Unresolved Lighting broke - how long do I have to replace?

So last night my 12 gallon JBJ nano cube was doing just fine and dandy. Today I wake up and the lights won't turn on. I'm still using the stock PC bulbs and ballast. So I call JBJ and they tell me it sounds like my ballast is in need of replacement as it's highly unlikely that both bulbs would go out at the same time. Then they tell me that I have the old style of ballast which is discontinued. They then tell me that I need to replace the hood AND ballast to resolve this, which will cost about $170. I then decided to just go to LED's since it's the same price.

BUT, here's my big problem as I see it. It's now Thursday afternoon and I leave town on Sunday for almost a week. I won't be able to fix this until next Saturday, 9 days from now.

What do I do? Will my tank survive? Like I've said it's a 12 gallon JBJ nano. The livestock is a single firefish, a single peppermint shrimp, some not so healthy mushrooms (that I'm trying to fix), a not so healthy finger leather (trying to fix), and a small bunch of paly's. Sadly the rest of my awesome coral died a long time ago due to an operator error.

So how long with my fish, shrimp, and coral last without any lighting other than ambient room lighting?

 

Skrimp and fish will be fine without light. Your leather, mushrooms and palys will be ok for 4 days or so but not so hot when you return...

 

^^+1 - that would be a long time for the coral to go especially if they're not healthy now.

Do you have a friend or LFS that can hold your corals while you're gone?

 

No I don't. My wife will be home, so although not the ideal solution since I'd stick with PC bulbs, I may just order a new hood and ballast and she could easily install that system while I'm gone. There's no way she could do an LED install. I also under estimated the cost of the LED upgrade a little.

 

do you ultimately want LED's? Gosh, there should be a solution to your situation so that you can buy what you want. Hmm......Do you have any additional lighting at all? Little LED lamp? An old fixture laying around?

 

Can a friend or the local fish store hold the corals for that period of time. Corals can go a several days, nine days just seems like it's pushing it.

Also a cheap florescent fixture will hold you over for that time period as well.

 

You think a single bulb standard florescent bub could do the trick for a week? I have one laying in the garage that I could rig up to work, but it sure wouldn't be anything special. It's a little bulb, maybe 18 inches long (if that) that was a small workbench light I had. And it's just white light.

 

Better than nothing for 9 days.

I have kept my corals without light for 5 days without issue.

 

Well I ordered an LED upgrade system from Steve's LED's which is the plus side. The down side is they're closed and not shipping anything until the 17th, which is fine because I wouldn't be able to do anything with it anyways. I rigged up a standard workbench florescent light fixture to illuminate the tank during the day. Should I look for a certain color bulb for it if possible? Or just stick with what came in it, which is just plain white.

I suppose the worst case scenario is that the corals I have, which already aren't doing great, will die but the fish and shrimp will live. If that's what happens then that's what happens. It's only maybe $50-60 worth of corals. I lost the expensive nice stuff a long time ago due to an unrelated newbie error.

 

I'm thinking just use what you have. Just my .02. Glad to hear about the LED's! I think preparing that you might lose the coral is probably appropriate. However, what you have left are pretty hardy. You may want to target feed them before you leave.