POWERS OUT

[OIF03VET]

I need some help some what soon. A dump truck ran over some pole near my house and the power will be out for 20 hours. Any ideas on what I can do? No heaters, no filtering, no bubbles, no water flow will be going on in my tanks. Any one go through this or have any ideas? The temp inside the house will only get down to the 60's tonight, so tank water might go below 70. Please help!

[tpl*co]

Do you have access to a battery powered air pump? Get some aeration going on in there. Do you have a gas or electric water heater? If it's gas you can do water changes to keep temp up or float a container of warm/hot water to keep the temp up if it dips too low. But right now the aeration is the big concern.

If you have a canister filter, open it up and let the media get exposed to some air or it'll go anerobic.

Tina

[OIF03VET]

The water heater is gas so I will be fine on doing a bunch of water changes to keep the temp up. The tanks are somewhat heavily stocked so aireation is a big deal I agree. I am going to leave work pretty soon hopefully one of the many pet stores around hear will have a battery powered air pump. I have 7 tanks so its a good thing I get paid tomorrow.

[Discus_KC]

Go to Walmart and get some battery powered aerators. They are located in the sporting goods section. They use D cell batteries and come with a small piece of airline and a airstone. That will definitely help. You can use blankets to wrap the tank too.

Jack

[OIF03VET]

Those are the ones used for bait fish, I know exactly what your describing. Thanks.

I will keep you all posted.

[Elite Aquaria]

Good luck...

Dan

[OIF03VET]

Thanks for the replys everyone. I was saved by a coworker who had a nice generator he let me borrow. It was as loud as hell but did the job, I ran 7 heaters, 5 airpumps, 8 filters, 3 aquarium lights, our refrigerator, and my tv for a little bit and it was only running at 50% load. I was scared to see the fish when I got home from work. The power had been out for 8 hours, my discus were dark and at the top but the perked up rather quickly once I got new water in the tanks and was able to get the gen running. My neon tetra tank wasnt so lucky, lost about 20 out of 50. Oh well they may be beautiful but there only a dollar.

[roclement]

Good news on the save! Make sure you do massive WC to bring parameters back to normal!

Rod

[RedneckDaveAb]

I bought a gizmo called an "inverter". It plugs into a car's cigarette lighter and you are able to power 110V electrical devices from it. I keep it handy for transport and of course in case the power goes out.

I find it to be "extra insurance" in the case of a disaster. I understand RV places sell these things to power electrical devices in motorhomes

A must have for fish keepers!!!

Dave :)

[Don Trinko]

Now is the time to prepare for the NEXT power outage. We have 4 or 5 a year here. I have a 400 watt inverter and a 100 amp hour battery. That will run 2 or 3 tanks heaters and all for 6 to 8 hours. Heaters take most of the power. I now have more tanks so I bought a propane heater (4000/8000 btu) and tested it in the fish room. It raised the temp 5 degrees in 1/2 hour.
Next power outage my plan is to use the inverted to run my discus tank heater and all and airstones/some power filters for the other tanks. I will run the propane heater to keep the room warm and then I can disconect the heaters in all but the discus tank. I do have a small generater (1800 watts) that I could use also but it would require running a cord thru a window. ( cold in Ohio in the winter) Glad thinks worked out for you. Don T.

[LizStreithorst]

Jack gave the correct advice. The Discus can survive the lack of high temps for a pretty good while. You NEED aeration.

Glad everything worked out in the end.

[poconogal]

Penn Plax makes air pumps that will come on automatically when the power goes out, just plug it into an a/c outlet and when it senses no power, it will run on a D battery. I have them on my tanks - they work extremely well and will run for several hours on one battery. I paid $11.95 for each pump. Just need to have several D batteries on hand.

[Elite Aquaria]

OIF03VET,

Glad to hear that all worked out for you. I live in South Florida and Hurricane season is rapidly approaching again. I think it is time to invest in a generator.

Dan

[AmberC]

I'm glad everything worked out for you! My parents have a generator that we used to use out at the barn when we had our horses. Now they use it during power outages. Comes in handy to have!! I might have to get one! :)

[poconogal]

I have a generator that powers the essentials in my house and it has really come in handy. 2 years ago, we had an ice storm that left us without power for 4 days. Only thing is, it does not come on automatically when you lose power. We have to manually start it. This year I plan on getting a whole house generator that will switch on automatically when power goes out. My biggest fear now is that power will go out when no one is home, from about 5am until 5 pm. when hubby gets back. If that should happen, and power should stay out for several hours, I'm afraid my canisters will become anaerobic!