'll bet even for an EX US Marine the fires where you are Sabrillo must have been quite frightening , not knowing if it was going to continue burning right the way to your home.
12" of water evaporating is one hell of a lot do you own a prefilter ?

http://www.vyair.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=68

With one of these on your pond you can trickle water into your pond 24/7 and it removes any chlorine/chloromines that come through the tap allowing you tokeep your water levels up.
Remember the leak I had the other year well this is what I used to combat the leak trickling water into the pond at the same rate it came out of the bio filter until we fitted the new barrel filter.
I'm sure if you look around you can get them in the US.

rgrds

broxandval

[Robyn]

My father is from Colorado. We used to go there every 3 years until his father died in 1997 so I was last there in 1996. We went up Pikes Peak several times, and Cave of the Winds was a favorite of mine. Last I heard, the cave buildings were okay. I know Pikes Peak won't burn at the top because there's no vegetation! I heard Garden of the Gods was closed and regret that we never got to go in there. The last time, we flew in to the Colorado Springs airport. The family ranch was in Elbert. We would go to Castle Rock for groceries, restaurants, and stores. Most of the vegetation I remember was grass, scrub oak, and some real pine trees in the Black Forest and around the Rockies. Colorado was like a second home, and I regret that I'll probably never visit there again since the ranch was sold, I can't leave my sick parents, and I can't leave the animals for more than a few days. I can't use having a job as an excuse anymore though but I can use the fact that I'm unemployed and have to not spend money.

Where do you live in the area Sabrillo?

[Robyn]

They have a Wikipedia page about the derecho we had Friday night.

June 2012 North American Derecho

I've finally caught up with my weekend chores so now the outdoor clean up is getting going. Lots of exercise! Too bad though that it's near 100 degrees F every afternoon!

[sabrillo]

Robyn, I live in Colorado Springs, where the really bad fires were. My friend and went out that Tuesday night when the fires came roaring down the mountain toward the homes. When we got to the top of the hill, it was like a movie where lava was everywhere. We just saw orange across the foothills and it was like the city was on fire. Pretty scary.

I figured you had some ties to Colorado because when I first visited your site, I remember reading a story you were writing and it was in Colorado Springs. You wouldn't believe how much Castle Rock has grown. If you're ever this way and need a place to stay, you are more than welcomed here .

I hear you about not being able to leave on vacation because of the animals. I left the two cats, 3 fish and two turtles for three days and that's about all I feel comfortable doing.

Bronx, I think the water level dropping is from the water fall. I filled it back up yesterday and put a plastic bag on the spout to direct the water a certain way and so I'll see how it does in 2 more days. So far, water level is holding steady. I went FL to see my son, also a Marine, to deliver his replacement iphone (can't trust the mail). He'll be graduating on the 20th of this month, will be home for 20 days leave and then he'll be going to 3rd Radio Battalion, in Hawaii. We are very proud of him. He is finishing up his Intel school. Can you "see" the pride flowing from this Mom?

Robyn, I hope that you'll be able to find a job soon. Till then, enjoy the extra time that you have with your animals.

[Texray1]

I think 12" in 3 days is more than just evaporation from heat. I agree it's probably the waterfall. Mine likes to run too much to the sides on occasion and then the dripping water doesn't all end up in the pond. I have to clean the water path well and re-adjust some of the guide rocks.