Cannister Help? - Power Out

[waterdrop]

We lost power to our neighborhood yesterday evening and power it still out. Sometimes these things last for days.

As soon as I got home and realized the situation (4 hrs out at that point?) I closed the taps on the eheim pro and carried it to the bathtub and opened it up. I filled a bucket with tank water and then poured most of the water out of the cannister filter and replaced it with fresh tank water so that it covered all media. This was all in the pitch black and very difficult. There then may have been another 4 hrs, don't know.. poured it out and filled with fresh tank water again. Since daylight I've been doing it slightly more frequently.

Are there any refinements or better ways members can advise me so I can keep my hard-won bacteria alive? My tank level will get too low at some point. Could I dechlor some tap water and add some ammonia to it and get the same refresh for the bacteria you think?

~~waterdrop~~
ps. will chk for help when I can get into town where power is, as I'm doing at the mo

 

[chesterscot]

soz to hear that waterdrop wish i could help but not a clue hope you get it sorted soon
regards scoty

 

[rabbut]

I tend to open the taps and drain a bucket of tank water through the filter before closing the taps again, and adding the bucket contents back to the tank

Do this as often as possible, and it will keep the filter oxygenated, and that is the most important thing. Oxgen starvation is the thing that will kill your filter with the power out, don't worry about ammonia. The filter will last days without ammonia, but only a few hour once oxygen runs out

HTH, and best of luck keeping those bacteria alive
Rabbut

 

[orange shark]

stupid question but did you say you were in town posting?

 

[waterdrop]

Well, the power outage was more than 24 hours and I guess today or tomorrow will tell the extent to which my bacteria died. rabbut, thanks for your comment, as it took me a while looking at it to realize that what you were saying could make more sense than what I was doing. I finally realized that I hadn't considered doing it that way because my external hydor heater is rigged up to be verticle behind the tank and takes away the flexibility of the output tube, keeping it from being able to reach out and fill a bucket. But now I realize that a good plan will be to get another length of the right diameter tubing which in the future I can just attach at the point of the spraybar and swing back over into a bucket on the floor to do what you are saying.

~~waterdrop~~