How Long Can The Power Be OUT?

[loglew]

Let me start off by saying thank goodness for a laptop and a cell phone. So my power has been off for about four hours for whatever reason. How long can it be off before I’m going to start having issues with the tank? I have a 150 gallon tank with a 30 gal sump/fug. My Purple LTA is already deflated down to almost nothing and is really starting to worry me. Haven’t seen it that small since it came out of its shipping bag. Temp is staying good its only dropped 1 degree to 78. All the fish seem to be acting normal.

 

[Jaycen B.]

Wrap it in a blanket to help with the temp, and an airstone if yoy have a battery powered air pump if not you can scoup out water and dump it back in to make air bubbles. Idaho=cold I am from Wyoming, now in Georgia. Enjoy your winter.

 

[Hop]

Depends on a lot of aspects with your tank. Try to keep it aerated through whatever means you can. Some tank will crash within a few hours and some may go a full day with little trouble. It depends a lot on the sandbed and where levels are at in the tank.

 

[Jaycen B.]

Hop care to elaborate?

 

[Hop]

Hop care to elaborate?

A sandbed (especially a older and more depleted one) will use the o2 rapidly and as that happens the tank becomes anoxic. Having some water movement, or even better running a powerhead off a battery or inverter is a good way to hopefully fuel oxegen exchange at the surface. The higher the temp of the tank the quicker this process happens and the more rapidly anoxic conditions may become a factor as the o2 is consumed at a faster rate.

 

[Jaycen B.]

Cool thanx.

 

[Sk8r]

You can extend the time by dipping up water and pouring it back in from a height. Try to limit splash. If you have a squeeze ball, hose, and airstone, you can squeeze it and help with that. YOu can couple treatment A with activated carbon (washed) to help with the situation.
Or run to the store and get a generator...which is pricey.
Re the other aspect of your question, a 6 hour power out is lengthy for a city unless there has been a storm.
And the length of time your tank can go depends also on how heavily it is stocked and how oxy-hungry the species are.

 

[loglew]

Good news the power is back on, I'm still not sure way it was off for so long. Power Company claims it only affected about 1700 people. How lucky am I! The good news is everything looks like it made it through ok. The LTA is coming back out. Thanks for all the good advice, diffidently leaves me to some thinking on how to make some changes so I don't have to worry about this the next time. Just glad I was around when it happened.

 

[Neogenocide]

Battery Backup!!

www.apc.com They are some of the best you can get. I use a 2200VA unit myself.
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SUA2200RM2U&total_watts=50


Scott

 

[Crawfishy]

For next time. you can buy an Azoo battery back up for about $60. IT can keep your tank aerated for up to 20 hours during a blackout.

Glad your tank made it.

 

[Neogenocide]

I guess I should clarify what I posted....I run my entire tank off that. It all depends how much you want to spend and what you want to run during an outage.

Scott

 

[lordofthereef]

This sort of thing scares me. Have heard horror stories of people's entire tanks wiped out due to a 4 day power outage here in town. Think I will bite the bullet when I have the big tank going and just buy a used generator and keep it in the garage. Couple hundred bucks with a chance of never using it is better than thousands wasted in a power outage.

 

[loglew]

+ 1 Ya im thinkin the same thing!

 

[Hop]

I have my vortecs on the battery back up and then I picked up a power inverter that will allow me to run the return pump and the heater from my truck if the power is out too long. I keep looking for a generator, but I always think I need one bigger than my wallet