I live in northern nj, and we had a blizzard on the eve of Halloween. Well, we got over a foot of snow and lost power. I lost my heat and electricity, and went over to stay at my mother's house. They didn't have power either, but they did have a generator which could run two space heaters.

All I could do about my two fish tanks was wrap them in blankets to try and keep out the cold and hope for the best

Well, power stayed off for 7 days. It got to be 20 degrees for two of those days. When I got back, it was as I feared- all my fish were dead. Or so I thought.

I came back on Saturday to a tremendous mess. I had to clean out the fridge, which was full of spoiled food. My cat, mad at being left home, had pooped all over the carpet. I emptied and cleaned out one tank, but I didn't get to the other one until just now.

Just as I was pulling all the rocks and fake plants out, a little black longfin tetra came swimming out from behind a cave. I flipped! I have a survivor! He is in a ten gallon tank all alone. I was running a whisper 10,but that has been off since for almost 1 1/2 weeks. I can't believe I have a survivor.

I immediately did a 90% water change (maybe 85%) and scooped out as much gunk as I could, including what was left of his tankmates. I hooked the whisper 10 back up. Then I got two other filters, a small box filter with an air pump I had in my closet and the cannister filter I had on my other tank and am running those along with the whisper 10 I have a bottle of stuff that is supposed to lower nitrates and reduce frequent water changes, I gave a triple dose of that stuff. Now he's swimming around ok. I should probably feed him, but I don't want to cloud the water any more than it is. When do you think I should feed him and what else should I do?

I dont' know where my test kit is,I have to find it. I am sure water quality was abysmal, but I hope the almost complete water change helped. Still, there is a lot of gunk in the water. I really need a gravel vac, but I don't have one.

Should I do more water changes? how often? I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make this little guy pull through. Please advise.

congrates on your surviver

__________________
fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

That is some good news, if you want to feed him, just give him a flake or 2 once a day. Need to get a vac to pull all the gunk out of the gravel, he would be more than happy.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html