14 degrees F outside and power outage!

[huckjai]

So the power is out and it's freezing outside. My gyre is on a backup battery, but not my heater. Tank is at 77.2 degrees currently. I just got home. Power was out for an hour. I put plastic bags over the tank so less heat will escape.

Do the UPS battery backups work fine for ac heaters? I know they don't last long for dc pumps. Anything else I can do? At what temps do things start to go bad?

 

[MakerofThings]

Get a UPS the closest to your heaters power rating you can to make it last "longest" if you're able to get one asap. Still probably won't last long at all.
Eg: 100w heater get a 150w UPS.

Wrap the tank in blankets. Use a fireplace if you have it to keep the room warm. Ideally get a generator.

Good luck!

 

[Old Fritz]

I once had a heater die on me of course in the middle of winter. The tank temperature got to the low 50's. All my fish survived but luckily I had another heater on hand. Not sure how long they can survive that long term though

 

[WVNed]

Do you have a gas water heater? Put hot water in zip lock bags and float them in the tank

 

[bluprntguy]

Hand warmers in ziploc bags if you have them. If you have gas or a fire you can warm up some tank water and put it back in the tank or put warm tap water in a ziploc bag and float in the tank.

 

[Fishy212]

If you heat up your tank water with a gas stove just be aware and watch out for a salinity drop. Just want to give you a heads up!! Good luck man!

 

[mtfish]

I would use the blankets to wrap instead of plastic bags. You don't want to stop air exchange and end up with low DO levels in your tank. Do you have any chemical hand warmers? If so, tape one to side of glass.

 

[Triggreef]

wrap the tank in blankets if you have to. mostly everything can take a little while down to 60 degrees but lower than that you may have some problems. I keep battery powered air pumps in my tanks they sense when the power goes out and kick on automatically. They are like $9 on amazon, not that it will help now.

If you got a fireplace I'd start it up.

If you go to eversource website you can sign up for notifications and it will tell you how long power is expected to be out for.

 

[Silent]

As expensive as our tanks equipment and livestock are, a small generator is one of the cheaper items to buy. You can get a kerosene heater for cheap if a generator is out of the question.

 

[huckjai]

Hand warmers in ziploc bags if you have them. If you have gas or a fire you can warm up some tank water and put it back in the tank or put warm tap water in a ziploc bag and float in the tank.

Thanks for the tips everyone! I have a bunch of hand warmers. Will throw them in ziplocs now

 

[Mr bigolsworth]

Just be aware if it evaporators some you need to keep any eye on salinity

Hand warmers in ziploc bags if you have them. If you have gas or a fire you can warm up some tank water and put it back in the tank or put warm tap water in a ziploc bag and float in the tank.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Do you have a gas water heater? Put hot water in zip lock bags and float them in the tank

Same, or if you have a gas stove, heat some water up and put it in bags or bottles.

Edit, just saw this was already suggested lol, good luck!

 

[LegendaryCG]

Have you tried a sump bonfire? Sorry, everyone has suggested good advice!

 

[huckjai]

I think the lowest it may drop to is 71 degrees or so, assuming they fix the power within the next 4 hours. Anything bad will happen at 70 degrees?

 

[Johnd651]

Wrap tank with styrafoam

 

[Sidvicious]

You'll be fine at 70 degrees, no need to panic.

 

[Big G]

Sleeping bags make great tank warmers.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

This happened to me once. Blankets are the great if nothing else is available. I installed a natural gas heater on a wall in the room next to my tank. Not sure if you have gas but that little heater saved my bacon a few times.

 

[MnFish1]

Did the power come on>. Hopefully so - the key thing (I think) in a power failure is oxygenation - a 2 quart pitcher - dipped in and out - ever 30 minutes does a lot. The rest of the suggestions are also awesome - Hopefully the power failure does not last long - let everyone know how it goes. . and good luck

 

[huckjai]

Did the power come on>. Hopefully so - the key thing (I think) in a power failure is oxygenation - a 2 quart pitcher - dipped in and out - ever 30 minutes does a lot. The rest of the suggestions are also awesome - Hopefully the power failure does not last long - let everyone know how it goes. . and good luck

Had a flicker of hope 15 minutes ago. Lights came back on for a couple secs, then quit.