Will My Fish Survive Heater And Filter Being Off For Up To 8 Hours?

[Dan123]

Hi guys, the electricty poles down my road are being replaced tommorow and have been told the electricity will be off from 9am to 5pm, although it's unlikely it will be off up untill 5pm, I'm not taking any chances to I'm going to assume it will be off all day. Will my fish be OK with the heater being off for that amount of time or do I need to get some sort of generator (which I don't really want to ). The temperature outside today was only around 2 degrees so it's pretty cold. What do you guys think ?

 

[Mikey1]

if you are worried go buy yourself a computer UPS....it will need to charge up for awhile though

 

[fluttermoth]

Wrap the tank up well (blankets, duvet, bubble wrap), before the electric goes off and they should be fine.
 
As long as your filter is well cycled, you shouldn't need to worry about that either, although it would be a good idea to empty the water out of the filter, and top the tank up with fresh before you switch it back on.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

What fish do you have?  What's the current temp?  Will you have a way to heat water if needed?
 
 
I'd suggest bumping the temp up a bit right now, about 4 degrees F (so only 2 degrees C) - slowly should be fine for a brief period.  Then, when you lose power, the temp will have farther to fall before an issue occurs... Ultimately, if you can heat water still, you'd still be able to do a bit of a water change, to raise the temp if it starts to fall.


The water change afterward would be a good idea...

 

[Dan123]

Thanks guys, I have 5 endlers livebearer, 2 neon tetras, 1 harlequin rasbora (soon to be taken out) 4 guppies and 2 platy's. It's the fluval edge 46L and the current temp of the tank is 24 degrees. I won't have hot water tomorrow either.

 

[CezzaXV]

I turn my filter off when I do a water change, and there's been a couple of times where I've forgotten to turn it on again until the next day and my fish have been fine.

Wrap up the tank with blankets, bubble wrap, towels, whatever you have to prevent the heat escaping. If the temperature drops too far and you have a gas cooker, you could heat some water (not boiling) and put it in a bottle and float it in the tank.

Also, if you have a way of heating the room which doesn't require electricity then I would do so as well. The less difference there is between the room and tank temperature, the slower the temperature drop will be.

I'm sure your fish would be fine even without the suggestions given here, but they certainly can't hurt.

 

[Dan123]

Thanks for that, I'll get some towells and stuff sorted and they should be fine then Thanks again