power outage :(

[fishorama]

We had a 6-7 hour power outage starting at 3am last night. I was up & could suddenly hear the lack of tank sounds, not just the darkness. We don't usually get them for long, but it was a PITA to have to prime most AC HOB filters & reset clocks this am. I still haven't fixed tank lights' timers yet. Goodness knows what time zone they're in now My small 20g long only heated tank lost 3 or 4 degrees. I'm sure they'll all be fine. I hate to have to sit on the floor to fix their timers. My old hips & knees are not happy doing that anymore. It's not so much the sitting down as the getting up part It comes with many moans & groans, lol

 

[CassCats]

One of the biggest fears with winter is losing power for a prolonged time. Only 3-4 degrees is good though, they will be just fine with that.

It's where you start dipping 10 degrees quickly that it can start being a problem.

Couple winters ago was bad here, temperatures dropped over 20 degrees within 12 hours, got down to like -30/-40 C and someone I knew had an insulated garage fish room. His heaters couldn't handle the speed of the temp drop and he lost all but his 2 largest tanks from it. Really awful.

It's good to be weather aware.

You know those emergency thermal blankets they sell for people? They're a thin silvery material but they're great for insulation. I'd keep a bunch on hand, if power goes out, cover the tanks with them. They'll hold heat and slow the temperature drop. Block under door frames with towels to also keep air trapped in the room, so less heat escapes faster.

 

[fishorama]

Good ideas, Cass. My NE fish friends also used insulation foam boards (pink or blue or foil covered) to help retain heat, especially in basement tanks/fishrooms all the time.

When we lived in NE, we might lose power for several days. We had a downstairs fireplace that we slept by & kept the tanks from too chilly of temps. But the heat loss was slow in our larger tanks. I'm not sure I lost any fish from those. But several people that bought my fish before we moved did lose all their fish It was a very hard time for fish & people too.

More than the temp drop, I worried about the lack of water movement & oxygen exchange. Many times I scooped up water in a big pitcher & slowly, splashily returned it to the tank. It was the only thing I could think of ATM. It made me think I was doing "something" to help my fish & it wouldn't hurt. Like I said, my tanks were lucky! I "think" my many plants helped a bit too, to keep nitrate etc., from going sky high...& of course I fed less.

 

[CassCats]

Areas with gas stoves or other means of a fire, you could heat up some water as well for the aquariums and add to them if push really came to shove.

They do sell battery operated air pumps in fishing sections at stores, something to consider for emergency kits for these very things.

 

[fishorama]

Oh, yes! I do have a battery air pump somewhere. I had forgotten about since we moved here. It was mostly for my discus juvies that needed higher temps. But luckily we never had to use it.

I "think", but don't remember well, we had some gallon jugs of water near the fireplace just in case. Not that they'd be quite warm enough. I even though how I could heat water on the outdoor gas grill but it never came to that.

 

[gwand]

I hope your fish were not too traumatized. Two years ago when I first started out in the Hobby we had a loss of power that lasted three days. At that time I only had one tank. Room temperature fell to 40°, water temperature fell to 50°. All my fish died. it was a terrible way to start the hobby. Now that I have six active tanks, and we still experience frequent blackouts, I bought a generator. Since I bought the generator last March, we have had four significant blackouts. So it was a good investment. Merry Christmas to you.

 

[emeraldking]

Well, depending on the type of fish you're keeping it can be something to be worried about or that it won't hurt them. For most kept aquarium fish we keep, they should be okay after such a power outage in that time frame.
And oh yes, I also know all about the moaning and groaning when it comes to my limbs...

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Before we finally had a whole house back-up generator installed, I used to deal with power outages with a few battery powered air pumps and our gas grill outside. I could remove water from a tank to a pot which I would heat on the grill and return to the tank. This system was OK unless the outage was more than a few hours and the temps outside were below about 50F.

However, I was running 28 AqauClear filters. This was an issue because the generator would not start until the power had been out for 20 seconds. This was done so a power blink would not be enough to start the back-up. But that 20 second delay meant there was enough lack of power for the some of the AC filters not to restart. And there were some occasions where there would be a series of power blinks in an hour or two and each time I had to check all of the filters.

I even taught my brother how to turn the intake tube to the low setting and to slide a closed scissors down the left side of the tube into the impeller and give it a little tick to restart it. The problem was how spread out the tanks were- 4 rooms and 2 buildings.

edited for typos and to remove an s from grills

 

[fishorama]

We have solar panels, but when we bought 11 years ago batteries were just as costly, too much at 1 time. Our neighbor isn't happy with his 3 last we talked to him about it.

Ugh, the timers will have to wait, I'm too full from xmas dinner for bending.