Power Failure

[tez2k007]

The power around my way has went down due to broken lines and the electric company have said it could be down until around 6pm. Thats 6 hours without power to my tank.

Am I ruined???

 

[Schmill]

How cold is it where you are? If the tank is in a central heated house you should be ok, you can always wrap the tank to be on the safe side.

Also if you are running an external filter cannister you will want to manually pour tanks water through it every so often to keep it fed and airiated.

 

[tez2k007]

How cold is it where you are? If the tank is in a central heated house you should be ok, you can always wrap the tank to be on the safe side.

Also if you are running an external filter cannister you will want to manually pour tanks water through it every so often to keep it fed and airiated.

Its not a very cold place like its usually steady room temperature. Its an internal filter I have.

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

How cold is it where you are? If the tank is in a central heated house you should be ok, you can always wrap the tank to be on the safe side.

Also if you are running an external filter cannister you will want to manually pour tanks water through it every so often to keep it fed and airiated.

Its not a very cold place like its usually steady room temperature. Its an internal filter I have.

you could do a 25% water change in a few hours with slighly warmer water to keep the heat in the tank up.

 

[Schmill]

If your house is around 20 deg C and your tank is at the fairly usual 24 deg C I can't see it dropping particularly fast.

With the internal filter again pour tank water through it every hour or so if you can or if not then take the media out and place it in the tank to pour water over. It's not great, but it will give the bacteria the best chance of survival.

 

[loraxchick]

If your house is around 20 deg C and your tank is at the fairly usual 24 deg C I can't see it dropping particularly fast.

With the internal filter again pour tank water through it every hour or so if you can or if not then take the media out and place it in the tank to pour water over. It's not great, but it will give the bacteria the best chance of survival.

I lost power about a month ago for over 80 hours due to an increadible ice storm. i have a canister filter and while i was increadibly worried about my bacteria, the only problem when the electric came back was a small mini cycle which only lasted a few days. i think your filter will be FINE!

 

[8inary]

i had a guy that came round from the electrical company, saying they needed to up date the wiring around the back of the houses, the electric would be off circa 6 hours, he saw my tanks and said, oh those will be ok for that time, I however did not agree, I told him about the bacteria etc and insisted that I would only agree with the works, if they provided a generator, ....they did and it powered the whole house 'they just wired it into the mains box'.

so, if the same situation comes up, ask for a generator.

 

[saz326]

question - If you have no power - howcome the computer is working?

Unless you have gone to someone elses house.

You should be fine. Wrap a blanket around the tank, to keep the fish calm and make them pretend its night time (even if it is night time! The extra quiet they will get will help prevent stress. They will slow down and possibly sleep through it.

 

[tez2k007]

question - If you have no power - howcome the computer is working?

Unless you have gone to someone elses house.

You should be fine. Wrap a blanket around the tank, to keep the fish calm and make them pretend its night time (even if it is night time! The extra quiet they will get will help prevent stress. They will slow down and possibly sleep through it.

I am using the laptop with a wireless network adapter. Always comes in handy when I need access to the internet when out and about. Never leave home with out it. Hopefull should not be too much longer. Seems ok at the minute.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi tez2k007

Since you don't expect any rapid or drastic temperature changes, just make sure to circulate some tank water over the bacteria in the filter every now and then. The bacteria should be fine and even if you do lose a few, they will reproduce themselves quickly. In a few days everything will be back to normal.

 

[csallaberry]

I find that investing in a battery-powered air pump a few years ago has solved this problem for me... I have a 65 gal that has survived hurricane power failures that lasted days... as well as 6-8 hour spells when the power was off...just put your media in a large media bag and tie it to either your filter tubes or anything else on your aquarium, then you place the airstone from the battery-powered pump under the bag. It will provide water movement, gently circulating water and fresh oxygen up to your media, keeping a large chunk of your bacterial filter alive and working.
My only caveat is that this is a heavily planted tank, so the decrease in effectiveness of the bacteria is always offset by the large number of plants taking up the fish waste and oxygenating the water during the day, and it's in a florida room where it receives a large amount of natural light. Heaters being off during those times also requires the use of a large see-thru plastic sheet to wrap the tank in (painting drop cloths made of transparent plastic are ideal for this and ridiculously cheap) which manages to keep my fishies warm admirably. You will go through a lot of batteries but your filter bacteria and your fish will thank you.