power out on tank for 12 hours. 3 days later it seems ok

[kwirky]

I was out of the house for a large portion of the day on friday, and came home to discover somone accidentally unplugged the extension cord leading to my fish tanks, and they were without power for 12 hours. nobody in the house even considered to call me or nothing.

When I got home and discovered them that way, I was only panicking about the lack of water flow, until I realized the water was at a cold 74F (I usually run at 82F)

I took all the heaters out of the sump and put them directly into the tank, put an extra 150W of heating in there, and turned on the lights on full without the fan running. I was panicking lol. I got the heat back up to 82F in about 1.5-2 hours. The xenia began pulsating almost right after the pumps were turned back on, and the toadstools were fully extended in the cold water for some reason haha.

It's 3 days later now, and it seems as though nothing much has happened. I have a slight algae bloom on the sides of my glass, I'm assuming from sponges dieing in the cold water or something, but the inverts and fish seem to be ok otherwise. We'll see. *crossing fingers still*

I've tried calling in an electrician whenever I've had the money to put a permanent jack and a separate breaker for the tank, but it's allways like a 2 month wait. I'm too impatient for that

RadioShack was clearing out a 550VA Ups for $45, and now I'm completely kicking myself I didn't get it : \

[kbd635]

I'm from a small village in Central Scotland and power outages are common in winter.
I had a small UPS, but it was only connected to the pumps. (Heater takes too much power and it would only have lasted an hour or so).
I designed and made a power alarm, which was plugged into an outlet in our bedroom, and when our power went out, it would let me know and I could react!
What I did discover from this, is that its not the drop in temperature which really harms the fish (within reason), but it's the toxins that the dying bacteria release (they are the first to die off at lower temps.)
It might take a few days for this to be seen, or if its not too drastic, the Nitrite cycle might survive and all will be well.
Just my 2 cents worth! lol