Damn Power Cut!

[ShoC]

Good calculations Rabbut But.....

Don't forget the effeciency is dependant on the load.
at 100% load the efficiency is also 100% as you drop the power drain the efficiency drops
Cant give you any charts sadly.
but truth be told I think my UPS is past its prime and needs a replacement

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, the babysitting of the filter works. I've done this myself and even found that although I'd do it on a more frequent (hour, 2 hours, whatever) schedule during the day, I could go 5 hours at night without doing it and the bacteria still lived just fine. Doesn't surprise me that the 6 hours mentioned here didn't actually do much harm to the colonies.

In my own case I took the cannister filter box to the tub with a bucket of tank water and periodically swapped fresh tank water into the filter box, pouring out the old water that was in the filter. I've since then read here of a better way for a cannister filter: You take the output tube off the tank and put it into a bucket and below the level of the filter box, getting it to siphon from the tank, through the filter and into the bucket. When the bucket contains the equivalent of one filter-box-full of water, you stop and pour the water back into the tank. You've then made an exchange of newly oxygenated/ammoniated (?,lol) water to your bacteria but as mentioned in the other post, you saved some tank temperature and kept your tank water level up.

By the way, there are also members who have described clever little habits they have at home whereby they keep one or two extra car batteries around and charged for use either when a car needs it or for rigging up to a converter and trollying in to there tank in a power outage so they can have a go of filtration turnover simply by running the filter a bit instead of manually moving tubes and buckets. I believe the DC to AC converters are quite common now for use in cars and vans and one can easily envision a little wheeled trolly with the converter attached and ready to move a battery. A bit DIY, but clever in my opinion, assuming it works as easily as described.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. all this assumes you don't want to go "whole hog" and buy one of those multi-thousand dollar things the size of a heat-pump that just takes over running the house when the power is out!

 

[wilchil64]

Yes, the babysitting of the filter works. I've done this myself and even found that although I'd do it on a more frequent (hour, 2 hours, whatever) schedule during the day, I could go 5 hours at night without doing it and the bacteria still lived just fine. Doesn't surprise me that the 6 hours mentioned here didn't actually do much harm to the colonies.

In my own case I took the cannister filter box to the tub with a bucket of tank water and periodically swapped fresh tank water into the filter box, pouring out the old water that was in the filter. I've since then read here of a better way for a cannister filter: You take the output tube off the tank and put it into a bucket and below the level of the filter box, getting it to siphon from the tank, through the filter and into the bucket. When the bucket contains the equivalent of one filter-box-full of water, you stop and pour the water back into the tank. You've then made an exchange of newly oxygenated/ammoniated (?,lol) water to your bacteria but as mentioned in the other post, you saved some tank temperature and kept your tank water level up.

By the way, there are also members who have described clever little habits they have at home whereby they keep one or two extra car batteries around and charged for use either when a car needs it or for rigging up to a converter and trollying in to there tank in a power outage so they can have a go of filtration turnover simply by running the filter a bit instead of manually moving tubes and buckets. I believe the DC to AC converters are quite common now for use in cars and vans and one can easily envision a little wheeled trolly with the converter attached and ready to move a battery. A bit DIY, but clever in my opinion, assuming it works as easily as described.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. all this assumes you don't want to go "whole hog" and buy one of those multi-thousand dollar things the size of a heat-pump that just takes over running the house when the power is out!

What can you do if you have an internal Juwel filter that can't be taken out/ Would it suffice to just keep slowly pouring jugfuls of the tank water into the top of the filter compartment to let it run through?

We often have power cuts here, usually they are thankfully not longer than a couple of hours, but I have been worrying about what would happen to our tanks if we had a long power cut.

 

[rabbut]

Just shove the sponges into the tank in your scenario wilchil64

It's oxygen starvation that kills off the filter bacteria, not lack of flow or ammonia. This is why exturnal filters often fail to keep up with the tank load if the power fails for any reasonable length of time, and hence why you need to "babysit" them. With the power off, no more oxygen can get to the media, and the bacteria use it all up, suffocating themselves. With internals, throwing them into the tank should allow you to go a long while before getting issues, as oxygen is getting to the media just so long as the fish are still happy

HTH
Rabbut

 

[wilchil64]

Just shove the sponges into the tank in your scenario wilchil64

It's oxygen starvation that kills off the filter bacteria, not lack of flow or ammonia. This is why exturnal filters often fail to keep up with the tank load if the power fails for any reasonable length of time, and hence why you need to "babysit" them. With the power off, no more oxygen can get to the media, and the bacteria use it all up, suffocating themselves. With internals, throwing them into the tank should allow you to go a long while before getting issues, as oxygen is getting to the media just so long as the fish are still happy

HTH
Rabbut

That's good news then, thanks. How long do you suppose the bacteria would be ok if the power failed and the sponges were in the tank?

 

[ShoC]

Just shove the sponges into the tank in your scenario wilchil64

It's oxygen starvation that kills off the filter bacteria, not lack of flow or ammonia. This is why exturnal filters often fail to keep up with the tank load if the power fails for any reasonable length of time, and hence why you need to "babysit" them. With the power off, no more oxygen can get to the media, and the bacteria use it all up, suffocating themselves. With internals, throwing them into the tank should allow you to go a long while before getting issues, as oxygen is getting to the media just so long as the fish are still happy

HTH
Rabbut

That's good news then, thanks. How long do you suppose the bacteria would be ok if the power failed and the sponges were in the tank?

I'd say a considerable time, considering you could dunk it a couple of times every hour.
if you dont mind the mess it would make

 

[wilchil64]

Just shove the sponges into the tank in your scenario wilchil64

It's oxygen starvation that kills off the filter bacteria, not lack of flow or ammonia. This is why exturnal filters often fail to keep up with the tank load if the power fails for any reasonable length of time, and hence why you need to "babysit" them. With the power off, no more oxygen can get to the media, and the bacteria use it all up, suffocating themselves. With internals, throwing them into the tank should allow you to go a long while before getting issues, as oxygen is getting to the media just so long as the fish are still happy

HTH
Rabbut

That's good news then, thanks. How long do you suppose the bacteria would be ok if the power failed and the sponges were in the tank?

I'd say a considerable time, considering you could dunk it a couple of times every hour.
if you dont mind the mess it would make

... better than dying fish!

 

[waterdrop]

I think people have said you start getting 1 or 2 percent die-back after a couple of hours but this die-back process continues to be very slow for a very long time, especially out in the tank where a little bit more ammonia and oxygen will be available. Yes it will be messy, but its an emergency situation. In fact, a gentle squeeze if its sponges would seem to be in order every hour or two so that more of the interior bacteria would get some new water with oxygen and ammonia in it. Out floating in the tank is certainly better than trapped in a limited container somewhere.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rabbut]

The sponges floating in the tank should be able to go as long as the fish In the tank, they will still be exposed to fresh water and "food" and it should be able to sustain the filter bacteria for a long while without too much die-back, despite a loss of measurable flow. Should the powercut be more than a day, you will need to start worrying about the fish, due to ammonia poisonong as a result of the filters not running, and that would likely be the point at which you start having issues with filter bacteria die-back

All the best
Rabbut

 

[wilchil64]

The sponges floating in the tank should be able to go as long as the fish In the tank, they will still be exposed to fresh water and "food" and it should be able to sustain the filter bacteria for a long while without too much die-back, despite a loss of measurable flow. Should the powercut be more than a day, you will need to start worrying about the fish, due to ammonia poisonong as a result of the filters not running, and that would likely be the point at which you start having issues with filter bacteria die-back

All the best
Rabbut

Interesting. Did you hear them talking about possible regular power cuts in a few year's time in the UK because we're using up fuel resources way too quickly? I was wondering what we would do with our fish tanks if that became the case and they turned off the power for a day a week or something? But hubbie says he'll grab a UPS soon, so should be ok I hope.

 

[rabbut]

Forget a few years time, there is reportadly a risk of it this year But yes, a large UPS rigged to the filters only will get you by nicely for a while, then filter "babysitting" after that...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[wilchil64]

Forget a few years time, there is reportadly a risk of it this year But yes, a large UPS rigged to the filters only will get you by nicely for a while, then filter "babysitting" after that...

All the best
Rabbut

Crikey, did they say it will happen maybe this year?! That's scary. Did you hear it on the news? Think I heard something on the radio news the other day but didn't realise it was that imminent.

 

[ShoC]

Regular powercuts

 

[Tropicoll]

Is this possibly just the media sensationalist scaremongering do you reckon?

 

[ShoC]

Lets hope