Power outage with a small tank

[Gatling]

I live in a big city but somehow the power is out and can only be fixed in 6h.. power cut around 30 min ago. What's the best thing to do right now? Scoop up water and dump it to agitate the surface?

I have 3 fish, and like 4 zoas. I'm not worried about temperature, if it gets too hot I'll open the window which is colder outside.

 

[Auquanut]

I would say your best bet is to agitate the surface periodically to keep oxygenation to the tank and provide a little flow. If it starts getting too warm, you can float some ice in a zippy bag to keep your temp from rising too much. Six hours isn't too long. I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[Gatling]

I would say your best bet is to agitate the surface periodically to keep oxygenation to the tank and provide a little flow. If it starts getting too warm, you can float some ice in a zippy bag to keep your temp from rising too much. Six hours isn't too long. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Thanks, and yeah I'm not too worried. I just don't want a silly power outage to kill something. I wish I had a battery powered aerator..

 

[JumboShrimp]

I know it won’t help you now, but for next time...

 

[vetteguy53081]

A battery operated pump with airstone will do the trick ( Walmart has them in either pet or fishing section). I see youre in Canada so temperature shouldn't change much but do monitor it.

 

[Jay Z]

Agitate as needed. When fish mouths start moving fast, start agitating. Worse come to worse, suck out a bucket worth of tank water, agitate the snot out of it out side, put back in tank. i'm sure you'll be fine for 6 hours.

 

[DHill6]

I know it won’t help you now, but for next time...

Nice, I own two just in case. Very quiet unlike older air pumps.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I actually have e 6 or 7. And for a very small tank (like a 5-10 gallon nano), the 10-second ‘burst’ feature really extends the battery life.

 

[Gatling]

A battery operated pump with airstone will do the trick ( Walmart has them in either pet or fishing section). I see youre in Canada so temperature shouldn't change much but do monitor it.

Luckily this time of year, it's 74f all day ish. Tank may get a bit cool but that's ok considering it survived a swell of 84f lol!

I know it won’t help you now, but for next time...

Wow that looks really handy. Definitely will pick one up for next time. This is a big learning opportunity considering I live in a big city usually power outages last 1-2h so this is quite the anomaly

 

[Gatling]

...could blowing bubbles from a straw into the tank do justice in this case?

 

[Jay Z]

...could blowing bubbles from a straw into the tank do justice in this case?

Probably won't. Will be introducing more co2 than o2 with breath.

 

[vetteguy53081]

...could blowing bubbles from a straw into the tank do justice in this case?

DO NOT !! Harmful gases

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

I live in a big city but somehow the power is out and can only be fixed in 6h.. power cut around 30 min ago. What's the best thing to do right now? Scoop up water and dump it to agitate the surface?

I have 3 fish, and like 4 zoas. I'm not worried about temperature, if it gets too hot I'll open the window which is colder outside.

Have any of those battery powered cooling fans laying around? (Like sold at amusement parks?) You could use it like a small powerhead sidled it upside down so fan is half in half out of the water..

If you have a larger battery powered camping fan that would work just blowing across the water to ripple it some..

If you have someone else around who can dump water while you run to local box store (Walmart, Petco, petsmart all carry them) and get one of those battery powered air pumps that would be best and easiest fix. They can stay looked up and when power goes out they automatically turn on..

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

One more thing.. most powerheads have a simple plug in for power. You can get a universal adapter kit for use with a usb. If you have a usb power source you can power a small dc powerhead for some time.. I’ve don’t this myself and it works. Won’t work with ac pumps though. You need a good 5amp output on the usb though.. some laptops even have high output usb.. just need to think what battery powered sources you have around the house and then figure out what you have that you can attach to it.. even a child’s toy vibrating at the surface could work.. think outside the box..

 

[Darth.Daddy12]

How about a cordless drill? Take a plastic spoon insert into the chuck and use a zip tie to spin it slowly beating the water surface.. there’s a lot of good things we have in our houses just have to be creative..

 

[Gatling]

Guys, I could make a power head with Lego Technic pieces!

 

[Gatling]

Thanks for all the help guys! I couldn't find any fans that work in the water so I'll see if I can find some Lego parts. But I got an update saying power will be fixed soon so I may just wait it out

 

[EmdeReef]

I live in a big city but somehow the power is out and can only be fixed in 6h.. power cut around 30 min ago. What's the best thing to do right now? Scoop up water and dump it to agitate the surface?

I have 3 fish, and like 4 zoas. I'm not worried about temperature, if it gets too hot I'll open the window which is colder outside.

You can dose hydrogen peroxide to keep O2 levels up temporarily. Start with 1ml per 10gal, can be safely raised to 5+ if no shrimp in the tank.

 

[KStatefan]

I have posted this before but think it could be repeated every week.

A power outage can happen at any time no mater where you live. This thread is another example of it.

In my opinion a backup power plan should be part of starting a reef tank.

 

[hotdrop]

I have posted this before but think it could be repeated every week.

A power outage can happen at any time no mater where you live. This thread is another example of it.

In my opinion a backup power plan should be part of starting a reef tank.

What’s an example of a good plan for a 40g tank?