| Fish tanks: How Houston-area aquarium hobbyists can recover their tanks after brutal winter storm | |
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Credit: KPRC |
Many Houstonian aquarists are finding themselves rebuilding and recovering their aquariums after the historic Texas winter storm that brought widespread power and water outages.
While many tanks have survived the freeze, others have been unlucky, which brings discouragement to aquarists who brought great care for their fish for months, if not years.
KPRC 2 spoke to Prosper DeBee, owner of Aqua Zoo on El Dorado Boulevard in Webster, where the shop had to deal with power and water issues for two days during the freeze. Thankfully, they suffered minimal losses, but the shop was unable to provide aquarium water due to a burst pipe, per its Facebook page.
“We’ve been mostly lucky, but I know many other stores around Texas have lost a lot of their livestock,” DeBee told KPRC 2.
DeBee’s customers reached out to him regarding multiple tank losses, ranging from minimal to catastrophic, as water temperatures went way below the recommended threshold of 75-80 degrees for most tropical and marine fish tanks, adding stress to fish. |
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What needs to be done after the storm?
Several factors go into play as many aquarists recover, such as previous water changes, the amount of fish and the home temperature during the outages.
DeBee recommends aquarists check for boil water notices if they are still in effect and perform a water change as soon as possible. If you are still under a boil water notice, hold off on the water change or purchase filtered water at a nearby aquatic store.
Your water system must be flushed before performing the change to eliminate harmful elements that can harm fish.
He also recommends to get your water tested to make sure it is optimized. Aqua Zoo, among other Houston-area aquarium and pet shops can test your water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, chloramine and water hardness for free.
If you have been out of power for a couple days or more, DeBee recommends adding new beneficial bacteria. “Most of your bacteria will pass away, just like your fish,” he said. |
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