help!! power outage!

[ivy2dw7]

For some reason the electric company turned my boyfriend's electricity off 2 1/2 hours ago and his d*mn roomate has the account number and is in class so the electric company won't even tell him why it was turned off let alone come and turn it back on. He has a 29g FOWLR with just a firefish, conch, choc chip star, emerald crab, fire shrimp, and hermits/snails. I'm at a loss of what to do. There really isn't any room in my tank for all of these critters, I only have my 20g set up right now. The firefish could go in temporarily along w/the fire shrimp but the choc chip would be too big and might start chomping on my corals. What can we do? The emerald, firefish and fire shrimp are all new to the tank and he would be crushed if something happened to them.

 

[ivy2dw7]

Come on, someone has to have some ideas of what to do. Please!! This is an emergency!

 

[sinner's girl]

battery powered airpump. not the end of the world for a few hours. Keep an eye on the temp. - float ice in a bag if the temp gets too high or run a fan.
Run an extecttion cord to someone who has power (next door, outside). if you have to, run one to a car. hook it up to the lighter thingie. they make convertor thingies...forget what it's called.
cc would be fine for a short while, just feed him and keep an eye on him.
or get a generator.

 

[nanocuber7]

my power was off for 24 hours during katrina i had fish corals hermits and everything i stired the water with a spoon every once and a while to create some flow and the fish did start to breath hard, but other than that his tank should be ok.and i wouldn't stress out your tank by adding all those things

 

[stevil]

What do folks recommend for a battery backup? Any particular models or brands that are good for tanks? I want to avoid this situation...

 

[fadec40]

Originally Posted by stevil
What do folks recommend for a battery backup? Any particular models or brands that are good for tanks? I want to avoid this situation...

They have an airpump with auto battery back up. It runs off standard outlet, and if power is lost, the battery kicks in.
You can also invest in a small portable generator which can run about six hours on a tank of gas and can maintain about 15 amps which is a standard home circuit. With this you can run one or two of the filters.
$150-200 for the generator is a small price to pay when you consider the cost of the fish.

 

[murph]

The key is surface agitation for oxygen exchange. Use your hand to splash the surface around for a couple of minutes every fifteen minutes or so. This will work, I have kept a five gallon bait bucket full of pin fish alive for hours by doing this. Otherwise they would be dead in 45 minutes or so.
You can also go down to the local wally world and look in the sporting goods section where you will find battery powered air pumps for bait buckets. This will accomplish the same thing. Good luck. and remember to get the batteries. Two of the large Ds that these pumps take will last six to eight hours.

 

[murph]

The key is surface agitation for oxygen exchange. Use your hand to splash the surface around for a couple of minutes every fifteen minutes or so. This will work, I have kept a five gallon bait bucket full of pin fish alive for hours by doing this. Otherwise they would be dead in 45 minutes or so.
You can also go down to the local wally world and look in the sporting goods section where you will find battery powered air pumps for bait buckets. This will accomplish the same thing. Good luck. and remember to get the batteries. Two of the large Ds that these pumps take will last six to eight hours.