What Do You Do When The Power Is Out?

[K.J.]

With the colder, stormier season approaching I want to know what to do when the power goes out. Here in WA, we usually have a few storms a season that knock out the power. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes for 2, even 3 days. How do you deal with the fish when that happens? Do you just do several WC a day, or what?

 

[Teelie]

A few hours is no sweat. Just keep the filters fresh with aquarium water either with a battery back up or just pouring water into it if possible. Air stones/wands/ornamants on a battery powered air pump work to keep the aquarium aerated by breaking the surface tension and so long as you don't have any particularly delicate fish, they won't have any problems roughing it.

 

[branjie]

You can put some warm water in a plastic bottle with the lid screwed on, and float it in the tank to try and keep the tank warm. This would get annoying if you had to do it for days though. Good luck .

 

[GuppyDude]

Disconnect the air hose from the air pump and start blowing... lol

I Live in WI, and we get similar weather. I just do daily 25% water changes if the powers out for more than a day or so. But i also keep guppies, and some-what hardier fish, i don't know that other species would be ok under the same circumstances. You should have a generator or something anyway though, if you live this far north the power is bound to be out every once in awhile during the winter months.

 

[Bignose]

If you have bio-wheel filters, float the wheel in the tank. The bacteria stay alive and consuming ammonia. Any filter media where the bacteria congregate can be floated. If it gets cold, you can wrap the tank in towels, or if it is getting too warm the top can be opened.

 

[K.J.]

The problem is, my main concern is night... I probably should have added this in the first post, but we have a generator, which means during the days, we have power. But at night, it has to be turned off. Do I just leave it overnight with the biowheel floating in the tank?

 

[Mikaila31]

if it has a external canister filter you can disconnect the out going hose and the filter will act like a siphon. Water will go from the tank through the filter and into the bucket. once the bucket gets full just dump it back into the tank. This way the bacteria will stay alive .

cheers,
MIkaila31