IME, the only thing you really have to worry about in a power outage is temperature. Last winter we had an ice storm that knocked out the power for about a week and a half. I wrapped the tank up with a couple of comforters for insulation, and called my lfs for help. She said that everything would be ok as long as the temperature didn't get too low, and that I shouldn't feed anything. The temp got down to about 62 degrees by the time the power came back on. After about a week everything was fine. It took alittle time for everything to perk back up, but I didn't loose anything except my serpent star.