3 hour power outtage this week

[yvez9]

We'll be out of power for 3 hours tuesday or wednesday

I don't think this would cause much problem but is there anything i should do to help the fish?

I imagine the tanks will maybe drop 2 degrees so that's no big deal. What I'm worried about is the filters. is 3 hours enough to kill off bacteria?
They stay full of water though when power cuts out and they prime up by themselves since they are almost full of water.

I also have betta bowls but I'm sure it won't get cold enough in the house to kill them

 

[gale]

There's not much you can do about the temp-there aren't any battery heaters that I know of. If you're worried about the air you can get battery powered pumps or just stir the water every half hour or so.

Hope the outage goes okay-it seems like it always takes longer than they think it will (power company or whoever).

 

[yvez9]

i'm not really worried about the oxygen levels as it's only for a couple hours

i'm more worried about the filters

 

[Aj86]

i had a power outtage for a few hours and my tanks were fine so i dont think you have anythibng to worry about...

 

[Inchworm]

Hi yvez9

The beneficial bacteria need oxygenated water running through them or they will die. This doesn't mean it has to be continuous though. If you pour some tank water through the media every hour or two, it will come through just fine.

If it lasts longer than a few hours, try taking some tank water in a cup and pouring it back into the tank from a foot or so above it. If you pour it in a wide stream so that it is in as much contact with the air as possible, it will add oxygen to the water and help the bacteria and fish inside it.

I kept my tanks going from Thursday afternoon until Monday morning during the big east coast power failure, a few years back, by doing this.

 

[yvez9]

cool
i won't be home when power's out so i won't be able to pour water but worst case, I'll just get some filter media from my girlfriend to boot it back up....

thanks for all your help

 

[Bignose]

Of course, you could go out and buy a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) like you would use for your computer. When the weather forecasters predicted icestorms here last month, I bought one just because I did not want to have to do constant waterchanges and filter babysitting for days if too many powerlines snapped. I bought one that was supposed to give an average computer about an hour, and figured that was more than enough for a filter for quite some time. But, Inchworm has a good idea about pouring water on the filter. If it is a bio-wheel, you can float that in the tank for a while, too.

p.s. Where I lived, we were lucky, I only lost power for a few minutes in the middle of the night -- but my girlfriends' parents' house lost power for a week. No fish there, but they were driving over an hour just to get water or melting snow and ice on the barbeque grill for their horses and donkeys.

 

[yvez9]

in 1998, we had the big ice storm in southern quebec, i'm sure some of you will remember that,

We got lucky and lost power for 45 minutes (I,m on the north shore). Some people on the south shore of montreal lost power for 2 months!
Since then hydro-quebec has renewed infrastructures and now we have a good and constant power supply!

 

[canarsie11]

Dont remember storm, however people going 2 months with out power? How middle ages?

 

[yvez9]

it was bad, honestly...

Some people wouldn't leave there homes because some idiots thought it would be a good idea to break into homes while people where being sheltered at relative's and friends in other cities...

Then the people selling firewood thought it would be a good idea to make a hefty profit since most people had no other way of heating their homes... some people paid up to 3-4 bucks for ONE log of wood!!!

all in all though, what really stood out was all the volunteers to run shelters in school gymnasiums, people cooking food and all that...

 

[littlefishie]

I had a 3-4 hour power outage last week, and all I did was wrap the tank in a blanket.
None of my levels have been off since. Maybe I got lucky?

 

[DannyBoy17]

I left one of my Biowheels out of an empty tank for weeks, then when I filled her back up, with nothing but the filter, my levels were perfect. Bacteria survived. Wahoo, no cycling

DB