Power just went out
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Definitely get some recirculation in there.. even if you have to do it manually.. get water moving and agitate the surface.
vetteguy53081
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No. Ive been there twice and once for 11 hours. As long as tank temp can remain in the range its in now and you can provide ANY water movement- Youre safe.
I have battery backups.
A couple suggestions would be a tool rental place in area- You can rent a Generator for 1/2 day at about $20 and if not, Walmart or Petco will have a battery operated air pump with an airstone included. Theyre under $10 and will allow water to circulate and provide oxygen. They have them in Fishing section and pet section of the store.
If house is hot, Place ice cubes in a baggie and float in sump to keep water cool. If no sump, just a few cubes in a bag in the tank
Remember fish and coral are shipped to Pet stores and homes and are without air or water for up to 24 hours. Again- will be fine
W1ngz
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Oxygen is the priority over all else. How fast it runs out will depend on the water volume and number/size of your fish.
You'll need a battery powered air pump and an air stone in the next hour or two. If you can't get one of those, you'll need a clean pitcher or something to scoop water out and pour it back in to oxygenate the water for 10-15 minutes or so every hour.
You'll need a battery powered air pump and an air stone in the next hour or two. If you can't get one of those, you'll need a clean pitcher or something to scoop water out and pour it back in to oxygenate the water for 10-15 minutes or so every hour.
Coastie Reefer
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This. Since I live in the south where we have stupid hot days and stupid high humidity, I keep about a dozen 1 liter bottles of frozen water just incase we lose power. I'm more worried about tank temp than circulation and gas exchange.
vetteguy53081
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I focus on tank temp and circulation. When tank temp goes up, oxygen is reduced, so yes temperature is important
Coastie Reefer
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Luckily we don't have many power outages and the longest one I can remember of late was 16 hours. I used battery operated bait bubblers and I now have a little 900w 2 cycle generator that I can use to run my return pumps if I need to.
Harbor Freight (and other similar stores) usually has them for around a hundred bucks
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Brew12
Electrical Gru
Great advice, but with no flow the ice cubes should be placed in the display tank.
More great advice. Either that or a use a whisk to violently agitate the surface of the water for a minute or two every 30 to 60 minutes.
If you can keep O2 in the water, and the water between 72F and 84F everything should recover.
Coastie Reefer
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Best of luck, I know it’s stressful. As long as temp holds the air pumps should be enough.
vetteguy53081
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Lets us know outcome after power is restored.
Darth.Daddy12
Active Member
Mauch good advice above.. every fishkeepwr who doesn’t have a generator should have some air stones and battery air pump. Most of these will run off normal aa or aaa batteries and will automatically turn on when power is lost.
Only thing you need for 72h is water circulation inside the display. These cheap backups work great for this.
Living in Florida I have a whole home generator so kinda take things like this for granted and forget most don’t have to go weeks wo power every year or two. Especially in summer when it’s 100* outside.
Battery powered air pumps and battery powered fans are a great investment for short term emergencies.. you don’t even need to bubble the water a fan blowing in the surface will accomplish the same results..
Can’t forget to mention the year before I got a generator me and my family took turns for hours using a bike pump hooked to an airline to feed air through an air stone I found in a tub of crap I hadn’t looked st for years.. was a lot of work but did the job for 36h or so.
Only thing you need for 72h is water circulation inside the display. These cheap backups work great for this.
Living in Florida I have a whole home generator so kinda take things like this for granted and forget most don’t have to go weeks wo power every year or two. Especially in summer when it’s 100* outside.
Battery powered air pumps and battery powered fans are a great investment for short term emergencies.. you don’t even need to bubble the water a fan blowing in the surface will accomplish the same results..
Can’t forget to mention the year before I got a generator me and my family took turns for hours using a bike pump hooked to an airline to feed air through an air stone I found in a tub of crap I hadn’t looked st for years.. was a lot of work but did the job for 36h or so.
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Another thing you can do in a pinch is get a power inverter for your car and run an extension cord to run a powerhead. I've done that before. Just start the car every once and a while so you dont drain the battery to the point the car wont start.
Just make sure your garage door is open if the car is in the garage! Lol
Darth.Daddy12
Active Member
That’s a good cheap alternative cause when power is out people go running for expensive generators.. circulation pumps need little power and. $20 extension cord and $50 inverter would work for a long time.
Wish I’d thought about that when we took hourly turns pumping a bicycle pump into a 210g tank few years ago
jaxredsoxfan
Well-Known Member
I do the exact same thing in FL and had to use them once, but I agree with everyone- the two air pumps should provide some O2 and you should be good if its relatively short-lived outage. Let us know how it goes and good luck.
Darth.Daddy12
Active Member
Feeding bottle water before a storm is always good when you know a storm is coming. So many uses later.. an iced bottled placed in the fridge when you lose power can tell you if the food in the fridge is safe to eat or not. 1/3 of the bottle melted means toss the food. Packing the fridge with all the frozen bottle you can can keep the fridge cool for days and keep the food from spoiling. The more there is in the fridge freezer the longer it will take to thaw out.
So many real world uses for having frozen water bottle in hand. Keeling s tank cool is just one of them..
