power outage???how long will fish last???

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
keepinfish

keepinfish

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Jun 29, 2007
7,398
709
174
47
In God We Trust
Not yet! BUT just wondering, winter is moving in.

I have a 210 with 2 motoros 9" and 1 ck 15" 1 tsn 15" 1 fire eel 18" 2 florida gars 1-11" 1-14"

If i cover the tank with a blanket to preserve the heat, how long would i have before lack of oxygen and the ammonia would kill them? just wondering if i should plan for the worse.
 
I would think that you can get away with around 6 hours easy. IF you wanted to do something to prevent all that you could get yourself a CPU power supply battery backup. That would be able to run things until the power is back online.
 
Best insurance - buy a little generator.

Even a small one will run your whole tank normally as long as you have gas to refill it. Just make sure you run the generator OUTSIDE so you dont kill yourself! :eek:

A computer UPS will be fine for a few hours, but the small ones only have a couple of hours run time, even on a very small load (just your filter). You can extend that with more batteries, but thats likely to cost more than a generator anyway.

You can homebrew a better battery standby unit out of a big deep cycle battery, a small battery charger and an inverter. How long it can run depends on how much battery you buy, but 24hours isn't out of the question just powering a filter.

Last resort - you can probably keep your fish alive for a long time by doing heroic water changes 50% several times a day. Also if you are without power, strip down the filters and just put the media in the tank, in a stocking or net. That way some of the bacteria will survive for after the power is restored. Otherwise after 24 hours you restart the filter, dump a load of dead bacteria and toxins into the tank, and then have no working filtration :(

Cheers

Ian
 
Ianab;1329782; said:
Best insurance - buy a little generator.

Even a small one will run your whole tank normally as long as you have gas to refill it. Just make sure you run the generator OUTSIDE so you dont kill yourself! :eek:

A computer UPS will be fine for a few hours, but the small ones only have a couple of hours run time, even on a very small load (just your filter). You can extend that with more batteries, but thats likely to cost more than a generator anyway.

You can homebrew a better battery standby unit out of a big deep cycle battery, a small battery charger and an inverter. How long it can run depends on how much battery you buy, but 24hours isn't out of the question just powering a filter.

Last resort - you can probably keep your fish alive for a long time by doing heroic water changes 50% several times a day. Also if you are without power, strip down the filters and just put the media in the tank, in a stocking or net. That way some of the bacteria will survive for after the power is restored. Otherwise after 24 hours you restart the filter, dump a load of dead bacteria and toxins into the tank, and then have no working filtration :(

Cheers

Ian
Click to expand...

thanks, i like the last one but i have well water, no power, no water.:cry:
 
Ianab;1329782; said:
Best insurance - buy a little generator.

Even a small one will run your whole tank normally as long as you have gas to refill it. Just make sure you run the generator OUTSIDE so you dont kill yourself! :eek:

A computer UPS will be fine for a few hours, but the small ones only have a couple of hours run time, even on a very small load (just your filter). You can extend that with more batteries, but thats likely to cost more than a generator anyway.

You can homebrew a better battery standby unit out of a big deep cycle battery, a small battery charger and an inverter. How long it can run depends on how much battery you buy, but 24hours isn't out of the question just powering a filter.

Last resort - you can probably keep your fish alive for a long time by doing heroic water changes 50% several times a day. Also if you are without power, strip down the filters and just put the media in the tank, in a stocking or net. That way some of the bacteria will survive for after the power is restored. Otherwise after 24 hours you restart the filter, dump a load of dead bacteria and toxins into the tank, and then have no working filtration :(

Cheers

Ian
Click to expand...

You can get some of the new resins that eliminate the ammonia for short term use in the filter(s).

Whichever you decide is right for you, set it up and TEST it before it's needed. If you get a ups run the filter till it dies (timing it of course) so be home to switch it back over to dock power :D.

With generators make sure they will run continuously without a cool down after each tank of fuel. We had generators meltdown 'cause they weren't continuous duty, during the hurricanes.

No power - No well water huh. If theres enough time to see the blackout coming (storm) consider a kiddie pool and fill before the electric goes out. Or you could get a gas powered well pump too. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95123

Dr Joe

.
 
UPS will only get a couple minutes. A 2000 watt power supply can power 2000 watts for about 10 minutes. The computer backup power is pretty much just to power down your system safely or get the power back up. It is almost proportional so powering 1000 watts should give you about 20 minutes. If you pay for larger batteries then the up time increases, but so does the cost. Also for a 2K UPS you will need a 20 Amp circuit and most house circuits are 15 Amp.

I use a 10K Generac power system with an automatic transfer switch and sub panel, in conjunction with a UPS. I have a separate LP tank to give me 7kw/h for 72 hours. If power goes out the UPS keeps powering my stuff until the generator turns on automatically. When power is restored the generator shuts off and the transfer switch resumes using normal power.

If all you want to power is just the fish tank you can get a small one and wire in a sub panel and transfer switch just for the tank.
 
UPS will only get a couple minutes. A 2000 watt power supply can power 2000 watts for about 10 minutes.
Click to expand...

Yup.. but a tank filter may only draw 30 or 40 watts, so you get a much longer run time as it's not drawing a full load. A normal desktop PC UPS ( a good one) may do 500 watts for 15 min, or 50 watts for a couple of hours. But thats all. 2 hours without power will not usually do any harm.

But I agree, they are of limited value for a fish tank. When you REALLY need backup power is after 4 or 6 hours.

A generator is the best option - it also means you can have a couple of lights and your stereo while you wait for the power to come back on ;) You have automatic backup power for the whole house - thats NICE, the ultimate setup realy, but pricy.

A little Honda putt-putt, an extension cord and a plug-in RCD breaker that you can pull out of the shed, set up in the carport and connect to your tanks if the power doesn't come back on after an hour or so is a good insurance policy.

Cheers

Ian
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom