Please help - power outage fish freezing

[brightonreef]

Hello,

I am looking for some help please! My power went out last night and does not look like it will be back for a long time, they are currently digging up my street to figure out what is wrong.

My poor fish are freezing, it’s currently 2C in my room. I am trying to keep them warm with blankets and hot water bottles but I fear it is not working as the water is still cold (my thermometer fell into the water on Saturday and I ordered a new one before this happened which is arriving tomorrow).

Tank is 2 months old, 145 litres, 2 clowns, firefish, peppermint shrimp, blue hermit crab and some snails.

I am in the U.K. so we don’t have a culture of power generators or anything similar, also things like calcium chloride which is recommended online is more strictly regulated so I can’t quickly get hold of it.

Any tips?

Thank you!

 

[Biglew11]

sounds like you have a gas stove? you could put some tank water in a pot and heat it directly on the stove and slowly reintroduce it back to the tank to keep the temperature up.

 

[brightonreef]

sounds like you have a gas stove? you could put some tank water in a pot and heat it directly on the stove and slowly reintroduce it back to the tank to keep the temperature up.

Thank so much for your reply.

I have an electric stove, but I also have a camping stove I’ve been using to heat up the water.

Current plan is to buy a small tank and set it up at a friends house, but can’t do that until they are back from work this evening.

 

[badluckman]

I'd run and buy a small generator! That way you can keep the tank running while they fix everything, even if it'd be a few days.

 

[Awesome Dennis]

Can you get a power inverter that connects to your car battery?

 

[Hydrored]

Use the camp stove with a pot of water, put a couple of bottles of water in that pot to warm them up and put those warm bottles in the tank.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Keep us updated in this thread. If anyone local can help, let them know!

 

[sde1500]

prior to getting a gene a few years back, this kept my tank alive for 4 or 5 days during a power outage in the middle of the winter. https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-100-Watt-Power-Inverter-RD97100/203904564?

 

[Subsea]

[I have an electric stove, but I also have a camping stove I’ve been using to heat up the water.]

I have used propane 5G bottle with small fixed burner to heat home, greenhouse and tent.

 

[Twitchy]

do you guys have tent heaters over there? they are propane powered, good for like 300sqft, use the little camping bottles of fuel, and should keep the room warm. (good idea to have a carbon monoxide detector handy if using one)

 

[dlagrange]

So this happened to me over the summer. The fish might be able to handle the cold a bit...what I suggest is to fill a cup of tank water and dump it in to maintain oxygen for the fish..and corals

 

[Tired]

Definitely heat water and slowly add it back to the tank. Stirring in general is good to help put some oxygen back in.

 

[Casket_Case]

Along with what everyone has suggested heating the water I suggest putting water in a jug with a lid and violently shaking it before putting it back in the water it helps get oxygen in there much faster than just dumping it back in.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Hello,

I am looking for some help please! My power went out last night and does not look like it will be back for a long time, they are currently digging up my street to figure out what is wrong.

My poor fish are freezing, it’s currently 2C in my room. I am trying to keep them warm with blankets and hot water bottles but I fear it is not working as the water is still cold (my thermometer fell into the water on Saturday and I ordered a new one before this happened which is arriving tomorrow).

Tank is 2 months old, 145 litres, 2 clowns, firefish, peppermint shrimp, blue hermit crab and some snails.

I am in the U.K. so we don’t have a culture of power generators or anything similar, also things like calcium chloride which is recommended online is more strictly regulated so I can’t quickly get hold of it.

Any tips?

Thank you!

I know this is old but look into a device called a Halo. They’re used to jumpstart cars but also have a plug on the side for small electrical devices. I use mine to run my heater when my power goes out

 

[Dkmoo]

If you can - reduce the water level as much as can be tolerated by your tank. For ex - 50% reduction means the remaining water will be 2x easier to heat up/keep warm

 

[Tired]

Won't half the water cool off faster, though?

 

[Dkmoo]

Half the water cools off faster but not 2x faster. It doesn't last as long bc it holds half the heat, but it also lose heat at a slower rate bc of less surface area. Same concept that its easier to warm up, and keep warm, a smaller room than a large.

Ie, a 40g tank may lose 10 btu of heat per hour, if the hot water bottles bring in 12 btu of heat per hour, thats only 2 btu thats contributed to raising 40g of water temp. A 20g tank may lose 7btu of heat per hr (it won't be 5 bc only 4 of the 6 sides reduced surface area by 50%), but the water bottle brings in 12 btu means there's 5 btu that can warm up the tank, and that 5btu only need to heat up 20g. So depending on where these numbers fall out, it will heat up much faster. In my example the smaller tank actually will heat up 5x faster.