Power Outage Survival

Yesterday around 6pm I got a call that we had a power outage at our house. I was at work and wasn't getting out until 9pm. I started freaking out because so far it has been the hottest day in quite some time, 115F.

So, I instructed my wife to find my battery powered air pump. However, she couldn't find it. I was super busy at work and overly stressed. I asked her to please go out and get me one and I'd call her when I wasn't so busy at work (don't want to get fired!). Additionally to all this going on, both my kids are spiking fevers and they cannot stay in a house without AC when it is 115F outside, which will soon turn in to at least 100F inside! So, my wife had a choice between going with my in-laws and the kids, or letting the kids go with my in-laws and go get me the pump.

She goes to the LFS to get me the pump and the kids went off with in-laws. I thank her profusely. She gets it and she actually is able to set it up right. However, I am ill at east at work since all my good bio is basically suffocating in my sump. It takes me 1.5hrs on a good day to get home from work. I decide to leave the earliest possible without getting in trouble and leave right at 8pm.

I get home in only 1hr and get to moving at removing all my bio media from the 3 bags I have in the sump. Well, on paper that sounds really easy, but I have to remove 4 layers of sponges from Swisstropicals. I clean these sponges every few months and I always do it grudgingly. However, there was no other way, and I start digging. I take the media from the sump and put it in the tank. I have want to keep the media with air, so I have to go find some bottles to put them in. Luckily I found some after digging through our recycle bin. Rinse them, and fill 2 with ice and the other with 2 bags of media. The other wouldn't fit so I said screw it and left it out in the tank with no circulation.

I'll tell you, trying to get ice cubes in to a small container when you are racing against the clock isn't fun at all. I got everything done and hoped the power would come back on. This is all done by the light of a small flashlight btw.

DWP says the power should be back by 11:30pm. At around 11pm, that 11:30pm ETA turned in to a 11:30AM!!! I had to call off work and I had to stay in a house that was hotter than some saunas I have been in. My wife and kids slept at family house and I didn't want to subject them to this.

Luckily, I am a photographer, and one thing I have in my kit is Eneloops that looks like this:
http://edcplus.com/images/Eneloop-power-pack.jpg

If you notice at the top it comes with D batteries. Well, these are cool because I can take a regular AA battery and stick it inside the D shell and run that battery. Luckily for me, I always have my batteries charged. 2 AA batteries last more than 6 hrs. Over the night though, I kept waking up every 2 hrs to change the batteries, not knowing exactly how long they'd last. Had I known they'd last that long, I wouldn't have been as worried. I still needed to get up at night to refill the ice containers though.

Anyways, long story short, almost exactly 24hrs later, the power was restored. When it did, we were actually out. I wanted to be home when this happened so that the sump water wouldn't enter the actual water column. Guess what? That is EXACTLY what happened. The pump started right up and all the dead bacteria and everything that was in the sump was now in the DT and circulating with no sponges in place and/or filter floss.

So, I'm running around like a madman again trying to do a WC from my aged water barrel (thank goodness I had that). I place my media back in the sump, I place my sponges in their section and the prefilter sponges as well. I add a circulating pump in DT to get rid of all kinds of crap in there. Again, long story short, the filter floss and sponges helped remove a lot of the dead bacteria.

I have replaced the filter floss and rinsed the sponges and the tank has cleared up significantly.

Not out of the woods yet, but I am thankfully I left work and that I was able to rig something up to save that media. Had I been complacent with the idea that the power was going to come back on soon, all my BB would have died. I still have to keep an eye on the tank, but the discus do not like they have gone through anything.

I plan on doing another 100% WC tomorrow morning and change out the filter floss (I am out of that after this!) and see if it clears up more.

maybe this will encourage some of you to always keep a battery operated pump on hand alongside batteries as well as a few empty bottles ;)

All of these Pics were taken today, none from yesterday unfortunately, too hectic:

https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7281/2...ad87767c_h.jpgPower Outage 1 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
This was today before the power came on. As you can see, pretty clear in DT and temp was right at 27.8C

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7140/2...fb288da0_h.jpgPower Outage 2 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
Right after the power was back on.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7502/2...52c3595f_h.jpgPower Outage 3 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
During water change. I was already refilling here and look how dirty it still looks!

https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7361/2...8b9e931c_h.jpgPower Outage 4 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
After a full on WC

https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7271/2...2a117b71_h.jpgPower Outage 5 by Rick Vasquez, on Flickr
About an hour later.

The lights have since gone out. I don't plan on feeding these guys for at least 2 days just in case. If I do feed, it will be small. I don't want spike ammonia and will have to keep a close eye.

Hopefully, no more power outages. I am not sure my wife, myself, or the kids can take it :embarassed:

Sry for the crappy cell phone pics. This was all shot during all the chaos. No time to get the other camera.

Wow... I hope this doesnt repeat for you. Great job on a plan of action.

When I do get on the Forum, I always enjoy your post. I am Grateful that your Babes are looking aok. I live in Florida, and grew up experiencing loss of power during Hurricane season. I recall reading how Jack Wattley kept pouring water into his tanks back in the 80's by hand to circulate oxygen ! Today ( If one can afford ) I have a stand-by generator. However all that being said, I can understand concerns of losing any of our Discus. I will definitely research the battery charger set up by Panasonic that you have, any suggestions on where to purchase this set up ? Happy you made it through this crisis, and Hope your Children feel better, crazy weather out your way ( My Wife is from LA area ) If possible when we lose Power, I hope to be Home to unplug my sump so that the nasty's will not return to the DT. Thanks Ricardo :-)

Glad all is returning to normal Ricardo. I wonder if having an additional airpump you could run in the sump would be helpful?
Pat

Glad you were able to sort it all out despite everything going on. Hope your kids are better as well :)

wow, thats so scary! everything always happens at once! fingers are crossed for yo that all your fish and kids get back to normal! and kudos to your wife!

So sorry you had to go through this Ricardo

I was rooting for you all day as I told you!! Great account of the issues and I hope this helps people in the future who may not be sure what to do if this happens. You did a great job and should be proud!

Thats a long outage to have to deal with. As I was reading your story I was wondering the same as Pat, if you had 1 or maybe 2 airstones going in different parts of the sump if that would give enough oxygen for the bio.

Every time that happens I'm up half the night pouring water in the tanks and floating hot water bottles and thinking, Must build that inverter that hooks up to the car. But afterwards I get complacent and haven't done it.:p

We have two big freezers full of home grown food. That and the fish tanks should be enough of an excuse to buy a generator. My wife and I never argue about how we spend money... it must be the Scotch in me, can't bring myself to spend a small fortune on something thats just gonna sit there.

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Originally Posted by Poppa Ryno

Wow... I hope this doesnt repeat for you. Great job on a plan of action.

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Had to do something lol.

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Originally Posted by Boyd Luth

When I do get on the Forum, I always enjoy your post. I am Grateful that your Babes are looking aok. I live in Florida, and grew up experiencing loss of power during Hurricane season. I recall reading how Jack Wattley kept pouring water into his tanks back in the 80's by hand to circulate oxygen ! Today ( If one can afford ) I have a stand-by generator. However all that being said, I can understand concerns of losing any of our Discus. I will definitely research the battery charger set up by Panasonic that you have, any suggestions on where to purchase this set up ? Happy you made it through this crisis, and Hope your Children feel better, crazy weather out your way ( My Wife is from LA area ) If possible when we lose Power, I hope to be Home to unplug my sump so that the nasty's will not return to the DT. Thanks Ricardo :-)

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I can't imagine the chaos that would ensue after a hurricane! I got the Eneloops at Costco for a great price. I think $30 or so. I love Eneloops because of how they retain charge. Would recommend in a heart beat.

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Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat

Glad all is returning to normal Ricardo. I wonder if having an additional airpump you could run in the sump would be helpful?
Pat

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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I will probably end up doing this in the future after I buy another air pump. I will have to try to source some shells for the Eneloops D cases however.

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Originally Posted by two utes

Glad you were able to sort it all out despite everything going on. Hope your kids are better as well :)

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My son is doing better, my daughter is still under the weather unfortunately. I'm sure she'll get better soon.

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Originally Posted by cedar

wow, thats so scary! everything always happens at once! fingers are crossed for yo that all your fish and kids get back to normal! and kudos to your wife!

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Yeah, kudos indeed to her. I'll give ever person here with a spouse advice, if your spouse does NOT participate at all in your aquarium related things, have everything ready for them when these type of things happen. My wife was less than pleased at my lack of organization of the pumps/airline.

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Originally Posted by Loosir

So sorry you had to go through this Ricardo

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Me too but hopefully it's behind me.

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Originally Posted by Phillydubs

I was rooting for you all day as I told you!! Great account of the issues and I hope this helps people in the future who may not be sure what to do if this happens. You did a great job and should be proud!

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Thanks for the rooting bud! I was texting you and Pat with updates lol.

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Originally Posted by DJW

Thats a long outage to have to deal with. As I was reading your story I was wondering the same as Pat, if you had 1 or maybe 2 airstones going in different parts of the sump if that would give enough oxygen for the bio.

Every time that happens I'm up half the night pouring water in the tanks and floating hot water bottles and thinking, Must build that inverter that hooks up to the car. But afterwards I get complacent and haven't done it.:p

We have two big freezers full of home grown food. That and the fish tanks should be enough of an excuse to buy a generator. My wife and I never argue about how we spend money... it must be the Scotch in me, can't bring myself to spend a small fortune on something thats just gonna sit there.

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Generator is the next step. We have 2 refrigerators and potentially losing everything in there would have been bad. They are just so pricey!

Ricardo, Sorry to hear the troubles here my friend.:( I know we talked about these in the past, but it may be a good time to put together an inverter battery pack...

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...r-The-inverter

if you can't get a small generator.

I can walk you thru it if you need help. Its a life saver.

al

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Generator is the next step. We have 2 refrigerators and potentially losing everything in there would have been bad. They are just so pricey!

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if the fridges are the goal... they don't have to be pricey or large. If you want to run AC, furnaces, water pumps etc... , best look into a whole house unit or at least a large portable that wired to a panel.

hth,
al

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Originally Posted by brewmaster15

if the fridges are the goal... they don't have to be pricey or large. If you want to run AC, furnaces, water pumps etc... , best look into a whole house unit or at least a large portable that wired to a panel.

hth,
al

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I hear you Al. I'm serious now about getting this done. If the power goes out, the only thin I'm interested in running is 1 fridge and the return pump on my tank. Nothing more.

Generac has a nice affordable whole house standby 11k 120v generator for aprx $1500. Im no expert at that stuff. But that exact model has saved a friends fishroom and fridges/freezers twice in 3 yrs.

I know its not cheap, but compared to most whole house gens its not bad.

Glad all came out well. I love Eneloops. If you were to open any one of my camera flashes or similar items you will find Eneloops. Great batteries and I too would recommend them over any of the big standard brands.

I've been looking at some UPS. I think for me it'd work out better than a generator, at least short term. I'd love to get a rack system where I can put my future media server and multiple UPS for the server, computer, and tanks (especially SW powerheads), and whatever else. Silent too! Computer wise gives me time to safely shutdown where as a generator would require startup and the powercut would of already happened. Generator would be good for fridge and stuff like that though that a few seconds/minutes won't matter. I've really been taking my chances without anything backing me up, it's about time to bite that bullet.

I guess this is where that nice Tesla would come in handy.