Powers out . . what now?

[justinx]

Well, my power went out about an hour ago ( am on a laptop right now) What do i do about my tank. It is a 20gallon with two PHs and a cpr bak pak skimmer. The temp as of right now is around 82, and its still pretty warm out. The only inhabitants are my clean up crew ( emeralds, hermits, snails ), a serpent star, two tank raised occellaris clowns, a lawnmower blenny, and a cleaner shrimp. no corals Room temp is currently 76. What do i do?

 

[azonic]

Not much you can do...temperature shouldn't go down much....if it's only a short outage you have no worries....I lost power for 6 hours one morning while I was at work so i had no way of checking the tank...nothing bad happened..

 

[adrian]

You can get a battery operated air pump just in case, there are some that will atomatically kick on incase of an outage, just as a procaution.

 

[jonthefb]

if its a short outage you shuld be fine. this summer power outages were a constant, and i could practically set my watch by them. nothing bad happened and most were only for a couple of hours at a time, and nithign died except a powerhead!
good luck
jon

 

[broomer5]

Lots of choices for power insurance.
For me it depends on the number of tanks, number of fish & corals that helped me figure out what I was going to do for a back up.
If I only had one small tank - I would not consider buying a generator.
I had 4 tanks running at the time - so I bought a gasoline generator.
As mentioned - the small AC/Battery dual powered air pumps will kick in when the power quits. These are practical and inexpensive.
Some folks use computer backup power supplies - although they don't normally run very long - but for short outages would be good.
Short term - cheapest way to insure your tank's getting water circulation and filter media is kept wet is to use a plastic container or cup, scoop up some water, and pour it back in the tank.
Or stir the tank with a plastic kitchen spoon.
Scooping up and pouring the water over your filter media, live rock, or whatever will help to get things moving.
You want to keep the water moving, gas exchanging.
Temperature is a whole nuther issue. It get's pretty cold here in northern Ohio in winter. The generator made sense for my tanks and my house.

 

[tcoco]

I run an 600APC the battery backups the you use for a home computer systems. I live in florida and FPL stinks I'm always getting small power outages but with the backup on when the power goes out it runs my return pump and my two powerheads for about a 1/2-3/4 of an hour. ( the only downside of the APC is when the power does go out it sets off an alarm and that could get anoying if your not use to it in the middle of the night. But I have 3 in my house and they work good.

 

[sb6116]

I also use a computer 650APC backup to run my pump and heaters in the event of a power outage. This gives me about 3/4 of an hour of run time.

 

[melbournefl]

I live beachside and you're right, FPL sucks. Hey we could go halves on a generator and run REALLY long extension cords between our houses. Seriously though, are there any saltwater aquarium "clubs" around here?
Later,
Paul

 

[iechy]

I don't mean to offend anyone but what good is spending a few hundred bucks on a backup for less than an hours worth of power? Your tank should be fine for a few hours with no power so that money could have gone to something else. The only time I could see it being worth it is if it is very very cold at the time.
Again I don't mean to offend anyone just wondering if I am missing something.

 

[dubba-r]

The only time I could see it being worth it is if it is very very cold at the time
One of the reasons to get a backup battery. You don't want temperature swings to stress the fish out. For me I just picked up 2 600VA battery backups (which are not that expensive, $25 each) just to power a heater and 2 powerheads for circulation. I would rather spend the extra money than take the risk of losing my fish.

 

[iechy]

Well then that answers my question Around here the temp would most likely not be a concern and if it was it would be the other way and since I don't have a chiller it wouldn't matter. I am going to try and create a battery operated powerhead I think. I like to tinker with stuff and it shouldn't be too hard. If I get one working I'll post for everyone to see how to do it.

 

[shadow678]

Heheh, don't electrocute yourself, Iechy.

 

[phoenixrising]

I am STILL cleaning up/rebuilding from the last flood caused by a power outage. The power was out for about 7 hours. I lost a few things in my tanks and learned a hard lesson. Now there is a large generator wired to the house. If the power goes out, it kicks on automatically. Hopefully, this will solve the problem of flooding (secondary to power outages) and keep the sump pumps and reef system fully operational.

 

[tcoco]

Melbourne how much do you think it would be to go from beachside to west meblourne by the mall. May be we could get a few more people on board and call ourselfs the FPL extremists .
I don't know of any clubs never heard of any sorry. Anybody else in the bervard county florida area that know of any clubs.