power off for weekend while I was away

Question
I came back from a weekend away late and didn't check my tank till Monday morning. I had put new power strips in as the old one died two weeks before.  Apparently the breaker had gone off some time over the weekend, and all the power was off.  The water was down to room temperature of 64 degrees, 8 fish were dead, and 5 of the largest fish were still moving their fins and gills.  I quickly got the power back on and turned the heaters back on.  The fish are still moving but are laying on the bottom.  Two heniocus seem to be doing the best, and a large Naso Tang is having a tough time as well as a very large Queen Angel Fish, and a small Hippo Tang. I lost a large orange shoulder tang, a clown, and a coral beauty Angel, and 5 chromis, and a powder blue tang.  It is a 200 gallon reef tank.  Should I take any other steps?  I immediately removed all the dead fish.  I am sure they were dead as they were stiff in the fins, and lost their color.  Should I do a water change tonight or today?  I just finished treating the tank with erithromycin, for a very bad outbreak of Red slime I could not get rid of, and was going to do a 25% water change this morning.

Answer
Hi Sean,

Sorry to hear of this misfortune...

My recommendation is to just let the tank run and regain its former temperature, oxygen levels, and water movement... other than this you would want to just leave the water parameters "as is" for now. Do to the stress the surviving fish have gone through, you won't want to do anything else for them to get adjusted to right now.

There are emergency back up battery units that you can install, in the event of a future power failure. Some will power water pumps and air pumps for many days. For an example of a unit manufactured by Ecotech, see the following link below.

http://www.ocreef.com/ecotech_marine_vortech_battery_backup

I wish you a speedy recovery for your aquarium.

Sincerely,
David All Experts Editor