i work for our loacl electric distribution company and have changed a few meters in my time, its a simple thning to do and can take as little as 10 mins, its only a case of unscrewing 8 screws putting the new meater on the board pushing the cables back into the terminals and re-screwing the remaining 6 screws.
Anguilla82 Today, 08:14 AM
what is the issue with the filter not running? the bacteria won't die will they as they are submerged and in a warm environment?
i only ask as i've got a power cut coming up thats gonna last around 4 hours, and have a tropical tank with an fX5 and a large eheim, and a marine nano tank.
gyillmard Posted Today, 09:15 AM
I'm no expert but I think I am right in saying if you've got a filter (like an Eheim) that uses bacteria to clean the water of ammonia, nitrates, nitrites etc. it has to be left running all the time. If it stops after half an hour or so the "good" bacteria start to die and release all their toxic chemicals into the tank. The longer off the worse it gets. Over in Gloucester there is a really good tropical fish shop (Brockhurst ?) who have given me lots of advice for free, if you are losing power for 4 hours itmight be worth asking them as the power cut will probably hit them too. Gyillmard.
Sounds like your having a HV (High Voltage) shut shut down for maintainance, this will affect a few different substations / transformers that are not always next to each other so you may find that your off supply but the street next to you isnt.
You may also find it to be a case that its an LV shut down and in this case there is a chance that even part of your street will still be on supply even poss your neighbour, unlikley but is a possability, ask them if they have had a letter as if not they wont be affected and may let you plug in an extention cable from their house to yours to connect your filter to.
one other thing you can try is call the tel no that is on the letter you have got, there is a chance this tell no will take you through to the Engineer that is carrying out / responsible for the shut down, you can always ask them if they can provide a 5kv gas genny while the elec is off, they may have them they may not, but i am sure they do !!, the genny itself is noisy and will run essentials only ie fishtank and tv and fridgefreezer, but if you wanted to cook / boil water the tv and lights etc etc wil need to go off so you can do so other wise you may trip out the little genny lol.
You could also ask if the street lighting will be affected y this shut down as there are a few occasions that street lights run off of a diff circut to properties and my not be affected by this interuption. if theyre not and you have a street light or most kinds of "street furniture" that is lit outside your property ask if there is any way they can run a temp cable into your property from this street lamp.
if none of the above is poss for a temp supply i would recomend a large water change before the supply goes off, (you should have been given a time band !! ie 09:00 till 13:00) and when the elec comes back do another large water change to remove any ammonia that has built up, most of the bacteria should still be alive and will regrow very very quick and shouldnt be too much of a problem for you or the fish. any other probs or questions onthe loss of supply side etc etc just ask me / pm
Scott
