What To Do If You Lose Electrcity?

[CoryDoc]

This is my 1st winter with a fish tank and was wanting to know what do you do if we have an ice storm and are without electrcity for a couple of days? Any thing I can do to keep the water temp. high enough so my fish want die? We don't have a fire place either.
I'm sure it has happen to someone out there, any ideas?

 

[Tolak]

Plan ahead & get a small generator. I would be more worried about the pipes freezing with no power. Look into power inverters that hook up to your car, they turn 12vdc into 120vac. One of these should be enought to run your tank, a lamp or 2, or a radio.

I have 14 tanks running at the moment, & a 5kw generator. It'll run around half the house, including the tanks.

 

[steelhealr]

Agree with Tolak. Although it is not cheap, it is not superexpensive either. We have two kids and had a transfer switch installed in our home. This connects needed appliances to a switching panel in our garage. When the power goes out, we simply turn on and plug in the generator. It will power our heater, microwave, lights, refrigerator (A/C and stove draw too much power).

If you don't install a transfer switch, you can just just plug in a power cord from a generator and bring it into the house.

If those are not options, you can wrap your tank with some sort of insulation to keep the heat in...blankets, etc. SH

 

[CoryDoc]

Thanks guys. I think I need to get a generator

 

[tttnjfttt]

Here is how i survive power outages without a generator (i have done this with success for 5 hours, power hasn't been out longer than that). I put my bio filter in my tank. Other people pour water through their filter regularly. I also mix up the water every hour. To help keep the tank warm, you can float bottles of hot water. When I did this, i had no water quality problems.

Before buying a generator, consider how likely is your power to go out for a few days? Is it a yearly occurance or a rare what if? Also, when your power goes out, does your heater work, and can you keep that up high enough to help your fish? I know when i was asking power questions someone said they kept their fish alive for two days without power just by pouring water through the filter every hour.

 

[steelhealr]

It's not a matter of whether your power is out for 1 hour..5 hours.....etc. If it goes out in the dead of winter at ALL, it's bad. Your pipes will freeze and cost thousasnds of dollars. One lost full refrigerator of food will almost pay for a cheap generator. IMO, especially in these days of 'uncertainty', you could never go wrong owning one, even if it sits in the garage for years before ever being needed. BTW, if you check your credit card, or if you have membership miles, you can get a Home Depot card and get one free (that's what I did). JMO. SH

 

[Genesis]

or you could just get a small heater for your fish room and leave the door closed...

http/www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml05/05240.html

for example