UK Black outs

[Coryking]

So as some of you may or may not know there is a high chance for blackouts in January and February in the UK. From the article attached it seems most households will get around 24 hours worth of blackouts across the week. If it is a level one. Each black out last 3 hours. But how can are fish survive 3 hour with no heating no and no filtration. And if you live on H there's a 5 hour black out in Wednesday and 6 hours on N. How can fish especially saltwater survive this. And all of this is level one black out. Level two is 36 hours with most places having at least a seven hour blackout. So what do we need to do to save are fish. Do we need to cash out on backup generators? I feel quite sorry for you reef keepers out there. So does anyone have any good ideas incase this does happen or do we all have to cash out in generator's. I am sorry for being the bringer of bad news.

Gov blackout plans revealed, here's exact time your home would be affected

A PLAN for three-hour blackouts has been revealed in government documents – and they show the time your home would be affected. The Electricity Supply Emergency Code (ESEC) gives the PM sweep…

www.google.com

 

[Deleted member 149562]

As someone who lived in the 1970's and 1980's and the many winters of discontent (mass strikes including coal, electricity etc) and having aquariums too. The rolling cuts (if they happen) are a mere drop in the ocean.

Having blackouts lasting days made life interesting....ask anyone here who lives in a hurricane or tornado area and they will no doubt agree, that when you have zero power for days on end, then things like gensets are not a bad idea

However for 3 hours at a time, its not going to make much difference to an aquarium. At least with the planned outtages (should they actually happen) you get notice of when so you can do water changes afterwards (to nullify any water chemistry issues that might be an issue) and you can cuddle the aquariums beforehand with a blanket if so wished.

That said.....winters are milder than they were in the bad old days of strikes that had little or no notice and lasted days and myself and many others like me (including my old dad) never lost a fish.

(The media thesedays do love to bring about mass panic and hysteria....a little too much, too often)

 

[Coryking]

As someone who lived in the 1970's and 1980's and the many winters of discontent (mass strikes including coal, electricity etc) and having aquariums too. The rolling cuts (if they happen) are a mere drop in the ocean.

Having blackouts lasting days made life interesting....ask anyone here who lives in a hurricane or tornado area and they will no doubt agree, that when you have zero power for days on end, then things like gensets are not a bad idea

However for 3 hours at a time, its not going to make much difference to an aquarium. At least with the planned outtages (should they actually happen) you get notice of when so you can do water changes afterwards (to nullify any water chemistry issues that might be an issue) and you can cuddle the aquariums beforehand with a blanket if so wished.

That said.....winters are milder than they were in the bad old days of strikes that had little or no notice and lasted days and myself and many others like me (including my old dad) never lost a fish.

What about a. Level three black out. 3 hours may not effect much but surely a 8 hours will cause some problems.

(The media thesedays do love to bring about mass panic and hysteria....a little too much, too often)

I is still better to know that there could be black outs then not knowing. By the looks of things there will be some black outs. It is never bad to look on the safe side

 

[Deleted member 149562]

An 8 hour cut is nothing compared to the "winter of discontent" strikes. The longest cut back then that my family experienced was 6 days (being on the Isle of Wight that was fed by an undersea cable did not help cos it also got sliced too on a regular basis when the tides were extremely low - as in much lower than normal)

These rolling cuts...if they happen...will be well advertised, giving plenty of notice.

Go buy a cheap duvet and chuck it in the cupboard if concerned about losing heat from the aquarium and just do basic water changes once power is restored to cover for any potential issues in filtration when they restart.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Isn't it an idea to buy a battery powered airpump ? Letting a spongefilter allready run in the tank which you can switch to the battery powered one when needed.

 

[Coryking]

An 8 hour cut is nothing compared to the "winter of discontent" strikes. The longest cut back then that my family experienced was 6 days (being on the Isle of Wight that was fed by an undersea cable did not help cos it also got sliced too on a regular basis when the tides were extremely low - as in much lower than normal)

These rolling cuts...if they happen...will be well advertised, giving plenty of notice.

Go buy a cheap duvet and chuck it in the cupboard if concerned about losing heat from the aquarium and just do basic water changes once power is restored to cover for any potential issues in filtration when they restart.

6 days surely some fish would have died. Anyways I'm sure we will get some power outages.

An 8 hour cut is nothing compared to the "winter of discontent" strikes. The longest cut back then that my family experienced was 6 days (being on the Isle of Wight that was fed by an undersea cable did not help cos it also got sliced too on a regular basis when the tides were extremely low - as in much lower than normal)

These rolling cuts...if they happen...will be well advertised, giving plenty of notice.

Go buy a cheap duvet and chuck it in the cupboard if concerned about losing heat from the aquarium and just do basic water changes once power is restored to cover for any potential issues in filtration when they restart.

Surely you lost some fish if you kept fish back then. Well if it does get worse the constant change in temperature and light will stress the fish out.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

The room temp in my flat where my aquariums are has never gone below 23 degrees...even with thick white stuff on the ground in 2010

Last year a substation went bang nearby and cut my flat and a few hundred other homes off for 24 hours, the fish weathered it absolutely fine. I did water changes once power was restored to be sure all was OK but I didn't actually need to, it was something I chose to do.

I don't actually heat my flat...ever.

As for back in the bad old days of strikes and the occasional sliced main cable on the island, we didn't lose any fish....all I can think of is that we humans underestimate how tough they actually are.

 

[Coryking]

The room temp in my flat where my aquariums are has never gone below 23 degrees...even with thick white stuff on the ground in 2010

Last year a substation went bang nearby and cut my flat and a few hundred other homes off for 24 hours, the fish weathered it absolutely fine. I did water changes once power was restored to be sure all was OK but I didn't actually need to, it was something I chose to do.

I don't actually heat my flat...ever.

As for back in the bad old days of strikes and the occasional sliced main cable on the island, we didn't lose any fish....all I can think of is that we humans underestimate how tough they actually are.

They much tougher then I thought. But I would still be careful you never know what could happen.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

They much tougher then I thought. But I would still be careful you never know what could happen.

As said, if concerned, go to Argos and buy a cheap duvet, chuck it into a cupboard and when/if you get notice or confirmation of a cut, then use it to keep the aquarium snug. Most filters thesedays do not backflow when turned off, so contamination will be next to zero.

(My filters do backflow to a degree, so a water change after a cut isn't always needed but for peace of mind its fine)

 

[GaryE]

Don't worry.

Here in Canada, I lived for a long time in a tree filled area, and snow and ice on trees takes wires out. I have gone through many 6 hour blackouts at temperatures I doubt many Brits get around their places.
If you have Aqua-Clear power filters, be ready for a manual restart by spinning the impeller. You can throw a blanket over the tank if you are worried, but heat loss is slow. Your fish are fine dropping 3 degrees and will weather more. You don't lose freshwater fish for 48 hours if it's at freezing outside.
If you have salt tanks, best of luck. I have never had one to comment. If you are an inexperienced aquarist who has severely overstocked, you will have problems. If you just bought fish, you should be quarantining, as a chill can bring out any ich if they're carrying it. When you buy the fish, buy a little bottle of malachite green because even if you fear chemical treatments as a principle, you won't have heaters. But that should only be for new arrivals.
.Don't overfeed, don't feed when the power's off, stay on the water changes (more rigourously than usual) and you will do fine.

Don't use frozen bloodworms if they've thawed and refrozen - they become very dark as an indicator.

 

[Essjay]

I once forgot to turn the filter back on after a water change and only realised when I tried to turn it off a week later for the next water change. There were no behaviour changes in the fish to alert me, and both ammonia and nitrite tested negative. Admittedly this was a tank which had been running for several years and had live plants, both of which would have helped, but 7 days is a lot longer than even 8 hours.


Then there's the time that our power was off for 8 hours while work was done on the substation. Again, no problems for the fish.

 

[GaryE]

Then there's the time that our power was off for 8 hours while work was done on the substation. Again, no problems for the fish.

My record is 189 hours at 0 c outside. It still took 60 hours for me to see significant losses.

 

[Rxhart]

I had 12 days no power with hurricane Harvey in Houston. I have a small generator and powered my tanks with it. It sits outside and you run long power line inside to a few appliances. We did the refrigrator, the tanks and a couple of lamps on 1 Honda generator. When I bought it, was about $1500 US. Others are cheaper, but the Honda one lasts forever. Here in the hurricane belt we have many people who get whole house generators. I found it cheaper to just get a little Honda one. Great engine that lasts for years. Have to get gas for it before though. Tip- charge your phone in the car during long outage.

 

[AmyKieran]

Remember to have check valves on air pumps, stops water siphoning everywhere if power goes out

 

[AmyKieran]

I may have misunderstood the link but if I haven’t this annoys me.

Why should the people of the UK have to pay stupidly high prices of gas and electric, just to have the government turn it off every so often weather they want to or not?

Surely if the electric is going to be turned off, for let’s say 3 hours, we should get our monthly price reduced by 3 hours?

I know it’s not a lot but it just seems silly that we have to be forced into no electricity when there’s not even a problem with it in the first place. The caps in the uk are no longer about reducing the amount households pay, it’s reducing how much the companies can make. You constantly hear that electricity companies are ‘100% renewable energy’ such as hydropower and wind. Has the price of wind increased? Obviously not, so why are we still paying stupid amounts?

Rant over