Power Outage; what now?

[NaturalDisaster0]

My power has been out for almost an hour and im worried about my fish tank. Just curious how long it can go without power before this becomes an emergency? is there anything i can do to help while i wait for power to come back on? Worried about heating, oxygen, filters ect....

 

[TnFishwater98]

My power has been out for almost an hour and im worried about my fish tank. Just curious how long it can go without power before this becomes an emergency? is there anything i can do to help while i wait for power to come back on? Worried about heating, oxygen, filters ect....

Depends on how big your tank is, outside temps, current tank water temp, do you have a lid, how many fish/coral/inverts are in danger...?
I’m sure there more questions that could be asked but this is a start.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Also got to make sure there is enough oxygen in the water...would heavily depend on your tanks bio-load...

 

[NaturalDisaster0]

15g tank. 2 fish, 4 hermits, half a dozen snails and a fighting conch. 4 corals, 2 LPS 2 Soft. Tank is at 76 degrees, just a mesh lid. Ambient temp in the house is about 60 but will drop more if the power stays off.

Depends on how big your tank is, outside temps, current tank water temp, do you have a lid, how many fish/coral/inverts are in danger...?
I’m sure there more questions that could be asked but this is a start.

 

[Wagonpitt]

use a cup fill it with tank water and pour it back in a few times. Keep water agitated and will help for oxygen. Try to keep it warm somehow. hand warmer packs if you have any. Good luck

 

[Fishingandreefing]

You can agitate the water manually once in awhile that can give them some oxygen. See if a local pet store has some battery operated pump you can buy. Then go to a computer store and get a back up battery for the heater.

 

[reefrubble]

Hi NaturalDisaster0,

Your going to want to make sure the tank water remains oxygenated. This is by far the largest and most pressing issue to worry about during a power outage. Right away I would recommend placing a clean hand in the tank and push the water around for a minute or two. I suggest repeating this at least every 30 minutes to maximize coral and fish survival rates. Your inverts will likely survive the entire ordeal even if no action is taken.

The next thing to be concerned about is keep the temperature above 70 degrees or higher if at all possible. Doing this during a power outage is not going to be easy and is going to require some ingenuity. If you have any hand warmers available, activate them and place them in multiple ziplock bags to avoid leakage, Next, add the bag to the tank and increase the rate at which you push the water around if you can. If this is not an option for you, find a way to heat up a large pot of water with a lid on it. If you have a portable gas stove or a grill, you can heat up the pot of water this way. Do not heat the pot up excessively, but try to bring the temperature to somewhere between 90 and 100 degrees. Following this, put the water in plastic bags or water bottles that will not leak and place them in non-congested parts of the tank. Make sure to keep pushing tank water around and at an increased frequency if possible. Monitor the tank's water temperature and repeat this process as neccessary.

I'll be active for the next couple of hours so please keep me posted. Power outages are never any fun, but quick intervention can save the day.

Drop a like if this helps!

 

[NaturalDisaster0]

Hi NaturalDisaster0,

Your going to want to make sure the tank water remains oxygenated. This is by far the largest and most pressing issue to worry about during a power outage. Right away I would recommend placing a clean hand in the tank and push the water around for a minute or two. I suggest repeating this at least every 30 minutes to maximize coral and fish survival rates. Your inverts will likely survive the entire ordeal even if no action is taken.

The next thing to be concerned about is keep the temperature above 70 degrees or higher if at all possible. Doing this during a power outage is not going to be easy and is going to require some ingenuity. If you have any hand warmers available, activate them and place them in multiple ziplock bags to avoid leakage, Next, add the bag to the tank and increase the rate at which you push the water around if you can. If this is not an option for you, find a way to heat up a large pot of water with a lid on it. If you have a portable gas stove or a grill, you can heat up the pot of water this way. Do not heat the pot up excessively, but try to bring the temperature to somewhere between 90 and 100 degrees. Following this, put the water in plastic bags or water bottles that will not leak and place them in non-congested parts of the tank. Make sure to keep pushing tank water around and at an increased frequency if possible. Monitor the tank's water temperature and repeat this process as neccessary.

I'll be active for the next couple of hours so please keep me posted. Power outages are never any fun, but quick intervention can save the day.

Drop a like if this helps!

Thanks for the tips. Dont have any hand warmers, guess i can fill a ziplock bag with warm water and float it in the tank if it gets too cold. The water agitation i didnt think of so ill do that. My phone is pretty close to out of juice so ill do the best i can with these tips. Power company phone and websites are down so hard for me to get updates on how bad the outage is.

 

[reefrubble]

Thanks for the tips. Dont have any hand warmers, guess i can fill a ziplock bag with warm water and float it in the tank if it gets too cold. The water agitation i didnt think of so ill do that. My phone is pretty close to out of juice so ill do the best i can with these tips. Power company phone and websites are down so hard for me to get updates on how bad the outage is.

If you're comfortable doing so, drop your zip code and I'll look into it too so that it doesn't drain your phone battery!

 

[melonheadorion]

I'm almost certain. If you have a petco, they have battery operated heaters. The oxygen part won't be too bad because it's something you can do manually. The hearing part, you will have to get creative. Luckily, it's not a huge tank. Wrapping it in a blanket to keep heat in, might help too

 

[Dburr1014]

You can agitate the water manually once in awhile that can give them some oxygen. See if a local pet store has some battery operated pump you can buy. Then go to a computer store and get a back up battery for the heater.

Heater will kill that battery in no time flat.

Anyone you know with a generator? Can you somehow heat water?
Put a blanket around the tank, asap. Cup idea is great for o2.

 

[131696]

Go get a cheap inverter plug it into your vehicle done tanked saved make sure vehicle has enough gas..

 

[Karen00]

I read you can wrap a blanket around the tank to keep it warm and if you have a bungee cable(s) to secure it tight around the tank that works better at keeping the heat in. I have a battery powered bubbler/airstone for emergencies that I picked up from Petsmart. If you can't get one of these then manually agitating the water works (I like the cup idea). I haven't seen the battery powered heaters but am going to look in to that for myself. You don't sound heavily stocked which is good. I think the fish can tolerate more of a temp drop but the corals might be a different story. Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

[Dom]

It's a small tank. I realize my suggestion doesn't offer much help now, but moving forward, I'd go into a local office supply super store and buy a computer battery backup. Connect essential equipment to it (lights are not essential). Now, you won't have to worry.

 

[131696]

Solar way to go just have your tank on it and that's it done finish never have to worry about it ever

 

[Dom]

Solar way to go just have your tank on it and that's it done finish never have to worry about it ever

Invest in solar on a 15 gallon tank?

 

[czoolander]

I live in a remote area and lose power often . So what I do for heat is have a clean milk jug and fill it with hot water from the sink. Then I float this in my tank to maintain the tempature. Now I get my hot water from my hot water tank but eventually this will cool down and then you could always heat some water up on the BBQ and then fill a milk jug and float that.

For your pumps being down it is not a concern for 12-48 hours depending on how heavily stocked your tank is oxygen will remain in the water after that you can certainly stir up the surface or run battery back up.

This being said I do not have a tank filled with expensive corals my main concern is keeping my fish alive so I have a bit more relaxed look at power outages.

I am sure coral keepers with no fish freak out if their power is out for 5 minutes haha

Myself I have had 6-20 hour power outages and all my fish and coral have survived no problems

 

[ReefRusty]

Crazy to read this, had a power outage last night roughly 3 hours. Bad thing was im no where near home and have a house sitter looking after the tank. Still 2 more days till I'm home so hopefully everything has made it through. Have seen battery operated water movers that would assist in moving water around for oxygen this would be the best thing to start with.

 

[NaturalDisaster0]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, power was out for about 5 hours. As far as i can tell nothing in the tank died. I put hot water in a zip lock bag and floated it in the tank, manually stirred by hand every once in awhile. It's fortunate that i was home so i could take action immediately; if i had been at work or something i think it would've been a different story here.

 

[melonheadorion]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, power was out for about 5 hours. As far as i can tell nothing in the tank died. I put hot water in a zip lock bag and floated it in the tank, manually stirred by hand every once in awhile. It's fortunate that i was home so i could take action immediately; if i had been at work or something i think it would've been a different story here.

one night, i had accidently turned off the main power to my tank, which included the heater, the powerhead, filter, etc. temp was in the low 70s, and sat about 6 hours, and everything lived. the fish were moving slow at that temp, but they came out alright