I REALLY want to THANK everyone about the advice. I never would have thought
about cleaning the filters and one was beginning to smell abit when I
changed it just hours before the power came back on. I cleaned the tanks and
filters, no food for a couple of days..... I still have to go buy some
frozen food that was lost with the power going off, but a disaster was
averted!!! I am hopefull that I WILL not have new tank syndrome, I do have
lots of kits (hardness, chloride, ph, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia,....) and
will watch the tanks and fish carefully for the next few days to a week or
so. I did add some amquel just in case.
I expect to be moving just across town and the last time I did this (1 yr
and 1 month on Oct 1st; NOT BY CHOICE!) I did not lose one fish!!! or have
new tank syndrome (which is my worst nightmare). This does raise the
question-- some friends who are angel fish breeders said they would help me
move my tanks. One said that it was ok to rinse the gravel in tap
(chlorinated water) if you add lots of dechlor later. BUT this would kill my
bacterial colony in the gravel wouldn't it???? I DO NOT want that to happen
especially in a tank that has had the stress of loss of power just two
weeks earlier. Last time I rinsed the gravel in dechlorinated water. it
took forever and was a MESS because of the laetrite under the gravel. Any
ideas on how to eliminate that mess for good?? Just keep rinsing???
Thank you all so much for the great advice, I probably would have had a
massive kill off without you,
Dianne