Fish Tank Power

[dburgess92]

When the power goes off in my area for ages, do I need, or is there such thing as a power UPS backup or will the fish survive? Even if the power is off for a few hours?

 

[jourdy288]

How long is it out? An hour or two, you should be fine with most fish, but 3 to 8 hours, wrap the tank in a blanket. 24-48 hours, get a backup pump.

 

[bleepy]

As for the UPS question, you can buy them.. but they're not cheap if you want a good one. www(dot)novatech(dot)com and www(dot)misco(dot)co(dot)uk are a good place to start if you want to check out the prices

Expect to pay £250 upwards for a good decent one.

 

[dburgess92]

How long is it out? An hour or two, you should be fine with most fish, but 3 to 8 hours, wrap the tank in a blanket. 24-48 hours, get a backup pump.

Yes it sometimes could be off for 2 - 3 hour at the most. Thanks for the help.

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

It really depends on how long the power is off. A short term outage of less than 6 to 10 hours, is usually not a problem at all. The 2 key things to keep in mind is to keep the filter media wet so you don't start losing bacteria and to keep the temperature safe. External and internal filters are usually fine as they media is in water anyway. HOBs, especially those with bio-wheels are the biggest concern. Bio-wheels can dry out pretty quickly. Just take the wheel off and float it in the tank.

This time of year (at least in the northern hemisphere), in the north, with temperatures below freezing, a major power outage for a day or more can cause major issues keeping the tank temp up. The same applies some what in hot weather as when the tank temp rises too high, the CO2 level can rise and cause problems. Floating bottles of hot water can help keep it up in the winter. Naturally, ice will in the summer (f you can find it during an extended power outage). You can also keep the O2 level up by simply dipping water out of the tank and pouring it back. The surface disturbance helps with oxygen exchange and should preent high levels of CO2.

 

[splasher]

better off getting a petrol generater as a back up, cheaper plus you can run the tv of it and the microwave as well as your fish tank