Help! My Power Is Out!

[stanleo]

A storm knocked out my power five hours ago! The electric company's wedsite states that residents should prepare for an outage lasting several days!
 
ATM I have an 800 watt inverter running on my car battery that is powering the filter on my 29gl planted aquarium, the filter on my 10gl planted shrimp tank, and both filters on my 55gl saltwater reef tank. Also our laptops which is how I am posting this now. Its summer so I am not concerned about running the heaters though i am worried that the 10gl will get too hot upstairs. The temp outside is hovering about 72 degrees (22 celcius). But I don't have enough juice to run the powerheads in the saltwater tank or any of the lights.
 
I am off tomarow so I could start up the car so the battery won't die on me but I cannot do this for several days consecutively.
 
How long will my fish last without the filters if I HAVE to turn the power off?
 
WIll the reef be ok without the light for a few days? All I have are 2 leather corals. Plus side maybe some the algae will die off.
 
Do you have any tips of what else I can do?
 
Please help I love these darn tanks!

 

[Chad]

I've had this happen.
 
You can get some battery operated air pumps and place the filter media in the water so the bacteria are in contact with it while the filters are off.
 
The reef will be fine for a couple of days. They will just think it's stormy weather.
 

 

[stanleo]

Thank you so much Tcamos! That really put me at ease! I will go to LFS tomarrow, they are closed ATM, and get some battery powered are pumps. I was going to get one anyway, hopefull there are some with battery and electric cords.

 

[Chad]

Be sure to keep us updated!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Re Fresh water tanks:
 
turn off lights on tanks.
 
float bio-media and use battery powered pumps (have extra batteries on hand). put noodle or other non floating bio-media in mesh bags and sink them near the airstone.
 
do not feed the fish
 
I have outdoor tanks when its 90F (22+C) no issues in the shade of the screened terrace.
 
Use your inverter just for the sw stuff?

 

[stanleo]

I'm going to get those pumps tomorrow. I don't have any airstones, do I need them? A good thing is I did water changes on everything an hour before the power went out. I'm definately not going to feed them until the power comes back on.
 
That's a good idea about running the inverter on just the SW when i get the pumps. But my big concern is if the power doesn't come back on by the time i go to work on Friday. then there is no car to run the inverter on.
 
So I will get 3 pumps one for each tank, along with some large filter socks to put the media in the tanks and then, Should I put the airtube or airstone into the bag or just near it?
 
When the power comes back on should I do an immediate water change?
 
If so, how much?
 
Should I test first to find that out?
 
Thanks again guys for the help. I will keep you updated.

 

[stanleo]

I had to go to bed and unplug the inverter from my car. I slept for 6 hours and when I got up I went straight to the LFS and spent $86 on battery powered air pumps, air stones, and batteries. Got it all home and made makeshift filters with the filter media in filter bags and stuffed the air stones in the bag and let it run.
 
I made 10gl of emergency water conditioned with Prime in case the ammonia rose. I checked the levels and everything was fine. All fishies present and acting normal.
 
An hour after I did all this, the power came back on LOL
 
Oh well at least I have an emergency kit for next time disaster strikes.
 
Here some pics of what I did in case you are curious. Again, thanks for the help. It was greatly appreciated.
 
10gl

 
55gl SW

 
29gl

 

[Chad]

That's funny. But you're right, it is good to have for next time.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

An airstone cause water movement upwards this is pulled in from all around the stone and the rising column of bubbles. Place the media near the stone or hang it mid-water in or near the bubble stream.
 
I had to bite the bullet years back and install a whole house back up system. there were two reasons. One was caring for my elderly mother in her 90s. She could not be in a freezing or boiling house etc. And one day after I began breeding things succesfully, I realized I had a lot of money swimming around in my tanks. And that sealed the deal.
 
Since then we have had assorted blackouts of a few hours to about a day several times. plus 3 outages of 13-15 days due to hurricanes and early fall blizzards. That generator was one of the best investments I have made.
 
The point is, being prepared makes life a whole lot easier when disaster hits.You are now ready. Cold will be the bigger challenge if things go bad in winter. I can remember days of tanking tank water into a pot and heating on the gas grill and returning it to the tank on an occasion or two.