Tips On Preparing For Power Outages

[karin]

Whew. Power came on after a 10 hour outage and a few feet of snow. outside... it is cold. Boiled water on the woodstove to add to a 60 gallon and 10 gallon that I have here at the house. Now I'm also working on the 60 gallon since nitrites are up.

I'm wondering about filters. If I was not here and the power goes off, the aquaclear 70 (HOB) seems to siphon dry and if the power came back on while I was away, I'm pretty certain it would not get up and running again by itself and would burn out the impellor motor. I'm not certain what would happen to the Eheim external canister filter. Would it burn out too? Interestingly the aquaclear 30 on the 10 gallon seems to maintain enough water so when power comes on it gets back up without my priming it with water. Why the difference? Don't know.

Is there some type of power strip that would shut off the power until I manually start it again? Then if power went out when I was gone, it stays off and doesn't burn out my filters.

Other tips and tricks to handle power outages?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Tolak]

I've tried burning out the motor on an AC70, after a power outage. Gave up after a few weeks, poured in water, gave the impeller a nudge, back in service. A canister will hold water, and the Eheims seem to start right back up every time.

The filter media will be fine as long as it is kept wet, the lid on the AC's keeps it humid enough in there to maintain the bacteria for the amount of time your power was out. I've got a 5kw generator in the garage for any long term outages, takes care of fish, refrigerators, and the furnace blower.

 

[karin]

I never thought anyone would "try" to burn out their filters , but I guess I'm glad for it as I get the benefit of the information. I wonder why I got a nitrite spike so quickly. I guess it is that I'm pretty maxed on fish in the 60 gallon and with 10 hours no filter the ammonia was processed but the the nitrite wasn't for some reason.

 

[Tolak]

"Torture testing" filters is one of the things I do to check out equipment. I'll often pick up filters in club raffles with the intention of doing just that, and give them away after some abuse. AC's will choke after a number of weeks in a really overstocked tank, good as new after a cleaning.

One thing I've noticed is with an overstocked tank a drop in the O2 level will affect fish first, usually within a few hours. This is my main concern when heavily stocked, if I'm not home when the power goes out I usually get a phone call. My kids are pretty good about going around the few tanks that need it and pulling out some water & pouring it back in.

 

[karin]

Well we had another power outage and this time I just watched what the filters would do if I did nothing. I was surprised, all three aquaclears started themselves... for some reason I thought I would need to manually get water to the impellor, but not so, they were fine. The Eheim canister filter also started right up with no priming.

Whew, I feel much better.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I still want to buy an Uninteruptable Power Supply, the gadgets usually associated with company computers, to hook up one piece of equipment in the 5-footer that aggitates the water surface. Something in the 1500-2000Va ballpark rating will keep a powerhead of filter (i.e. less than 50W) running for ~six hours, preventing the initial issue of oxygen suffocation.
Can be had on Ebay new for <£200.

A petrol fuelled power generator can help longer term, preventing the next immediate crisis of a water temp crash, especially if the power outage happens in winter in an outside building. I've not looked into these much, but Machine Mart and alike in theUK do these starting from ~£90.