Power Cut

[Lizzie71]

Sometime in the middle of the night last night our power went off. My 7 year old woke me up at some ungodly hour to tell me his alarm clock was off, but I didn't really think about it properly so I didn't think to do anything about the fish. Then I got up at 7 and the power was still off (by this time it had been off for at least 2 and probably more like 4 hours). I quickly covered up the aquarium with several layers of towels to try and keep it warm. The heater was off (obviously) but also our central heating was off.

I didn't think to look at the temperature in the tank at that point so I don't know how low it went.

Then we went out for the morning (well I had to get a cup of tea from somewhere ) and when we came back the electricity was back on, but it has been going on and off ever since. Temperature in the tank is now 24 degrees but obviously will fall again if everything isn't back for the evening.

Just tested the water and found the following:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
PH 7.5

So nothing bad has happened despite the heater and filter being off. Also no dead fish, much to my surprise.

Do you think there will be knock on effects to this later, for example could the ammonia rise later, or could my fish become ill later on because of this?

 

[Scotty001]

Sorry to hear about the powercut, sounds like you have a transient fault on the underground or overhead cables, they are a bugger to have and can take some time to find !!! sometimes weeks !! (i work in the electrical power distribution buissiness) if it keeps happening call your local distribution co and find out if your electric is fed from a ground mounted substation, if it is ask them to fit a "rezap" it replaces / is substtute for the substation fuse so when the elec would go off it automatically comes back on withing 5 mins max !! (normally seconds or you only notice a littel flicker) it is designed to put lots of pressure on the cable and cause the section thats faulting to break apart, when this happens you WILL LOOSE ALL ELEC for atliest 5 HOURS !!!!!!!!!!!! it takes that long to locate exactly where the fault it then dig the road up and replace the faulty section. so i will say start to prepare for that !!!! If its over head substation (PMT) pole mounted transformer then the rezap will not work and they will need to send a lines crew out each time the supply goes off, so when it does go off call the distribution co ASAP !!

If you have gas for cooking then great !!! if not a little camping gas stove will be usefull as you will be able to boil some water mix it with a little cold water so it is hot but not boiling, CAREFULLY POUR it into a 2Ltr coke or soft drink bottle, put the cap on and place this into the tank this way as the bottle is hotter than the current tank temp it will not send the tank water temp sky-rocketing but will slow down the cooling process and you can do this over and over to maintain the water temp (Oh and have that cup of tea ;-).

you can also get some oxygenating tablets from your lfs which will temporerraly act as the airstone in your hour of need or have you ever had to put up with your kid blowing bubbles through a straw into their drink making an awfull noise ??? well now they have a LARGE "drink" that they can blow bubbles into through a straw till their hearts content !!! where mum n dad wont shout at them ;-) ill guarentee they will get bored of it soon and you will have killed 2 birds with one stone, no more will they blow bubbles into their drink and for a short time your tank has been airated with the bubbles causing movement on the surface water therefore oxygenating the tank.

hope this helps a little !!!

Scott

 

[Lizzie71]

Thanks Scott! The good news is that the power has now stayed on since about 2pm, so I think they have fixed it Tank is back up to 26 degrees, which is normal, and the fish are behaving fine, so hopefully that's the end of that!

Thanks for all the tips though, I will certainly remember them for next time. I like the one about getting the kids to blow bubbles, I think they'd love that!