# The Things We Do For Our Fish!



## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

So it has been a crazy couple of days around my house. Here's what happened:

My power was shut off on tuesday afternoon due to a disagreement I had with the power company (don't ask). I settled things with them that day, but of course, they wouldn't turn the power on till the next morning. This had me very concerned about my fish tanks. I figured the betta would be ok for a day since he can breathe air, but I was really worried about my 75G mbuna/peacock tank. I knew they needed some sort of surface agitation for air. I wasn't as concerned about the temperature since its not real cold here in WI yet and I'm on the fifth floor so my apt stays pretty warm anyway.

So here's what I decided to do. I knew I needed to at least get an air pump running on the 75G tank overnight or risk losing over $100 of fish. What I decided to do was connect an extension cord to an outlet in the hallway and plug that into an air pump. I 'borrowed' the longest extension cord from church that I could find and plugged it into an outlet just across the hall in the laundry room. The other end of the cord had to reach over 40 feet in order to power the air pump. Thankfully, I had selected a 50 feet cord from church and had feet to spare. The air pump worked and my fish survived the night!

As you can imagine, the management of my building was not thrilled with this arrangement. I received three phone calls complaining about the cord stating that it was a trip hazard and that the building wasn't going to pay for my electricity...blah blah. I told them I wasn't going to lose my fish because of the power company and I would pay for any electricity I used. They said to not worry about it and just don't do it again.

I knew that running that cord wasn't the best idea, but it was the only option I had in order to save my fish. I knew that if I called and asked them if I could do it they would say 'NO." It was one of those 'its better to ask for forgiveness than permission' type of situations. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

The things we do for our fish!


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

It's crazy what we do for our fish. We lose power on a regular basis around her for whatever reason, so I finally got tired of worrying about my tanks and went out last January and bout a $300 generator that is to be used just for my fish. Already had to fire it up once about 2 months ago for about 24 hrs.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Steve C said:


> It's crazy what we do for our fish. We lose power on a regular basis around her for whatever reason, so I finally got tired of worrying about my tanks and went out last January and bout a $300 generator that is to be used just for my fish. Already had to fire it up once about 2 months ago for about 24 hrs.


Nice!

I was planning to get a battery operated air pump. Hopefully that is a little cheaper than a $300 generator.  We rarely have power outages and rarely for that long. This is only the second time I've had issues and last it was only for a couple of hours.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

They also have battery powered air pumps. Saw them online on ebay. Pretty neat and maybe a life saver in the future to come.


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

I have one of those ebay batt powered pumps (takes 2 D cells) they work okay and are cheap enough (I paid about $8 for mine) but just a word of advise, buy two of them when you buy it. The little electric motor in them must not be all that great of quality because I used mine maybe a total of about 15-20hrs and it just flat out stopped. Bought another one after that and got about 30 hours out of that one before it stopped. They are low cost though so just get a couple at the same time that way you have a working one on hand in case of emergency.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Steve C said:


> I have one of those ebay batt powered pumps (takes 2 D cells) they work okay and are cheap enough (I paid about $8 for mine) but just a word of advise, buy two of them when you buy it. The little electric motor in them must not be all that great of quality because I used mine maybe a total of about 15-20hrs and it just flat out stopped. Bought another one after that and got about 30 hours out of that one before it stopped. They are low cost though so just get a couple at the same time that way you have a working one on hand in case of emergency.


I will have to look into that.

I see kensfish has an AquaTop battery powered pump for $7.99. What brand is the one on ebay?


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

No name brand just some imported china brand. If Ken's have Aquatop for $7.99 then I'd say to grab that over the ebay one because it's the same price, yet a known brand name.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Steve C said:


> No name brand just some imported china brand. If Ken's have Aquatop for $7.99 then I'd say to grab that over the ebay one because it's the same price, yet a known brand name.


Ya, that's what I was thinking. I also saw Marina one on a certain big box website for $10. I might get that one since it has free shipping.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Rapala makes a simple air pump for bait fish.

We've used ours for countless hours to keep bullhead and sunfish alive. It will not be stopped! And, we treat it like garbage!


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Iggy Newcastle said:


> Rapala makes a simple air pump for bait fish.
> 
> We've used ours for countless hours to keep bullhead and sunfish alive. It will not be stopped! And, we treat it like garbage!


That's an excellent idea Iggy, I never thought about that.


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