Power Cut

[RobGoldsmith]

Afternoon, I have just had my power turned on after 10 hours of no power!

I completely freaked out with what to do, my room got colder and colder from the sub zero temps and snow across the region. I loat lights, filter, oxygen the lot! What do you do when this happens? Will my bacteria have died? Will the change in temp harm the fish?

Advice for next time would be great!

Rob

 

[Skins]

Afternoon, I have just had my power turned on after 10 hours of no power!

I completely freaked out with what to do, my room got colder and colder from the sub zero temps and snow across the region. I loat lights, filter, oxygen the lot! What do you do when this happens? Will my bacteria have died? Will the change in temp harm the fish?

Advice for next time would be great!

Rob

Your bacteria should be fine, and start bringing your temp back up slowly.

Keith.

 

[onebto]

Skins is correct you should not of lost much of your Bacteria colony.

Its a senario none of us look forward to happening its all about preparation I guess.

The heat loss: there is not alot you can do if the ambient tempreture is low then I would suggest the only option you have is to keep the lid closed and insulate the tank with a blanket.

Oxygen: there are a number of cuirculation and air pumps powered by batterys on the market.

I guess thats about all you can do but I would love to hear if anyone has got any more ideas

Regards onebto.

 

[Uriel]

Depends on how deep your pockets are and the value of your stock i suppose also how often it happens and for how long. I concidered Getting a Uninterruptible Power Supply for my tank but the problem with these is they will only power low power items (pump 25w) for any sustained period 1h+ and things like heaters at 100w+ would drain it pretty sharply.
Petrol generator is another option but this requires for you to be in the house when the power goes off to rig it up and is going to cost you £100 +.
Aside from these i guess your only options are things like battery powered air bubblers.
Like i said depends on your tank, if i had a £2000 reef setup which would suffer quite badly with 2h + of power outage i might concider the £100 just another safety net. On the other hand for my tropical setups I don't think they would suffer any collasal damage until they had been without power for 24h +.
We have a wood burner in the house as well which we could light to keep the room temperature at a reasonable level.

 

[RobGoldsmith]

Thanks guys
Shall prob just take the hit that it happens once a year or so. Keep blankets on top of the tank and hope for the best

 

[Aqua Tom]

I think your fish will be quite alright & the bacteria should be ok as well. If it happens again just chuck a duvet over the tank to keep it warm. A 10 hour powercut is a pretty rare occurance so i wouldnt stress too much.

 

[Mikaila31]

Should be fine. I agree with tossing blanket over tank, I usually use a unzipped sleeping bag for large or medium tanks. Heat loss is you first worry and that can start within an hour, but gradual heat loss is not as worrying as returning to normal temps too fast. Filters will be fine. First filters that will show effects are HOB types IMO. Internals will be last. With HOBs and canisters you can manually cycle tank water through them for a few minuets every hour. This won't help the tank much, but will slow the bacteria from starving. I usually don't touch my tanks apart from covering them till its been 8 hours with no power. This is when I start moving water through my canister filter. Canisters are easy, you disconnect the output hose where it connects to the spray bar and drop it quickly in a bucket. As soon as this hose drops below the water line it will start automatically siphoning the tank by pulling water through the canister. It must be raised back above the water level to stop the siphon. I simply fill up a 3 gallon bucket and then pour it back in the tank and repeat the process a few times. Takes about 10 minuets. HOBs require more effort. Also IMO back up power supplies are pointless. Often they run on batteries with do have a life span. Also when you lose power most have a alarm to warn you about this. I have no idea how to override this alarm or if it is even possible on the ones we have. They do this LOUD high pitched beep every 5-10 seconds. After a hour of this you want to kill them. Just be glad your not on a well system, or if you are I feel your frustration. Our water supply depends on electricity and when we lose it we lose water pressure... After about the 15th time of turning on the faucet out of habit you start getting real frustrated.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, thank heavens for Mikaila saving me from having to type in all that info about how to refresh the water to your external cannister bacteria! That's an important one for beginners to hear!

Also, besides the important sleeping bag (etc.) thing for insulation, I believe I remember some people have had success with heating up water on their gas stoves and then pouring this into sealed plastic or glass bottles which are then floated or sunk in the tank (just warm water, not too hot) and of course monitoring the thermometer to see how this goes. (this would probably be for a multi-day outage or especially cold situation.) (kind of like a hot water bottle for your tank...)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[RobGoldsmith]

Yeah i filled up a bag with hot water and left it just under the lid, it seems to heat everything up a little