New England Storm: Power Outages: How to cope...

[Sk8r]

2 problems in a winter storm---circulation and heat.
If you have a fireplace, you have an asset. If tank not in heated room, you can insulate 3 tank walls with styrofoam sheets, with blanket, etc. Total dark in tank not recommended, as snails and crabs can get aggressive with sleeping fish. Keep the heat in your water as much as possible. Your live rock and sand will lose heat more slowly and remain a refuge for corals and fish.

Circulation...if you have a battery power source, don't run it full out til it dies: run it 5 minutes every hour day and night---or if you have a low-power airstone-small air pump, you can run that for 10 min an hour: observe your fish: if they're at the top instead of down in the warm rocks, accelerate the water agitation. Just turning the water over for that brief period is enough in most tanks. If you are overstocked, make it 10 min. If no battery, stand on a chair or ladder, dip up water and pour it from a height into your tank, and do this for 5 min steady every hour. No kidding: this is not fun, and I've done it---the fish survived. Another thing that works is a squeeze bulb connected to airline tubing and an airstone and squeezed by hand or foot: I did this on a 1200 mile crosscountry move and got everybody there alive. Anything that can inject air is good.

Hoping your power stays up and you don't need any of this.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Might be too late if you live in the Northeast as the snow's already started, but a few add-ons to sK8r's advice:

If you can make it to an auto parts or home store, they often have power inverters for sale. With this, a long extension cord and your car (with a full tank of gas), you can run most all of the critical equipment in your tank (heater, circulation pumps).

If your heat's out, and you don't have the inverter mentioned above to run your tank's heater, you can keep a smallish (<75 gallon) tank warm with a few mason jars and a propane campstove. Simply heat the water to hot but not boiling, pour it into the jar, seal it, and float it in your tank. Minimum temperatures for everything to survive depends on your list of critters, but most things can survive 12-24 hours if the tank doesn't go below 72 deg F.

 

[Sk8r]

72 degrees is a mark you don't want to get below, if you can help it. And the floating jars is brilliant: do arrange to keep any mental tops floating above the water if you have to tape them. 62 degrees is the start of lethality from cold, but the rock enables things to hold out longer---definitely better too cold than too hot, when it comes to deviations from 78-80: lethality from heat starts around 85.