Power is Out...Suggestions

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Fish Tank Travis

Fish Tank Travis

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Feb 28, 2016
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Dayton, OH
Hey everyone,

I am located in Dayton, OH and we got hit real hard with wind today and it knocked out power out at about 6:45pm (about two hours ago). I have been out and contacted other people in the area and it seems to be a pretty widespread power outage and I am worried it might last for a while, or at least overnight.

Normally, this time of year wouldn't be a problem but we are getting some cold weather and temps are supposed to get down to 28 deg F tonight.

I have checked my tanks, a 29 and a 10 gallon and both are down to about 78 deg F from 80, where I have them set.

I don't think my house will get down much below 60 tonight, if even that far but I am worried that the tanks might end up too cold and harm or kill my fish.

My stocking is two juvenile fire eels that are about 5-6" long in the 29 gallon tank and the ten gallon tank has two tiger barbs, four glo tetras and two neon tetras. I'm not too worried about the fish in the 10 gallon tank as they are pretty easily replaceable but the two fire eels have me worried.

I am not going to feed them tonight since their filters aren't running so I am not terribly worried about water parameters, just mainly the water temp.

Can you all please give me some advice on anything I need to do or will they be ok if the tank very slowly drops down toward 60 deg for just one night?

Thank you all!
 
Hello; I have gone thru power outages. One lasted over three days during december. I managed to keep the house in the low 50's F. Tanks cooled down as well but it was gradual. When power came back on I heated the tanks back up slowly. Fish were all fine. My take is there is more concern with rapid temp changes rather then gradual.

Water holds heat well and your tanks will cool of more slowly than the air. The bigger concern can be if the tanks are over stocked. Such overstocking can lead to low oxygen levels. A battery powered bubbler can help with this.
Good luck
 
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Power outages suck man. If you're serious about the hobby you gotta pick up some kind of backup power solution if you lose it often. Good call on the not feeding. If you're mostly concerned about temperature do whatever you can to keep a fully covered lid in place. Of course this doesn't help for aeration(gas exchange) of the water column. Hopefully it comes back on soon.
 
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Genny, or battery powered air pumps are great, I bought one for cheap, runs 12 hours or so off a pair of double-A's. You could convert an air pump to run off your car-lighter too. Heater shouldn't be an issue unless it drops into the 50's for more than a day for tropical, ................................subtropicals and temperates should be fine this time of year though.
 
You can get battery powered air pump pretty cheap. As for heaters and such you can do the red neck style and pour bags of hot water in the tank and it will raise temps.

If you want the heaters to work just get a 12V cheap car battery from Walmart and get an inventor and hook it up to the heaters. Should last you at least a day or two and if it dies just take it to autozone to get it charged up should take an hour or two on quick charge.

I wouldn't put the filters on there the pump will draw too much power.
 
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Thanks for the suggestions all. Luckily, the power just came back on a little past 3:00am and the tanks haven't seen too much of a decline and are heating back up now.

We don't lose the power very often here and when we do it is rarely out for more than an hour or two. This was a unique case and I was affraid that it might last a day or more in cold temps.

I will look into getting some backup solutions in case this ever happens again.
 
This is coming way late, but for future:
1. Cover tanks with comforter or sleeping bag.

2. Heat water with a gas grill and pour water into a container with a water tight cap. Place container into tank.

3. Don't bother feeding during this time.

4. Have inexpensive battery powered air pumps handy
 
A good sized canister filter consumes maybe 60watts. Air pumps are typically less than 10watts. Heaters would be a BIG load on a battery backup power source if you've got 200w units, etc..

Main thing with long term power outages is preserving your bio media in your canisters or HOB filters. I'd remove it from your HOB and place it in your tank. Same with a canister if the power outage is going to exceed 10-12hrs. If you don't, you are going to have one heck of a stinky anaerobic mess in your canister.

Sponge bubblers are king in this situation. You can run them with battery powered air pumps, or just leave them sit in your tank.
 
A good sized canister filter consumes maybe 60watts. Air pumps are typically less than 10watts. Heaters would be a BIG load on a battery backup power source if you've got 200w units, etc..

Main thing with long term power outages is preserving your bio media in your canisters or HOB filters. I'd remove it from your HOB and place it in your tank. Same with a canister if the power outage is going to exceed 10-12hrs. If you don't, you are going to have one heck of a stinky anaerobic mess in your canister.

Sponge bubblers are king in this situation. You can run them with battery powered air pumps, or just leave them sit in your tank.
 
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