When The Lights Go Out

[mcalister]

We've been having a lot of electrical storms w/power outages. I have two airstones and an air wand which I hook up with pumps run on batteries. That takes care of the oxygen but am worried about the filters. How long can they go w/o moving? I changed the water this morning - 25% as power off 7 hours. Will check ammonia and nitrate when I get home from work. There are a lot of plants (and more ordered). Any suggestions?

 

[helterskelter]

filter will start to die off from oxygen starvation quite quickly esp if their is a large flow rate.

I've not researched it but would guess most would of died off after 3-4 hours.

Sorry just keep an eye on ammonia and nitrItes and do the water changes

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

you can get small genarators cheap these days

 

[Rooster]

Lets not start a panic.... Ive done this for decades and NEVER used a backup power supply, I would loose a wink of sleep until 12 hours have passed - and I doubt we will see that

 

[jmkgreen]

3-4 Hours, you're kidding?

Many people transport filter media between places over 4 hours journey time (particularly if moving counties) between tanks no problem.

Just a pity there's a lack of scientific testing in this area to point at a timescale reliably...

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Why not get yourself a battery pack / invertor?


Our old house suffered from lots of power cuts which varied from 2-3 hours to a maximum of 18 hours.

I used a 12v lorry battery which I left on a trickle charger and an invertor. I got a small cheap invertor for about £20 which was 200w - Enough to power most fish tank equipment

A medium size external filter uses less than 10watts which would last for hours if not days on a 100ah lorry battery. You could also hookup a 100w heater which only runs for a few minutes at a time.

You can also buy '12v jump packs' with invertors built in - would last a good few hours.


I must add I didn't actaully use the above system for a fish setup but it would work - I just didn't have fish then but needed to keep power for other things without making all the noise/smell of a generator

 

[Mikaila31]

I wouldn't worry about the media until 12 hours w no power. You say you have battery powered air stones, so why not make a emergency sponge filter powered by the air stones. Just use the media from your filters when the power goes out and put it back in the filter once the power comes back.