How long have you been without power?

[scuba guy]

What is the longest period you have been without power?

We just lost power for the first time since I had my Discus aquarium for about an hour and it got me thinking - what if?

Any idea how long we can go before trouble really kicks in?

[Eddie]

Don't fret, pull your media out of the filters/tanks. Just let them to the open air until the power goes back on. The bacteria will stay alive, rather then being suffocated from lack of o2.

Eddie

[Disgirl]

I have lots of experience with loss of power and aquariums! Eddie's right, and also I never feed fish until power goes back on, even if it is several days. I live in hurricane country, believe me, I know power outages! Have never lost a single fish to no power as long as I have been careful with the tanks. But a good battery powered air pump/s are good to have on hand. They can power sponge filters great!
Barb

[phat nguyen]

Hello,
Without oxygen in the water, your Discus WILL die. Be prepare to have a good battery air pump.
I 've lost so many Discus due to this negligence.

HTH,
Perry

[Discusgeo2]

I have only lost power a few times but a friend up in Seattle lost power for a week and lost all his Discus. So I went and purchased a Tripp Lite Power Inverter, 3000 watts and 2 Optima Yellow top gel batteries. That unit will run my 2 large Air pumps for quite a while.

If my Batteries run out I can connect the Inverter to my truck and run it or connect the battery's to my truck and recharge them. So I feel safe in case I lose power. In fact I just had the two battery's on the charger all weekend getting them ready. With the gel type battery you can not use your old standard battery charger to charge them. If they are completly dead your chager must support AGM type batteries.

[rickztahone]

I went the whole night without power. I was up all night floating 5 gallon jugs with hot water. Nedless to say, it was not fun. Which reminds me, I need to get a battery powered air pump

[Yboat]

about 6 years ago, we were with out power for 5 days during a 115 degree streak. I lost my all my tanks execpt for my reef when I was using my generator to power the pumps and the chiller. Ended up selling every thing and got out of the hobby until about a year ago

[Scribbles]

The longest we've gone without power is a week. This has happened only a few times and always in winter. With all of the trees around here we lose power fairly frequently. We have a gas generator that we run during the day and at night I have a battery powered airstone and wrap the tank in heavy blankets or insulation. My tank has a canopy which really helps to keep in the heat. The temp only goes down 2 degrees at night unless it is below freezing then I can lose 3-5 degrees.

Chris

[Jhhnn]

We've never lost power for more than maybe half an hour in 17 years at this address, very urban south Denver. Since I started back up with discus, my wife convinced me (rather easily) that a backup generator would be a good idea, so we now have one, out in the shed. My central airpump is plugged into an automatic battery backup gizmo, which comes on automatically if the power fails. When the weather warms up, I have a plan to make it easy to hook the generator to the main power box, run different circuits selectively if I ever need to.

People who can afford it and who can justify the expense have auto backup generators that can power the whole house... I'm not one of them...

[hedut]

I lost 5 hrs but I use air pump Battery but not heat on

[Wahter]

I've been without power in my apartment for about 3 days during an ice storm a few years ago; the fish made it through okay, but I was definitely worried (I was staying over at a relative's house which had a wood burning fireplace).

When it came time to pick out my options for my house, I went with a natural gas fireplace and a natural gas water heater. (a couple of my friends with natural gas water heaters had no problems during the ice storm).




Walter

[tcyiu]

We just lost power two weeks ago for 8 hours. Now that the fish are much larger, I dug out my really old battery operated air pump and kept the tank aerated ... no probs.

When the fish were much smaller (meaning oxygen consumption was much less), I would forget to plug in the canister filter and the heater. By the morning (after roughly 12 hours over night in winter), the tank temperature would be down to 70-74 degrees, and there would be no surface agitation at all.

The discus would all be sluggish, but as soon as I cranked the filter back up, after a partial WC with warm water, everything would be back to normal. By the way, we're talking going from 74 deg to 85 degree in a matter of 15 minutes.

I've now done this .. must be about 5 times. Not intentionally mind you ... it's just that memory is one of the first things to go LOL.

The point is that there is no need to get completely worked up over a power outage lasting for 1/2 a day or so. And I really have yet to see the much feared temperature shock in my fish. Maybe they're of hardy peasant stock. More likely explanation is that freshwater fish are used to temperature swings.

As a guy who's study marine biology told me, it's not falling temperature that you should worry about. The lower temperature means lowered metabolism and therefore lower breathing, lower waste production etc.

Tim

[phat nguyen]

Hello everyone,
This is food for thought.....
You are going out or going to work for half / whole day and the power failure occurred.
The temperature is SLOWLY going down but there is no OXYGEN in your tank...
Your fish WILL survive the drop in the temperature but WILL die within a few hours due to lack of Oxygen. I lost many tanks due to this negligence.
Recently, i stayed up most of the night blowing air into my tanks to keep the Discus alive during one of the storm in my area.
Just bought a few Azoo Battery backup pumps.
Be prepare for your Discus. It needs you more than you think.

HTH,
Perry

[Discus-Hans]

I think the longest I've been out of power is 5 minutes in 5 years, I've no generator etc etc.

I'm next to the National Guard and Mil. airport.

I've seen 1/2 Baltimore without power but the Nat. Guard, the Airport and Discus Hans USA had everything running lol

Hans

[Justice]

I have a Power Inverter mounted under the seat of my Power Chair that is connected to the two gel cell batterys that run it that I hooked up mainly to run an airpump with in case of a power outage.

I have to add I have also found it very handy to power a light and radio with when I have been outside BBQing after dark.