Power Outages - Effective Surface Agitation

[SwellyJelly]

We had a minor power hiccup last night and this got me thinking if in the event of a prolonged power outage what is the most effective course of action to help get your tank through this period.

Generators, UPS backup batteries, powerheads, battery powered airstones or even pouring buckets. There are many different means of supplying power to your tank to allow gas exchange to continue to occur. But for those who do not own the more expensive options what is the most effective way to allow for exchange to occur without quickly draining your available power supply.

For example, I have a 8x2x2 and have a powerhead on one end of the tank and a couple larger airstones spread across the tank. Would it be more effective to have the powerhead aimed directly along the surface of the whole tank or would it be better to power my air pump to keep the air stones running. To keep the math simple lets says that both the powerhead and the air pump both use the same power of 30W.

 

[Hendre]

I think a powerhead with a venturi would give you some good aeration there, otherwise a 30W airpump can pack some serious punch!

 

[FishNCash]

Two DD batteries from an air pump got me more than 48 hours of air bubbles to agitate the surface. I think with a power supply it should run even longer. Your biggest problem is figuring out how to heat your tank during a power outage.

 

[pacu mom]

https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/prepping-for-and-surviving-power-outtages.48578/


Battery powered air pumps are under $10 a piece. I kept two of them for many years. Unfortunately, I live in an area where power outages are common, lasting for hours or days.

A 20 KW generator is piece of mind for me now. It doesn't matter if I'm away, and I don't have to get up in the night to throw in the BPAPs and submerge the bioballs. It is just business as usual for the tank.

 

[Rocksor]

A single DD air pump with an airstone is enough to keep a 110 g tank sufficiently aerated for 10+ hours.

 

[duanes]

I agree with Henre about using (either) the venturi on the powerhead, or adding a venturi valve/tube if it isn't built in. In this way the power head can be aim to supply flow to lower areas of the aquarium and the venturi adds tons of surface agitation, in one unit.
Here are a couple of the ventures I use .

You can actually see the strong flow across the length of a 6 ft tank.

the actually venturi tube


here I've added a venturi to a powerhead where it wasn't built into the powerhead

below a powerhead where its built into the effluent