Power Outtage - Planning Advice Needed

[DevUK]

Morning all.

My electricity company have decided to do some maintenance on Friday during the day and they say the power will be off for 2 hours. Any advice on what I need to do to prepare? Already booked the day off

my two tanks are:

20gal coldwater -
1 fancy goldfish
6 WCMMs
4 zebra danios

Fluval 204 external filter

The other is a Rio 180 tropical

6 pentazona barbs
6 harlequin rasbora
4 leopard danios
2 Ottos
2 bamboo shrimp
1 CAE

200w heater
Tetratec EX700 external filter.

I think things will be ok, as long as the power is only out for that ammount of time. Am I correct in assuming the filters should be fine for that amount of time?

I have a gas cooker so I can heat water if needed.. Any advice on what I'll need incase things go wrong?

 

[kewskills]

They should be fine for 2 hours, i have had power failures longer than that with no mini cycles or problems, also the temp will not fall low with that amount of time, so all should be OK

 

[LakeyGal]

You could cut down the feeding up to the point the power goes to reduce waste so less pressure on the non running filter in case they go over 2 hours, if you have gas central heating then the temp of your tanks shouldn't be an issue as they'll stay room temp. Hope they stick to the 2 hour window.

 

[rabidric]

We recently had a 17hour and 50minute power outage (just short of the 18 needed to get compensation!) and had no problems at all. But to be on the safe side we did water changes every day for 4 or 5 days and added a couple of the bottles of live stuff from the lfs. We've got a puffer and he is still fine, fat but fine.

 

[DevUK]

Thanks for the encouragement

I'm not so sure about the gas central heating. I thought you needed electricity for that? Or is that just for the timer circuit etc? I have a combi boiler...

 

[raptorrex]

Thanks for the encouragement

I'm not so sure about the gas central heating. I thought you needed electricity for that? Or is that just for the timer circuit etc? I have a combi boiler...

i am afraid you will be without your gas heating too, it will need electric to power the pump and timer. it should not effect any gas cooking gear though.

i have been thinking about this for some time, we had a short cut some months ago.
looking around on ebay you can get car type inverters, that will run items up to 150 or 200 watts for as low as £10. this would, at least keep your filter running, keeping the colony alive, for as long as you have 12v battery's to run it. heating would be the main problem, as bigger inverters are quite expensive. so my plan is to use an inverter on the filter and lag, wrap, the tank in old blankets and quilts.

 

[CFC]

Go down the local tool hire shop and hire a small petrol powered generator for the day, all problems solved for about £20

 

[raptorrex]

Go down the local tool hire shop and hire a small petrol powered generator for the day, all problems solved for about £20

humm good idea, might get your house heating back that way too.

i was thinking more allong the lines of having something to hand, if and when it happend.

 

[rabidric]

My local B&Q has a small generator on offer for about £80 and I'm going to invest in one at the weekend - just in case!

Good luck with whichever way you go.

 

[DevUK]

My local B&Q had one on offer for £35 some months back. Don't remember what sort of power it produced but I was thinking it was OK at the time. Kicking myself for not buying one now!

I've also thought about maybe getting hold of a UPS (uninterruptable power supply). I might be able to source one through work

 

[darkwolf29a]

UPS would be great. I have to get a new one, but...I used to run one for various things...and with the current you are talking about...you should be fine for 2 hours, at least. Obviously, the bigger the better with these things.

 

[Meds081603]

For your situation I don't really think you need to do anything. I have a powerful UPS that we use when power goes out. It is not uncommon during the winter for us to lose power for days at a time if not longer. For extended outages I just put my filters in the tank water to keep them wet. I run a timer on the UPS that cycles the air pumps on for about 15 minutes every 2 hours. Of course we lose our heat when the power goes out. We have a kerosene furnace that keeps the house from freezing but still to cold for the fish sometimes. I have had good luck with using handwarmers inside a tupperware container floating in the tanks. I just replace them 2 or 3 times a day and it keeps the water around 70 if the house is not too cold.