Power outage, what to do

[justin_freebord]

I'm a college student with a 5.5 gallon tank. I use a aquaclear 20 with chaeto as my filtration along with a rio 50 for water movement/gas exchange. This week is spring break for me so i left yesterday (thursday) after giving my tank a larger than normal top off, its worked before in the past. I plan to go back to school on monday to add more top off water and feed the tank/make sure everything is ok (i live 1.5 hours away). The problem is on sunday the school has scheduled a mass power outage in order for PG and E to do some electric work and install some new things ect. The outage is scheduled to last 10 hours in total. I plan to come up the next day early like 10am on monday. I have the tank running on two outlets. I move my rio50 to the wall and my filter to the power brick just incase when the power comes on and for some reason the brick poped and wont add power ill at least get some water movement asap.


What do i need to be worried about in terms of coral health and fish health? Im just trying to get an idea of what i should be prepared to expect coming into my room on monday. I currently have several zoas, some random soft stuff, a chalice, micromussa, and duncan. Fish wise i have a green clown goby and then inverts are 3 sexy shrimp


what do you think could happen in 10 hours of outage? knowing my luck with my chalice thus far it will probably get stressed out and owned.

 

[davewbush]

Is your light on a timer? 10 hours without light shouldn't hurt anything. The weather seems to nice so the temp shouldn't go to crazy, but this is all I think you have to worry about.

 

[THE ROOK]

Battery operated air pumps are pretty cheap & one would help incase the "power brick" runs out of juice.

 

[justin_freebord]

sorry should clarify when i say powerbrick i mean its just a strip that has an on off switch that is plugged into the wall so i can have like 6 plugs instead of one. The part i was worried about was somehow the power strip poping when the power came back on but i dont think it will.

 

[Anemonebuff]

You will need a battery air pump. 10 hours without power will starve the inhabitants of oxygen and they probably would die.

 

[justin_freebord]

also yes the lights are on a timer so when i go up on monday ill adjust the time back to normal. The tank will be fine without light for that time considering the lights dont normally turn on till 1pm anyways it will just have an extra long dark period and will run all night im sure when the timer catches up

 

[Anemonebuff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14801805#post14801805 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justin_freebord
sorry should clarify when i say powerbrick i mean its just a strip that has an on off switch that is plugged into the wall so i can have like 6 plugs instead of one. The part i was worried about was somehow the power strip poping when the power came back on but i dont think it will.

The power strip(brick) should not blow out, but by then it may be too late. SW tanks need more surface aggitation to aid in O2 exchange. SW is concentrated with salts, bi carbonates, and other stuffs. These things take up space that would normally be O2, FW tanks need not worry about this as much due to the low S.G..

 

[Anemonebuff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14801818#post14801818 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justin_freebord
also yes the lights are on a timer so when i go up on monday ill adjust the time back to normal. The tank will be fine without light for that time considering the lights dont normally turn on till 1pm anyways it will just have an extra long dark period and will run all night im sure when the timer catches up

You have just stated something that will make things worse. Light makes algae and other organisms create O2 as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Without light you reduce the O2 even more.

 

[justin_freebord]

baring the fish doesnt die due to lack of oxygen, what can i expect the lack of oxygen to do on my coral? will it effect them at all or will they be fine?

 

[davewbush]

I think you will be fine. Let us know how it turns out?

 

[Anemonebuff]

Corals will suffer as well, they need well oxygenated water.

 

[justin_freebord]

yeah hopefully, the reason i didnt get any back up pump was from what i had read as long as you dont have a ton of really active fish anything less than 24 hours was doable. But I figured id ask just to see what you guys here thought. So thank you for the information, if i remember ill post what happens. You are more likely to get a response if everything is dead and im in shock. I think 10 hours is a long time but ive left my tank without good movement for a few hours before during a waterchange (i forgot i was doing one heh)

bleh all i can do is hope nothing goes wrong, the only problem with having a tank in college, i cant always be there due to lengths of breaks and sometimes its just not practical to take it home and cause all that stress

 

[THE ROOK]

I thought you had a UPS backup. 10 hours without flow in a 5 gallon tank is definitely asking for problems. Check your local LFS/Petco. Battery pumps are usually under $10.00.

 

[justin_freebord]

well i dont know how long the power was off but at one point it was for sure off. I went in today and everything was alive and some stuff had drifted around. My duncan looked iffy and i noticed some recession on 2 of the heads so i moved it a little and adjusted it as a small rock was touching it. Everything else though looked great and my micro which has had issues since day one (lots of recession problems) looked the best it ever has and i even found a possible baby head. Just thought id let you all know how it went for the future however i will be buying a ups back up


thanks for all the help : D

 

[snorvich]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14801737#post14801737 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by THE ROOK
Battery operated air pumps are pretty cheap & one would help ...

Yes, these are invaluable in trying to save you system. I have a generator but that may be infeasible for many.

 

[davewbush]

Happy to hear every thing is ok.

 

[justin_freebord]

yeah i want the battery ones but im more worried about the outages on thanksgiving break or one of the small breaks or a weekend when i go home because i am able to leave the tank unattented for 4-5 days at a time if im smart about it. UPS will be my first purchase then im going to try and make a small gravity fed auto top off that just fills as its depleted...now if i could just find the forum that had the way to do it....i dont want float switches >.<