Sorry I was not available to post in this thread sooner- but Irene kept us without elec., TV, internet and land line for almost 6 days (no cell phone for a day and a half). Fortunately, we have a whole house backup generator so we are self powered during electrical outages.
First, regarding blowing into a tank with a straw, note below;
Inspired Air This contains approx:
- 79% nitrogen
- 20% O[sub]2[/sub]
- 0.04% CO[sub]2[/sub]
- Water vapour/Trace Gases
Expired Air
This contains approx:
- 79% nitrogen
- 16% O[sub]2[/sub]
- 4% CO[sub]2[/sub]
- Water vapour/Trace Gases
From
http
/www.ambulancetechnicianstudy.co.uk/respsystem.html
The difference in O between inhale and exhale is 4% or 1/5. 20% in and 16% out. So you can blow bubbles in a tank to roil the surface and not worry about O vs co2. There is a better chance you would pass out from blowing long and hard if its a decent sized tank than your fish suffocating from co2 excess and O shortage.
The best cheap route for dealing with power outages are battery operated air pumps. Move the bio media out of the filter into the tank and run however many battery pumps as necessary. This won't help with temp. control but will help keep the tank water curculating some and the O in and the co2 out.
Other things to note:
-Don't feed except for fry.
-Water can be heated on an outdoor grill.
-Hydrogen peroxide can be used to make O in the water.
-Converter running from a car battery can be used to create some power for some time.
- Small gas gennie would help even more.
sorry for your losses and i hope nothing else happened to you and your family
