# no power what to do?



## wakeupplan (Nov 17, 2010)

Lost power. I'm sure many have also. but I'm just wondering what I should do to keep fish alive. I don't have any type of back ups for my tank so should I just do water changes to keep them alive untill I get power or should I just leave the tanks alone?


----------



## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

Hopefully it won't be out long.

If you happen to have an HOB filter with a biowheel, put the biowheel in the tank to keep it wet.

Put a blanket over the tank to trap more heat if you've lost your home heating.

Don't feed them.

Happy to offer more advice if there's a specific worry!

kevin


----------



## dotbomb (Jan 5, 2011)

You'll also want aeration.

This can be accomplished with water changes (which can also help keep the temp up in the tank).

The long term/less hassle solution is to buy a battery powered air pump. They sell them online or you can go to a sporting goods store that has a good fishing department and buy a pump there. A lot of fisherman buy them to keep their catch alive in buckets or boat wells.


----------



## wakeupplan (Nov 17, 2010)

I'm not to worried about heat the powers been off for about 11 hours and its only dropped 6 degrees but I'm more worried I guess about toxic build up and oxygen running low. So I guess I'm just wondering howlong oxygen will stay in the water or how fast toxins build up. I have about 20 fish from about 6inch to ttwo inch in the tank. Thanks.


----------



## dotbomb (Jan 5, 2011)

Oh another option for the air pump is if you have a power inverter you can hook up to your car. You can then plug an air pump into the inverter to run into your tank. Just make sure you don't run the car battery dead.


----------



## dotbomb (Jan 5, 2011)

At 11 hours I would imagine the oxygen level is getting fairly low. Articles I've been reading say 3 hours is a long time but it all depends on the size of the tank and how many fish there are of course.

I personally would do some water changes with properly treated water and spread them out a bit. You can use the changes to replace oxygen, remove toxins, and also bring up the temp. Bring the temp up slowly though you don't want to shock the fish.


----------



## Myrock (Mar 7, 2010)

I agree. I would use the bucket to do the water changes and make sure the water splash as you pour it for aeration. Good thing you have heat. I had this happen to me (no power) when I lived in Chicago but I wasnt home. Lost a show fish.


----------



## wakeupplan (Nov 17, 2010)

All I got is a ventless furnace in the basement but its only a small two bedroom house and for the most part it holds what heat it does have. I'm hopin it don't drop into the sixties but I may just add water a little warmer with my python slowly if needed to keep the tank goin... id hope not to lose any of my little girls fav fish. She is only six months but she has her fav to keep an eye on and the tank plus holding her in front of the tank is the eaiest ways to calm her down if she is just fussy.... I wouldn't wanna lose that.


----------



## wakeupplan (Nov 17, 2010)

I will def have to look into gettin a back up air pump. My town can lose power for a few hours if the wind blows just right on a sunny day ha ha. Thanks for all the input everyone....


----------



## dotbomb (Jan 5, 2011)

You are welcome. Hope you get power back soon!


----------



## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but make sure you keep the waters in your filters oxygenated as well for the bacteria in there. If they're out for too long, the lack of oxygen could kill them. I've heard they can go anaerobic if left too long without oxygenated water and release toxic chemicals once they start back up, although I don't know how true that really is.


----------



## Malawi Mac (Aug 20, 2004)

Sorry to hear you're in this predicament. I could be in your shoes, but we only got the edge of this storm. A few inches of sleet followed by a dusting of snow.

You should be doing regular water changes. Hopefully you have a gas water heater so that you can still get hot water even without electricity.

Someone suggested using an inverter to obtain power from your car battery. If you somehow have access to a deep cycle battery (i.e., one that fishermen use for electric trolling motors and RV owners use for power in the RV) that would be much better than using a cranking battery.

For future reference, another option is a generator. Some of the newer models are very quiet. In anticipation of this storm, I removed our 2000 watt Honda from storage and went out Sunday night and bought 18 gallons of gasoline. Thankfully, I didn't need it.


----------



## wakeupplan (Nov 17, 2010)

Thanks again for all the input. I did a few partial water changes using water just a bit warmer to the touch. And I kept the biowheels from my emporer 400s in the tank. I just got power so the fish had to go about ten hours without power. So I just thought I would tell everyone all survived the outage. They looked a little stressed. But after some heat and a water change and I'm sure they will all b swimming happily again.

I would love to get a genertator down the road especially now that I got a little girl in the house. But one thing at a time its my first house and can only do a little at a time


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Test your water to ensure the bacteria in the filters survived. You don't want the filters pumping ammonia into your tanks. Eleven hours you should be OK.


----------



## dotbomb (Jan 5, 2011)

Glad to hear you power is back on!

Keep a close eye on the fish. They definitely were stressed during this, and probably still are. When you start feeding them again make sure they are all eating normally.


----------



## AlphaWild (Apr 9, 2009)

Just thought I'd add my storm experience too...went 12 hrs. no heat or power, and all survived without backup aeration or extra water changes...even the small fry. Quite relieved!


----------



## wakeupplan (Nov 17, 2010)

That's good to hear. Maybe I paniced just a little... but it happens :lol:


----------



## Malawi Mac (Aug 20, 2004)

wakeupplan said:


> That's good to hear. Maybe I paniced just a little... but it happens :lol:


I don't think you panicked at all.

When your power goes out because of a storm, you have no idea how long it is going to take the power company to reconnect your power.

We had two separate incidents here in 2006 - a horrendous thunderstorm with strong winds in July, and an ice storm in December. We lost power in the July incident for about 10 hours. But many in the area lost power for multiple days. In fact, my mother-in-law came to live with us both times because she had no power. Each time the power at her house was out 4-5 days.


----------



## TailorJay (Jul 13, 2010)

i had the power go out once with my fish. i didn't have to worry about them getting cold since it was in the summer but they all ended up gasping at the top of the tank in the middle of the night and i didn't know what to do! it was a very stressful evening. i didn't know what to do. it is nice to know that if that happens again you can do water changes to add oxygen to the tank...i had no idea what to do! it was a long night


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

I lost mine for the same time, probably the same problem. Running anything off of a car battery inverter is not anoption when the temp is plummeting and 22 inches of snow is being dumped on us. I used my computers UPS reserve batteries to power my air pumps by cycling through my tanks-10 min. wait 5, 10 min the next tank, wait 5, 10 the next tank and so on until I ran out of power. I use a combination of air driven sponge filters and an HOB in all of my tanks. If you have a removeable wheel in the HOB, moving it to the tank is a great idea. Do everything to keep your biofilter from dying off.

By the time my power was restored at 4:45am my house was down to the low 60's and my water was also. I didn't do water changes since my heater is in my garage and adding cold water would not be good. Keeping up with water changes by heating water on my stove (lighting burners with a match) would be more than I could maintain with no sleep.

Insulating the tanks with blankets is good. Try to keep your fish in a low metabolism mode as long as possible.

My biggest questions were related to what to do when the power is restored. 60 degree air seems not a good idea to be pumped into my tanks. Should heaters be unplugged until ambient air reheats the tanks to the low 70's?

Finally, I have not lost any fish and hope you didn't either. I have 4 tanks of tangs and keep looking for stress related diseases, infections, etc. and so far OK. My 5 week old N. helianthus fry and even younger J. transcriptus fry seem to be fine.


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

One more thing.

I am thinking of increasing my uninterruptible power supply capacity. I wonder how much my electric bill will go up if I keep 3 UPS units on-line. Do they only draw utility power when the batteries get low?


----------



## wakeupplan (Nov 17, 2010)

For the water changes during the power outage I still had hot water from the gas water heater so that helped keep the water warm, witch is what I did with my 125 in my smaller tank I just used a cup filled it and dumped it back into the tank and filters to keep oxygen in the water. The ups devices sound like a good idea for maybe a heater and an air pump if they hold a charge for ahwile. And I'm sure they wouldn't cost much to use. I bet they only reallly draw a lot of power when charging after an outage. They sound like they may b a good idea for those who don't want or have a generator

I've been doing the same watching and I haven't noticed any unsual stress or illness. But I have noticed once the tank water temp dropped, it seems two of my big males, my ob zebra and labzebra donot want to share the tank and seem set to fight to the death.


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

hey - I bet if we were keeping SA corys they would all be spawning right about now. LOL
All looks good in my tanks. My single ups lasted over 2 hours running the air pumps the way I did. Computers suck up a lot of power when in use.


----------



## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

I have two Xantrex powerpack 400s always charged up and ready in case of outage. I've only ever had to use them once, for about three hours. I hooked up two fluval 305s with no problems. The heaters will pull too much juice, but I wrapped the tanks in blankets and had no change in temperature. The batteries could be taken to work and recharged or recharged in my car, so I think I could have managed fairly well for a longer period of time, assuming the house hadn't gotten too cold . . . it's nerve wracking everytime the power flickers for me . . .


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

Holeyfish -I know what you are talking about. I lived in northern Arkansas for 10 years where snow usually is very wet and heavy, and when not snow maybe an inch or so of ice on everything. 22 inches of fluffy snow is less a problem on the trees which usually is wht brings power lines down. In the summer it seemed every lightning storm brought a power failure in the Ozark Mtns. Theworse ice I saw was when I lived in Devon Pa. over winter on a work assignment. With fish, it never fails to twist my nerves into a tangle. It could be really an expensive experience.


----------



## the blur (Oct 4, 2010)

I have an APC 1500. I keep my airpump on it, and a small heater. I can go for 24 hours no problem. probably longer. and in the summer when I don't use heaters, I keep the filters on it.


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I did not think they lasted that long. Will it do large tanks or multiple tanks?


----------



## the blur (Oct 4, 2010)

they come in all different sizes. and it depends what is plugged into it. mine does 2 tanks.


----------



## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

DJRansome said:


> I did not think they lasted that long. Will it do large tanks or multiple tanks?


APC had a site where you can enter the wattages of all of your devices and it will show you what you'll need to buy to get the runtime you need. You can find the site here. I plugged in a single 100 watt heater and asked for 12 hours runtime and it showed me 3 units in the $1500 - $1900 range. You've really got to spend a lot of money to get a lot of runtime. I work with these on computers all the time and they really are designed to only allow enough time to save your work and shut down. I just spent $2K on a rack mount unit for my servers and that's just to give me enough time to shut down servers. These things are not designed to act like power generators. But, it's all about the wattage and run time. I plugged in 42 watts, which is approximately 3 HOB's, and asked for 6 hours runtime and the price was about $550.

FWIW


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Pssh. I'll stick with the generator and have the ability to run my well, fridge, furnace and range as well.

The well and the fish are the main thing for me. Without a generator I have no water. The wood burning stove handles the heat with no problems.


----------



## the blur (Oct 4, 2010)

You get one small wisper type power filter. Like the C or 1, and you hang that off the tank as a secondary filter. and you plug that ONLY into the APC. that will run for a full day on a 1500 VA APC.

You don't need heaters or air pumps or major equipment plugged into the APC, although you can for shorter run times.


----------



## the blur (Oct 4, 2010)

I need to elobarate on my setup, as I was a redundancy engineer for NASA. simply put, 1 tank, 2 smaller filters, 2 smaller heaters, 2 smaller air pumps. = 1 failure ...nothing dies. Even if a heater fails, you will not likely fry your fish. You'll see it long before a disaster happens.

now you have 2 sets of equipment. 1 set goes directly in the wall outlet. The 2nd set you get creative with depending of the size of your APC. one filter always goes in the APC, and maybe the air pump too. The heater is not that critial, I plug that into the wall. No way temps drop that fast to cause harm. a 1500 APC will run a power filter and air pump for a long time. and if the outage is extensive, only run the filter.

I have never lost a fish due to a power failure, filter failure or HEATER failure. The 2 smaller heaters are critial. You will never fry a fish, and as the weather warms up, I pull one heater out any way. works great.


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

I am a retired engineer who has spent a lifelong career in faciilities engineering in the mfg. sector. A long time ago I learned the value of redundancy and subscribe to the set-up approach you have just outlined. All of my tanks are equipped with HOB filters and multiple Hydor-sponge filters. If need be in the event the HOB fails I can run a long time on the sponges, and air pumps are easy to multiplex rather than one huge pump. It wouldn't cost much to build a control system either, using reserve power to operate control relays, that would automatically switch over heaters, air pumps and so forth to back up power sorces in the event of system failures.

For me that is part of the fun.

My earlier post when I told about my rotating my air pumps using my UPS that is what I have had in mind so they would cycle without my hands on attention.


----------



## the blur (Oct 4, 2010)

and even if you don't want to get that redundant, the 2 smaller heaters are a must. you will not fry a fish, and you will not freeze a fish. the tank temperatures are much more stable.

I run 2) 50watt heaters in my 20 gallon.
I run a 100w and a 50w in my 30 gallon.

I have had many heaters fail, but I always see the slow temperature climb, while the fish are alive. If my 20gallon is at 85 degrees, I know 1 heater is stuck on.


----------



## Malawi Mac (Aug 20, 2004)

I also subscribe to the "two heaters per tank" philosophy. I have two heaters in each of my tanks that are 40 gal. or more. If one gets a thermostat stuck in the on position, it isn't poweful enough to heat the tank water to lethal levels.


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

:thumb:


----------



## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

We're getting way off topic here folks. The OP was asking about keeping fish alive during power outtages. Pros and cons of mulitple heaters should be discussed in a new thread.

Thanks for you consideration.


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

I am not so sure we are getting away from the question "what to do when the power goes off?" Part of the answer is preperation for the problem when and if it does occur. Downsizing some equipment through redundancy offers the option of porviding some essential tank services using reserve power- supplies. You can keep the biological filtration alive for a long time with reduced flow of air over the surface. Granted, long term reduced flow is not what we want, but in an emergency it beats none at all IMO :thumb: .

It is a viable option that can be available. By providing reduced air flow during my recent 11 hour outage, even when temps dropped to the mid-60's it must have done some good. Once power was restored neither my fish or biosystems showed any signs of having been overstressed in any of my tanks (even where very young fry were present).


----------



## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> I am not so sure we are getting away from the question "what to do when the power goes off?"


We strayed into a '2 heaters are better than one' discussion, and some posts were not aimed at showing how they'd be used or the benefit of this setup during power outtages. If anyone wants to talk '2 heaters' here, then they need to do that.


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

I agree in principle that 2 heaters to protect against malfunction of a heater is an entirely different subject. I have stuck to the electric outage theme ( :roll: and am not saying this defensively-this old goat's feelings don't get offended easily).

I can see where the number and size of tanks to be protected affects the overall equation. My present perspective centers around my five tanks ranging from 29g to 55g placed against walls of my small home. (Recently I visited a Northern Illinois 100 tank fish room located in a free standing outbuilding where nothing we have discussed here would apply except in principle.) It is unlikely a small backup power source like my UPS will sustain air pumps AND heaters for very long. I believe air circulation is the most criticle of losses due to the loss of tank-support systems during power outages.

That being said, if heaters can be sustained on the power back-up system, small secondary (_redundancy_ of a sort, if you will) heaters could reduce the rate of heat loss; disconnecting the primary heaters of course. But never at the price of lost water circulation (dissolved oxygen)!

Water changes are, along with toxic waste removal, a method of providing oxygen to a tank without the luxury of utility electricity. However in my case where my water heater is in an attatched garage and will not replace hot water used to temper change water, I have to, IME, focus on providing air flow to my tanks and conserve ambient temperatures in my home and my tanks.

What I am saying now is intended solely to provide a little humor. This will be my last post in this thread because any more would just be REDUNDANT. :wink:


----------



## Chunkanese (Feb 4, 2011)

If the power goes out I simply get a jug and using tank water, pour it from a foot higher to create surface agitation. I will do this a few times per hour to ensure my fish will be fine. Everything else can wait until power is on as long as it's not out for more than a few days.


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

OK - I have broken my oath. I have relations in Ontario that have been without power for over a half month due to ice. I cannot see myself doing what you have just suggested for that long.


----------



## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

> OK - I have broken my oath. I have relations in Ontario that have been *without power for over a half month* due to ice. I cannot see myself doing what you have just suggested for that long.





> If the power goes out I simply get a jug and using tank water, pour it from a foot higher to create surface agitation. I will do this a few times per hour to ensure my fish will be fine. Everything else can wait until power is on *as long as it's not out for more than a few days.*


half a month =/= a few days ??? :-?


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I could not see doing that for more than one day...you would have to stay up all night. :lol:


----------



## Lestango (Nov 11, 2010)

my point :thumb:


----------

