Power failure and my fish tank

What a week for my poor fish
:sad2:

Me and the search function dont work :embarrest:

So I need your help last night we had a power failure for about 4 hours eventually when power was restored I could see my fish were stressed and "gasping for air" most of them were gray and pale:sad2:

I couldnt sleep last night as I was so worried they will not make it but all seems fine now:redface:

What do I do that something like this doesnt happen again in the future we all know how reliable eishkom is so the chances of it happening agian is good:sad2:

Any help?

 

ALWAYS ALWAYS have battery operated air pumps on standby - and a brand new set of batteries !!!!!

 

And what about the filter and heater?

 

there is not too much you can do about those - I don't think 4-6 hours will be critical for the heating - if the power is off for longer then you have a real problem - esp the filter. What I have done is remove the filter material ( 1.e. the matrix part ) , put it into a bucket with the SAME water from the tank, and just rinse/dunk/agitate it every now and then to get more oxygen in the water, and I put a battery operated airstone in with it. Luckily my worst power outage was 10 hours - during the day which was fortunate.

 

you could also invest in a UPS ( uninterrupted power supply) of course for safety, but i have not got one myself, but lots of guys here do have them and use them to good effect.

 

@OBI

I keep a supply of oxygen tablets at hand. To try and keep some of the heat in my tanks I also cover / wrap them with blankets and towels. Had a 9 hour power outage the other night and only lost one fish. It having been my first experience of a power outage on my tanks, I panicked and even added oxygen tablets to the betta tank! :laugh:

Having battery operated air-pumps on standby would of course provide you with a lot more peace of mind.

 

i had a 12 hour power out a few months back and no fish died, put blankets over your tank that will help with heat trust me it works! it also helps when now and again u make some movements in the water, we just used a pipe and blow on it from time to time and it help. if u still have warm water u can also use it in 2litres bottles and place them in your tank! and keep some oxigen tables on hand!

 

@rednox

Now that's a wonderful idea - 2 liter bottle filled with warm water and blowing on a pipe! Simple and effective!

 

Thanks guys I would like to get the ups as what happens when the power goes out when your not at home

 

@OBI - you got me thinking hard now - maybe I should join you on that !!!! It's all very good and well dishing out advice - and then not listening to your own advice I guess - in fact bloody stupid!!! lol

 

@OBI

Hmmm....never thought about that!

 

wont blowing on a pipe just produce co2 and not o2?

 

blowing on a pipe will turn the water and allow oxygen exchange at the surface - if done for long enough i guess

 

Power outage and aquariums. What do I do?

 

Re blowing through pipe: atmospheric air contains about 20% oxygen and exhaled air contains about 15%. We are not very good at extracting oxygen from the air we breathe. Also why CPR doesn't kill people. So that should work fine. Oddly mine have never suffered from lack of oxygen during a power failure; the biggest difficulty I've had was keeping them warm during a 16 hour power failure in the middle of winter. I took all submerged filters out of the water to keep the bacteria alive, wrapped the tanks in blankets and duvets, I then ignored most of the tanks, but the discus and the chocolate gouramis don't cope well with cold so for those two tanks I heated water on a paraffin stove and added it slowly to the tank water. Everyone came out OK in the end. Fortunately the filter on my big tank is a wet/dry that sits above the level of the tank, so it's automatically protected in case of a power failure, I don't have to do anything to it.

 

If we have a long power outage, i boil a large pot of water on the gas stove and mix it in a bucket with 50% water from the tank after +- 2 hrs and slowly add it back into the tank.
Only use half the water in the pot so that the next full pot heats up quick. Or just keep it on low and it keeps the water warm for as long as u need. Its a mission but stops fish dying.

Ps our house is freezing since we live next to a large dam.

 

Picked up some good tips here, thanks guys. What I have done in the past is heated up some water and then put it in (clean) class jars and then just added that to the tank, works like a charm. Covering the tank with a blanket or two, keeps a lot of heat in as well! And i always keep a bunch of oxygen tabs close by. It isnt the best, but it is better than nothing!

 

Lots of great ideas here. Just on a related note, if frozen foods such as mysis, brine shrimp etc. defrost during a power failure am I right to assume that its best to throw the food away and replace it with fresh food? Not sure if defrosting and then re-freezing the food will cause it to spoil

 

Well it depends how long it has been defrosted. Personally, I throw it out if it has been completely defrosted for more than a couple of hours!

 

I would never re-freeze stuff that has defrosted - I don't think it is worth the risk !