Blizzard, no power, suggestions please.

Steviereefs · Feb 8, 2013

I'm in the New England blizzard, it's really a bad storm. and the powers out now, any suggestions to keep my live stock alive? I have no generator.

Dana · Feb 8, 2013

do you have gas stove? you could use it to heat water on the stove and do water changes. where in new england? im outside boston

mnat · Feb 8, 2013

Wrap the tank in blankets to hold the heat. If you can heat water, put it in a container to float in the tank. Take a bucket and pour water from the tank back in to keep up the gas exchange. Pray.

SeahorseKeeper · Feb 8, 2013

I would wrap the tank with blankets and every so often pour some tank water into a bucket and then pour it back into the tank to help aerate it. Hopefully the power will come back on soon.

Reefpestsolutions · Feb 8, 2013

wrap in blankets

stlcard · Feb 8, 2013

mnat said:
Wrap the tank in blankets to hold the heat. If you can heat water, put it in a container to float in the tank. Take a bucket and pour water from the tank back in to keep up the gas exchange. Pray.

second! battery powered air stones can be a lifesaver too!

ReefPops · Feb 9, 2013

Definitely wrap the tank in blankets. I would also suggest heating water if you can and then putting it in or near the tank in a bag or something that won't leak into the tank, but can keep it warm. Fingers crossed for you that the power comes on soon. Lots of luck being sent your way!

Steviereefs · Feb 9, 2013

You guys are great thanks for the suggestions and fast replies. I'm south of Boston near taunton mass, we are focasted to get three feet of snow and the wind is howling, crazy. Anyway I'm going to wrap it in a blanket and also use the bucket of tank water and pour it in to keep thing moving. Really and truly thanks. I'll keep checking in but I have to save some phone battery.
Thank you

Dana · Feb 9, 2013

Good luck in the storm...
Crossing fingers here

Raggamuffin · Feb 9, 2013

FIND A FISHERMAN! Seriously. Instead of the junk battery airstones the hobby uses they will have a battery powered airstone for keeping minnows alive. The one I use for fishing will keep going 12 hours straight on 2 D cells NO problem, if you turn it on for 15 minutes every hour or so then it will last you days... litterally days... on 2 batteries. here is mine:

Frabill Aerator Whisper Drive Rotary Pump Aerator New Model 1423 on eBay!

Can find them all day long at $15 at sporting good stores and 1 6 pack of D cells will keep air in your tank for a week! Oh yeah and it will clip onto your tank too

MarvinsReef · Feb 9, 2013

Steviereefs said:
You guys are great thanks for the suggestions and fast replies. I'm south of Boston near taunton mass, we are focasted to get three feet of snow and the wind is howling, crazy. Anyway I'm going to wrap it in a blanket and also use the bucket of tank water and pour it in to keep thing moving. Really and truly thanks. I'll keep checking in but I have to save some phone battery.
Thank you

good luck. hope you guys get power soon. I'm sure it's getting cold for you guys as well. stay safe.

Dana · Feb 9, 2013

Raggamuffin said:
FIND A FISHERMAN! Seriously. Instead of the junk battery airstones the hobby uses they will have a battery powered airstone for keeping minnows alive. The one I use for fishing will keep going 12 hours straight on 2 D cells NO problem, if you turn it on for 15 minutes every hour or so then it will last you days... litterally days... on 2 batteries. here is mine:

Frabill Aerator Whisper Drive Rotary Pump Aerator New Model 1423 on eBay!

Can find them all day long at $15 at sporting good stores and 1 6 pack of D cells will keep air in your tank for a week! Oh yeah and it will clip onto your tank too

Nice!
Now if there were a battery powered heater....

ReefPops · Feb 10, 2013

Any update on the status of your power and tank? Hopefully you're back up and running.

Steviereefs · Feb 11, 2013

Hi
Thank again for all the great tips everyone. My tank temp was extremely low yesterday and the night before so I was forced to take all the live stock to a stable tank for the time being. Thank god I was able to avoid total loss. With all said and done now I get a second chance to change a couple things. First I'm getting a dedicated generator for my system, at my local tractor supply they have a peanut gasoline generator for $100 bucks that will power the whole system. Let's face it if you live in a area that's bound for large storms that cause power outages for more than a few hours, eventually a catastrophic system failure will happen. It's not a question of if, its a question of when, so take that notion seriously if you love your system enough so you can prevent taking your system down when you could have just spent a $100 bucks or so for a dedicated power supply, deep cell batteries are great but they will also cost about the same if not more than the generator plus you need to buy a power inverter for it, more $$$. Now that's said and done next is the fun part, I'm going to change my aquascape a bit too better satisfy my sps needs because it was starting to get a bit crowded the way it was setup before, Wooohooo I'm gonna have so fun with this!!!!! Big thanks again everyone, the tip you gave me do work great, but its difficult to maintain the criteria when you have other battles to take care of, shoveling a couple feet of snow off a large driveway, very cold temperatures even with a blazen hot wood stove, no lights or power to cook yourself a meal (I used the woodstove to cook), no running water , keeping the family content ,,,,,,ect....