Of course.... all the bastards who were too pissed to drive down Boxing Day... decided to come down lunch time today.....
Another 3 hour trip home....
Looked like a storm brewing ... and the kids weren't home.... so decided to mow the lawn before the storm hit.... and grade the fish later when they got back ....
Got halfway through the lawn.... and decided that there was just too much lightening going on to keep pushing the mower around....
We've just had the most intense electrical storm in years... since about 16:30.... until about 22:00.... with torrential rain and hail like golf balls.... Covered the hospital tank...
Power has been coming and going over the last couple of hours... but I figured the battery backup airsupply would kick in... and none of the outages lasted for more than a couple of minutes.....
Went outside about 30 mins ago when the rain eased.... could see the aeration going ....
But couldn't hear the AP system water running.... it had been raining to hard to hear anything before hand.... and I had been able to see the aerator working....
Lifted the lid on the hospital tank........ the biggest of the fish were dead..... and the rest weren't looking very good.....
Although the power was back on pretty quickly each time... and the battery backup aeration was working.....
The power board surge protector supplying the pump.... had tripped... and the system hadn't been pumping for about 4 hours.....
The hospital tank is constantly aerated .... and the water constantly refreshed, just overflowing a standpipe....
The tank water temp had been about 27.5 degrees all day .... result of two warm days here.... and without the water pumping... and the cover on....
Obviously, despite a couple of airstones... four hours with a 100 fingerlings in a small tank.... high water temp.... low DO.... was just two much for them....
Worst part was.... I had to throw the remainder into another tank that was about 6 degrees cooler....
At least 20 dead.... another 50+ not looking likely to survive the night due to oxygen starvation... and the cold water shock......
Lesson.... never put off until tommorrow ... what you should have done the bloody day before anyway....
My own stupid fault... should have graded the buggers out of the tank the other day...
Even if I had to do it by myself......

Pictures of the morbid event... and mortality update in the morning... I'm off to a bottle of JD....
