power loss

[zachary]

I had no power for 8 hours today. I happened to be home and the only thing I could thinkof doing was taking a ladle and getting some water movement and air bubbles every few minutes. It's been 2 hours since power returned and the tank looks normal again except for three of my fish. They all have some discoloration around or near their eyes.First, is there anything I can do to help them and second, is there anything I could have done during the outtage?(I'm sure it'll happen again) Thanks for all the help.

 

[tomato clown]

I just had the same thing happen to me 2 days ago, power went out for 5 hours and when it came back on my fish looked a bit stressed, I did a partial water change and cleaned out my filters...in about 30 minutes they started to look better. HTH
Dan

 

[chocochipper]

There are battery operated air pumps and what-not you can buy and use if this happens. You just have to make sure you're home at all times to put them to use. I dealt with this once right after I got the fish in the tank. 8 hours later when the power came on I did a little water change and all was well. Since then I went out and bought me an APC UPS (uninteruptable power supply) to keep the important stuff running when the power goes out. Of course you have to spend major $ if you want one to last 8 hours or more. I'm not that rich so mine lasts about 2-3 hours. Long enough for most outages that occur.

 

[sonny]

You can buy a generator for around $400, but that's a lot to spend "just in case," and also you have to be there to use it. It doesn't take a lot of power to run the pump, and I have heard of people making their own UPS for the main pump using car batteries and a DC to AC converter. There is also a machine that will call you (like a beeper) if the power goes out, but that's a little over the edge!
Sonny

 

[mr . salty]

At the very least,what you did to add air,and circulate the water was the correct thing to do...That is all I have ever done when I loose power,except that I have a sump,,,So I also poured water through the overflow so it also circulated through the sump....

 

[tomato clown]

Here is a thought if you want to keep a power back-up, I was at my local computer store and I bought a surge protector/battery backup unit for $60. It has the typical 6 outlets, but this will allow me to run a single light for 12 hours (on battery power). They have different sizes, but they will cost more as you go up of course.
Dan

 

[beth]

The only thing[strike] that need to run during a power outage are the pumps.
You can get a generator that hooks right in to your house wiring and will trip on when the power is out. Yeah, it costs a lot. I will probably be looking into this before next hurricane season.[/strike]