Power Outage. Running out of propane

[gwand]

The storm in my area has caused a power outage. I have a generator with fuel for 48 hours. However electricity Will not be restored until approximately 72 hours. I have a 60 gallon, 29 gallon, 20 gallon and 3, 5gallon tanks. The local propane companies are overwhelmed with the power outage. I cannot get any more propane. Any ideas for how I can keep my fish alive for the final day of the power outage once my propane is used up? I do not have battery operated air pumps. I could purchase some from my local Petsmart. Would these be at all helpful?

 

[BigDog]

The battery air pumps will at least help give some oxygen to the water and some water movement

To which you’re aquatic life will need when you lose total power

Don’t feed your fish during the power outage

Keep the aquarium lights off

Make sure all your power is turned off to your aquariums

You don’t want power surges hitting your power supply

 

[Magnum Man]

I have battery back up pumps, and expect an air stone in a mature tank would keep the fish ok, as long as the temperature doesn't drop too low...

sounds like anything other than the battery powered pumps, would be just "rubbing it in" as they wouldn't be quick fixes...

assume you still have water??? hot water??? if you still have hot water, maybe a couple water changes with warm water???

i have several battery powered tools, mine are Milwaukee brand, but most brands have the same options... I have an inverter to 110, from my tool batteries, and with my bigger batteries ( like for my chainsaw ) I can actually run my heaters for a while

I'm not one of those "dooms day" preppers, but thought long and hard about generators ( I'm more of a boy scout ) and chose gasoline for my fuel, more fuel related maintenance, but easier to get fuel in a situation like yours, and less cold weather hassle, than diesel...

I'd try one battery powered pump with an air stone or two per tank, as long as you can get them...

BTW... I also have LI rechargeable batteries for my air pumps, and one of my next buys is an auto ( 12 volt ) to 18 volt battery charger, for my tool batteries

best of luck...

 

[GaryE]

Okay, this is hardcore time.

In our dollar stores, they sell reflective "space blankets". Wrap the tanks in them, leaving the top open. Once the generator is about to run down, or if the house is cold, seal the top. You can use traditional blankets on top of it all. Then don't peek. Keep it sealed.

In the 1998 ice storm, when we had no power for 8 days with temperatures around -3, -4 celsius (and colder at night), my heated tanks lost 1.5c every 2 hours, til they settled at 18c. From then on, the slide was slower, at 4 or 5 degrees a day. My fish were dead by day 4, but with space blankets, I might have bought an extra day.

I didn't know this trick then, but I have used it since on shorter blackouts.

You're only looking at one to two days in cold, and you have a good chance of getting them through.

I never worry about aeration, but I stock lightly. Cooler holds more oxygen, and you can lose heat with the air pumps. Heat is everything.

You will have hot water in your tank, and you can fill 2 litre pop bottles and float them. But there, you have to evaluate whether opening the cover to put them in costs more heat than it adds.

Good luck. I just spent 3 hours with a pickaxe, chopping ice, and it looks like I did nothing out there. We lost power, but it was short and we're back on now. I still lost one old Chinese HOB to it. It cost me 12 bucks 15 or so years ago, and has run 24/7 ever since then. What a rip off.

 

[Fishfunn]

You can buy battery-powered air pumps with airstones at a fish bait shops too. They are a little more expensive and noisy, but they will get air into the tank. The battery-powered air pumps that I have are the Penn Plax Silent Air Battery Operated Aquarium Air Pump for Power Outage Automatic Turn On Keeps Fish Safe

 

[emeraldking]

Well, the battery pumps are a solution to your problem. But fish won't die that fast when there's no aeration or filtering. We had a situation that there was no aeration and not filteration for a week and a half and all my fish were okay. And I need to tell you that it concerned 80+ tanks. If the tanks are really warm, oxygen will run out the water faster than when the temperature is lower. Keep that in mind. But you could also put in more plants to use as an extra filtration and oxygen system.

 

[MaloK]

I ran air pumps with a small 700W Eliminator power box for more than 5 days an loaded my phone twice with one charge...

That was pretty good.

I also second the emergency mylar blankets those are excellent.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Your problem will clearly be temperature. There are a couple of things you can do to extend things.

Do not run the benerator constantly. Turn it off for 30 to 60 minutes and back on again. This may slow the temp decline for a bit. I Before out whole house back-up was put into place I needed to keep my 30 gal. breeder tank for zebra plecos warm. I normally keep the fish between 82 and 86F. So for this tank I needed to keep it warm. Here is how I did it.

I took a medium size sauce pan from the kitchen and made sure it was clean and had no soap residue. I then scooped out a pan full of water from the tank and I took it outside and put it on the gas grill to heat. When it was almost boiling I then returned the water to the tank gradually and spreading it over the surface. That combined with my battery powered air pumps kept that tank warm for some time and the power returned.

I had a number of tanks and rotated my air pumps between them.I also have a battery back-up for starting cars etc. It holds a charge that I can use for other things, it has a built in ait pump, USB charging ports and an AC outlet that can power things for up to almost 18 hours at best.

Bear in mind that one can put together some interesting solutions for handling a power outage but they are only short term solutions. My zebra tank would have frozen over if the power had stayed out for any real amount of time. I had over $15k worth of zebras, another dozen tanks and a mother with dementia in her 90s and needing home health aides round the clock. We could not afford an extended power outage and had to install the back-up system. Not long after, we had a 13 day power outage in 2011 and again in 2012 when hurricanes came up the east coast and trashed NY among other places.

We are now on our 2nd generator since 2009. They run on propane and we have a 500gal. tank. We make sure it is topped up whenever a major storm is going to hit. We have a service contract where the company does a major service call and a second shorter one. We have the same on both our furnaces and our central air system. We are fortunate enough to be able to afford all of this as it is not cheap

 

[MaloK]

In the 1998 ice storm, when we had no power for 8 days

You too, I was lucky I was installing floating wood flooring and had R3 insulation rolls. I used that to insulate the tanks and added hot water on regular basis... They went trough recycling after without loss... Only a lots of water changes...

But my threshold is really around 48 hours... I start to become impatient... The pumps and heaters must restart fast.

 

[CassCats]

Tape up those space blankets (emergency thermal blankets) to your windows in every room, especially the fish rooms, block gaps under the doors with towels or blankets to trap air inside. You want to slow the environment from cooling too, so on top of the suggestions you already had, these would also help.