Power outage help

[jroo99]

Help! I have been without power since 4:00pm yesterday. Almost 12 hours now and I have never been without it for more then six hours in the past.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do now or after the power comes back to minimize any loss and help my fish recover? I had heard before that the canister filters will contaminate the tanks when they come back on. Is this true… should I unplug them? Please help?

[nick a]

Yeah, go ahead and unplug your cans. If the power comes back on pretty soon you should be okay, but much longer and the filters will start going anaerobic (sp?) due to lack of air for the bacteria. You can pop the tops & that'll help give you a few more hours....otherwise start considering:

putting some dechlor water in a plastic tub and moving whatever you use for biomedia in the cans into it. swish your hand around in that bucket every now & then just for good measure.

going ahead and clean the rest of the media and the filter to be ready to go back to the tank when the power does fire back up

HTHs

[Flareside]

I was without power for more than 24 hours last week as a car took out the pole in front of my house. A trailer truck driving by caught the wires and pulled down a string of wires and poles.

I closed all the blinds in the house- so the fish would be less active. Some even slept.

I did water changes of 25%- with cooler water- lowers their metabolism and activity level further. The water change also adds oxygen and a bit of a current.

Clean your filters with tank water if you even suspect that they might be a problem when they come back on. Better safe than sorry.

You will most likely be fine with the water changes and a darkened room. Just watch them. If they start gasping near trhe surface, they need oxygen- do another water change (dechlorinate). DONT FEED THEM


IF you have filters like AquaClears- be sure to check them when power is restored, for some reason mine are 50/50 starting on their own. Sometimes I need to give the impeller a hand starting.
Let us know how it turns out

[eelsnot]

Good luck John. We just got power back in Berlin about 4 AM. Hopefully you will be back on shortly. Unbelievable storm. Trees in my area 18" in diameter snapped in half like twigs.

[cichfrk]

Battery operated aerators can be a big help too. It turns on automatically when the power goes out. Always have extra batteries just in case. Good luck.

[BlondeFishGal]

I was without power for more than 24 hours last week as a car took out the pole in front of my house. A trailer truck driving by caught the wires and pulled down a string of wires and poles.

I closed all the blinds in the house- so the fish would be less active. Some even slept.

I did water changes of 25%- with cooler water- lowers their metabolism and activity level further. The water change also adds oxygen and a bit of a current.

Clean your filters with tank water if you even suspect that they might be a problem when they come back on. Better safe than sorry.

You will most likely be fine with the water changes and a darkened room. Just watch them. If they start gasping near trhe surface, they need oxygen- do another water change (dechlorinate). DONT FEED THEM


IF you have filters like AquaClears- be sure to check them when power is restored, for some reason mine are 50/50 starting on their own. Sometimes I need to give the impeller a hand starting.
Let us know how it turns out

:I_agree: with what Flareside said. I've had to go long periods of time without power, and a dark room with water changes helps alot. In the winter time, I've had to worry about water temps dipping, but at least it is summer and not a worry for you.

Not all filters are self priming, so even with short durations of no power, I've had problems with them not re-starting. I never know what the "safe" time frame is for leaving them alone and just restarting vs. the bacteria starting to die off, so I tend to play it safe and assume the bacteria is dying/dead and rinse stuff like crazy in tank water before I restart. I have been very lucky and have never lost fish due to a power outage, but I also am careful not to overstock my tanks.

Hopefully, my post is a moot point and you have power by now. ;)

[jroo99]

Thanks everybody. I am still with out power at home, they said it would be another 4 hours. I am at work, I called my wife and asked her to unplug everything. I can not do water changes untill I get the power back because of being on well water. I am leaving now and will stop and see if I can get some battery powered air pumps. Thanks for the advice.

[Flareside]

Walmart has battery power pumps in the fishing section- for bait pails.Bright yellow- cant miss them

I have a few they work well- grab some D batteries...
Hope you see this before you leave

[eelsnot]

John if you have a large container and want to drive over you can have as much water as you need. PM me if you want directions.

[jroo99]

I am home, power still out. Elec co. says until midnight. I stopped and got some battery operated air pumps. The fish all seem to be ok so far. Thanks for the offer eelsnot, but I think I'll be ok with the air pumps. I am so glad its summer, I wouldn't want to have to worry about the temp too. Using my phone to text this, what a pain.:ty:

[Zippo]

Can you say GENERATOR? :confused3:

[eelsnot]

Power back on?

[cichfrk]

I am home, power still out. Elec co. says until midnight. I stopped and got some battery operated air pumps. The fish all seem to be ok so far. Thanks for the offer eelsnot, but I think I'll be ok with the air pumps. I am so glad its summer, I wouldn't want to have to worry about the temp too. Using my phone to text this, what a pain.:ty:


It's good to know that your fish were ok despite the long hours without oxygen supply. It just shows that your fish are healthy and the water is clean. The bottom-dwellers are usually the ones affected during power outage. The battery operated air pumps are very handy and I've proved it's worth on several occasions. They are just noisy. I hope power has been restored.

[jroo99]

Power came back on late last night. It was out for thirty hours. I rinsed all the filters and did a 25% water change to all tanks. No losses, everybody's eating and looking good. All is back to normal.

Thanks,
John

[CrabbyMatty]

Glad to hear it John. Thirty hours had to feel like 60.

Matt

[fischfan13]

Power came back on late last night. It was out for thirty hours. I rinsed all the filters and did a 25% water change to all tanks. No losses, everybody's eating and looking good. All is back to normal.

Thanks,
John


No losses is fantastic John!

[pat]

gas powered generator !!!you are crazy to invest your hard earned money , blood ,sweat and tears into our tanks and not have a back up plan!!! :coz:

[triscuit]

gas powered generator !!!you are crazy to invest your hard earned money , blood ,sweat and tears into our tanks and not have a back up plan!!! :coz:

It's not crazy to avoid the headaches of storing and maintaining a gas powered generator. I have one, and honestly, I don't know how long the power would have to be out before I tried to get it going. , Making sure there's fresh gas (hard to get during a power outage), running the noisy/stinky thing outside, stringing power cords from the ground to the second floor tanks, and don't forget that the freezer and refrigerators need power too, or space heaters in the winter. And then somebody wants to watch movies, or heat water, etc. Owning a generator dedicated to running tanks is not a practical solution for the average hobbyist.

I've heard plenty of stories of 3 day power outages with no losses in tanks that were able to maintain proper temperatures. Popping the canister filters, not feeding, and hand swirling the tank water are often enough for quite a while in well maintained tanks. For most of us living in population centers outside of hurricane-prone areas, a longer power outage is uncommon.

[nick a]

Well said!