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Hi All. I live in New england and we're receving about 30' of snow right now. Power is about to go. I have a JD and a Texas Cichlid. Is there anything I can do to prevent losing my tank ?

thirty inches. heck, I'd worry worried about a lot more if that was gonna happen. sorry

to conserve heat within the tank wrap it with blankets. make sure no part of the blanket can touch the water at all anywhere. it will suck it up like a sponge and gravity will dump it all over your floor.

another tip, if you lose power take a cup of water and scoop lots of water into your hang on the back filtration to change the water inside the filter. should be done every 15-30 mins. if this is not possible make sure to dump all water within the filter into a SINK ( not the tank ) before power is turned back on. i would unplug them before power is restored to prevent them from kicking on later. this will prevent toxic water created by bacteria useing up all of the O2 in it. if flushed back into your tank it could kill your fish.

by the way, im also in New england and i have a 75g/29g/10g tank running now. enjoy the snow and stay warm
New Hampshire

Last edited by Sin in Style at 22-Jan-2005 17:16

Thanks a million. I mean it. Oh, btw, I'm originally from NH. Newport. I love NH, but my home is here now.
When the power does come back on should I do partial water change ?

i dont think it would hurt..just dont missmatch the temp trying to correct the loss in heat. let the heaters do that.

okay. that makes sense. Like I want to deal with the Ich. Yuck ! I've only had fish for a couple of years, but two years ago I lost a really nice oscar and it really upset me because I tried for 3 solid weeks to save him. And I know he really knew I was trying too. I've never seen a fish be a concerned or responsive like that before. I probably won't eve either. That's they way it goes.
We have about 4 inches now. It's only been snowing for two hours, so ya, we're gonna get nailed. I live on the shore not too far from Boston. My Bud's around the Cape Cod area or gonna get the real deal.
Take care, and thanks for responding.

hey 55gallover i'm just south of Boston too on the South Shore. Get your shovel!


BTW Welcome to FP!

Last edited by Jessnick at 22-Jan-2005 19:04




Last edited by Jessnick at 22-Jan-2005 19:07

Blanket tip already covered above...

That is a good idea running cups of water through the filter. However, if you find that you must go one hour or more (like, to get some sleep ), make sure it is unplugged so it can't go back on by itself and spew toxins and nasty bacteria back into the tank. Marineland suggests an outage of one hour or more, the filter should be cleaned out by dumping that stagnant water.

I like to keep my media in oxygenated water. I stick the biowheel right in the tank where there is more o2. Granted, it will take away from the fish, but not that much. If you don't have battery operated air pumps, just use a cup to vigoursly pour water back into the tank every 30 minutes or so. If you want to keep your fish, you just don't get to sleep

You may want to invest in a few of these for each tank. They plug right in and sense power loss.

Ahhh - the link doesn't work right. Choose Aeration Equipment from the list, then work your way down to the blue Penn-Plax.

http://naturesbestfish.com/

Mine ran for 3 days straight on 2-D batteries. I tried a Hagen model and didn't like the output which was weak. This thin really spits out the air. I ran a test when I first got it and finally shut if off on day 4 of continuous running. For larger tanks, get a few. Have at least one plugged into the outlet to sense power loss when you are away and use the others as backup.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 22-Jan-2005 19:26

Last edited by Cory_Di at 22-Jan-2005 19:55

Last edited by Cory_Di at 22-Jan-2005 19:56

i never tried it, but would a back up power supply for a computer run aquarium heaters for any length of time?

just a thought.

UPS will run a filter for a day or more...depending on the UPS of course...but heaters use alot of electricity. Something I've considered is to use a timer with the heater if the power goes out to help keep it from falling too far too fast. However tem shifts are more harmful than just a lowering temp.

Wrap the tank is really the best.....in fact I always keep my tank covered when I'm not home anyway.

^_^
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Depending on the size of your tank, it shoudl hold the temp for a while without power. My 125s will only drop a degree or so over several hours. If your power goes out for a day or more, then you have other worries more important then your fish. Like keeping your pipes from freezing. Options would be if you have a gas stove, you could heat water and place a cold/hot pak in the water until heated, then place that pak in your tank to help maintain the temp a bit. If no gas stove, how about a gas water heater.
I computer UPS will work, but as stated, heaters draw a lot of amps and will drain the batterys fast. This can be figured out by looking up how many amps the heater draws, and then checking how many amp hours the UPS will last.


Dan

when the power in my house goes out, all i do is get a straw (or a piece of airline tubing) and blow bubbles in the tank every hour or so.

Our power has been out for hours before, and no toxic crap has killed the fish from the filter.

I am in Nova Scotia and am in the same blizzard Use a turkey baster to pump air into your tank and do the blanket wrap. It might be a good idea to invest in a battery operated airstone (they are 14.99 can.) for the future. Also throw your filter media in the tank, it needs the air too.

___________________________________________

If at first you DO succeed, try not to look astonished.

Doesn't blowing "air" into the water actually only put co2 in there?

The fish store across the street from me just use cups and pour water from a good 12+ inches (higher the better) back into the tank. They just scoop and pour. If you do this 10 times or more, especially if you stir from lower portion of tank, you expose more water to the atmosphere.

To get air in the tank, all you really need to do is break the surface. There have been several good tips, all shoudl work. As for blowing in a tube. That will work as well. You do not exhale only CO2, there is also O2.



Dan