Survived my first power outage...

[JammyBirch]

power went out last night at 2am, no overflow or leaks. Glad I test this scenario once a month.

My question is this. What can you do during a power outage? My fear was that the water was losing O2, I don't know how long my live stock could go until the water was depleted. I have a battery air pump, for filling air mattresses and was going to make a bubbler out of it with some tubing.

I have small fish, see sig, in a 25g cube what are some of the watch outs, during an outage and how long can they manage in the tank with no pumps?

 

[pyithar]

we have very frequent power outages where i live. ( about two or three times a week and it usually takes one or two hours to get the power back. all my fish and corals are fine for 2 hours. i run the battery air pump if it's taking longer than that. i have 6 small fish and 3 medium fish in my 150G mixed reef.

 

[nmotz]

Well congratulations on surviving the outage...You're right to worry about the O2. That is the first thing you want to address, and I know there are battery powered bubblers that some people use. They obviously won't keep your tank going for days on end, but they'll help for a little while.

Otherwise, you'll have to get a generator, but those aren't cheap or an option for people living in apartments. My thoughts are that if I had a large tank with tens of thousands of dollars invested in it, a generator does make sense. If not, I think I'll just have to try to find other ways to mitigate the damage. My tank right now is just a 40B, and I have it on a power strip with a battery in it that will last for a few hours in case of a power failure.

It does worry me though. Power went out for a few hours last week, and I'm out of town. My wife called to tell me about it. Everything came back up on its own, which is good. The bad news was that the clock on my power strip completely reset and it was programmed to control my light.

 

[ericarenee]

Well congratulations on surviving the outage...You're right to worry about the O2. That is the first thing you want to address, and I know there are battery powered bubblers that some people use. They obviously won't keep your tank going for days on end, but they'll help for a little while.

Otherwise, you'll have to get a generator, but those aren't cheap or an option for people living in apartments. My thoughts are that if I had a large tank with tens of thousands of dollars invested in it, a generator does make sense. If not, I think I'll just have to try to find other ways to mitigate the damage. My tank right now is just a 40B, and I have it on a power strip with a battery in it that will last for a few hours in case of a power failure.

It does worry me though. Power went out for a few hours last week, and I'm out of town. My wife called to tell me about it. Everything came back up on its own, which is good. The bad news was that the clock on my power strip completely reset and it was programmed to control my light.

For a few hours we have a DC PUMP. But also a propane Generator out back by the Garage that can run a big part of our house and all of the Reef with the exception of the m./h lights..
My wife and i would die if we lost all the money invested..

 

[JammyBirch]

Ya a generator is on my want list then all of this is a non-issue.

 

[Green Chromis]

:fish1: In a your tank, and I see you have a sump, I would use some type of container to scoop water out of the sump, and pour back into the display tank. Make sure the water returns to the sump via the overflow or you will cause an overflow of the display tank. I did this once in my system and it worked great for a few days, until I could retrieve the whole house generator form our warehouse. Now we have the whole house generator on site thru the hurricane season as the generator is on a trailer and we can store it in a warehouse or our garage when not in use. :fish1:

 

[JammyBirch]

I'd like to run a sub panel to power necessary circuits with a switch to keep from killing guys on the pole. Running water from sump to the DT is a good idea.

 

[ericarenee]

I'd like to run a sub panel to power necessary circuits with a switch to keep from killing guys on the pole. Running water from sump to the DT is a good idea.

I Have a small Manual Transfer switch . Since our power almost never goes out did not see a need to perm wire the generator in.. Its propane so always ready and no need to worry about bad gas ...

It can run our fridge most of the lights gas furnace blower for winter and of course most of the aquarium stuff. It Will not run m/h lights as they are on 220 and the ac unit for house..
forget how big the generator is .but its a GENARC

 

[chicagoreefer20]

I have a mp10 with a battery backup. In a power outage the mp10 stays on except at half power. The mp10 backup is expensive but its possible to make one using a belkin residential gateway battery for about $25

 

[homer1475]

A 4 day power outage is what halted me in this hobby some 20 years ago. Now that I own my home, a generator was a must. Where I live we loose power quite frequently and sometimes days on end.

Even one of those small generators that are super quiet, will at the very least run a couple pumps.

 

[gone fishin]

Using a pitcher every couple of hours to pull some water out of the tank and pour it back in will break the surface and help out with O2. I keep a few 2 liter bottles on hand to fill with warm water, Coleman camp stove, or ice depending on the season to help with temperature. Also, if it is cold blankets over the tank will help some as well. Feed very sparingly.

 

[ericarenee]

Using a pitcher every couple of hours to pull some water out of the tank and pour it back in will break the surface and help out with O2. I keep a few 2 liter bottles on hand to fill with warm water, Coleman camp stove, or ice depending on the season to help with temperature. Also, if it is cold blankets over the tank will help some as well. Feed very sparingly.

The picture or bucket from sump to tank would be tough job here.. So Walk across the living room thru the kitchen down the steps down the all thru the door into the Sump room. Fill the picture.. BACK down the hall up the steps across the kitchen into the living room then pour. Repeat . Repeat ..:headwalls: Then Repeat again...:love1::headwally:

 

[gone fishin]

Just use the pitcher in the DT. Scoop up some water out of the DT and pour it back in.

 

[tkeracer619]

My tanks all have vortechs and battery backups. Worth every penny.

I run the vortechs at the highest point I can without sucking in air. When power cuts they go into slow mode, the water level drops, and they start to suck in just a little air.

General rule of thumb on a decently stocked tank is 5 hours before things start to go sour.

At minimum have battery backup air pumps with good batteries, at most have an auto transfer standby genset. Doesn't really matter what you have, just have something.

Power was out for me for 3 hours just now. Don't think the fish knew any different.

 

[Indymann99]

Look into an inverter (best if you can afford a sine wave one - but a PWM one may work with your return pump). Just power your return pump and 1 power head , no heaters no lights.

This keeps water flowing through the system and will provide O2 exchange going from the DT to the sump.

I put my inverter with a deep cycle marine BATT on my mix tank (same Mag9 as my return) and ran it for 14 hrs.

 

[johnike]

Battery powered bubblers for minnow buckets can be a great way of keeping water aerated for hours and hours.

 

[Coralreefer1]

Anything you can do to agitate the air/surface interface will go far in terms of the survival of your livestock during a power failure , to increase oxygen. Above mentioned are great ideas. I will use a pitcher and take water out and pour slowly back in to create oxygen bubbles. The other thing I will do is run my hands across the top of the tank to increase oxygen bubble. Then you have to be careful of temperature swings. If the water begins to get too cold, which it will do quite quickly is to wrap a blanked around the tank. If temp gets to warm place frozen 1liter soda bottles in your tank, or bags of ice to maintain the proper temp. Monitor this process so that your temp remains constant.