What do People do when the Power Goes Out?
- Thread starter The Masked Shadow
- Start date
This past week was originally expecting a major storm so got much needed 'power out' supplies. The storm wasn't quite as bad as expected, but I have my supplies for the future. What I purchased:
A pack of survival blankets. Relatively inexpensive. These are metal foil blankets that preserve heat and are pretty big. Waterproof and more practical than weighted blankets. They fold up into small squares. You can wrap one over a pretty big tank.
Battery operated bubblers with airstones. Only thing is they're only rated from 5 to 30 gallons at the most. If you have a large tank it gets ridiculous. Get loads of D batteries. Regular to start with, rechargeable long term. Juice 'em up and have them ready.
A solar portable power unit. Anywhere from 100 to 4,000 watt capacity. Solar panels are separate. You just charge them up by plug in. They hold their charge until needed. You can power devices depending on wattage capacity.
If you have gas, boil water and mix it with room temp water and add to the tank periodically. Bigger the tank, longer it takes to cool.
Lower water level a bit and keep lids secure if you have jumpers. Let the battery bubblers run. Extra air at the surface is good for aeration.
If you have acrylic tank, insulation is greater to begin with.
Like everyone said, dump your bio media into the tank. I usually put mine with the messiest fish and lay an airstone on top.
I have a bunch of Penn Plax Silent Air b11 battery backup pumps. These turn on and run off battery when the power goes out.
Originally I had a sponge filter on my 125g but pump wasn't strong enough to pump in that tank. I bought a Ziss filter from Aquarium Co-op and that works great: being higher up in the tank, the backup pumps can blow bubbles and run the filter.
I run a backup.sponge filter in my 10g with same setup.
I've been lucky that I haven't had a power outage in over a year and a half. During the derecho weather phenomenon, a street in the town next door had power out for a week so we got lucky.to have no issues here.
I tested the backup pump once when an old pump failed and it ran for like 36 hours on the D batteries.
If I ever do upgrade my 125 to a 300+g I plan on having several Ziss filter plus battery backup pumps.
Aquarium coop has a good video about this subject.
My fish got through it! used an 8 gallon bubbler from Walmart. They seem to blow twice As much bubbles as the sponge filter!
The power was out because my dad got electrocuted. It was relatively serious. 40 volts. Power outage is expected in the next week.
I am very sorry. I hope he is recovering well. My best thoughts for you and your family!
