Power Outage!!!

[Airwolf767]

We lost power for about two hours tonight. 4 Altum angels, 7 Blue Rams, 3 clown loaches, when the power came back on it looked real bad. The angels were laying on there sides gasping as well as the rams the plecosamus darted all over the tank. After starting the filters back up and starting an airstone they slowly came back. The only winners here I assume would be the live plants. Kinda scary, .....but everything seems okay now but we will see. Anybody have any suggestions for power outages?? Air/Temp Control?

 

[wuvmybetta]

That's terrible, I'm so glad that everybody made it through. The only thing I can suggest is to have a battery operated aerator handy, I'm going to get a few myself next week just as a winter precaution

 

[Lateral Line]

What size tank you running there? If it turns that bad after a couple of hours, I'd suspect some degree of overstocking, or some other O2 depletion source.

 

[guppymonkey]

Over just a couple hours the tank shouldn't have been so depleted of oxygen. I wonder if your tank is overstocked? Also if your fish weren't getting oxygen I am betting that the aerobic bacteria in your tank were depleted also. Your tank might go through a cycle again if the bacteria died off in the outage.

 

[Airwolf767]

75gal with live plants, two emperor 400's, no airstone. All the fish seem fine at this time. The angel that was lying on his side came back once the airstone was put in and all other fish at this time seem okay. I do not think the fish load is too high, do you? 4 Angels, 7 Rams, 3 Clown Loaches, 1 Plecosamus, 2 Cory's, 3 Kuhli's. I will be purchasing a battery backup airpump soon.

 

[EddieW]

AirWolf,

Probably worth looking at a computer type battery backup (UPS) so you can run your Emperor filters. I have one on my tank at work which cost £90 and is about the size of two video tapes. The monitoring software cannot even see the load placed on it by the small filter and heater so it will last a long time if the power goes out. It also has the advantage that it will kick in automatically when the power goes off and switch back when the power comes back on.

I don't normally run the lighting or heaters on my tanks at home from the UPS jsut the filters - if the power was off for a long time I would consider moving the heaters across as well.

HTH, Eddie

 

[missyintx_99]

I would definately recommend the battery operated air pumps. I have 2 and need to get some more. Ya never know when you'll have a power outage.
One of the ones I have holds 2 batteries, but it only uses one at a time, so when one battery dies, there is another to kick in. Kinda like a double fail-safe.
Its a good investment IMO and they really aren't that expensive. (I have 12 tanks, thats why I need to get a few more so I don't have to be running around the house switching them out constantly!)

Good luck!