Power Failure - Please help

Hi everyone,

Got up this morning with the power off. Checked the tank temperature and it was below 18deg C.

The power came back on but only for an hour.

What should I do about the tank temperature. I have a gas stove, must I heat up some water and try and get the tank temp up?

I don't want to shock the fish by increasing the temp too fast, also don't want them to freeze to death.

Only have about 30min battery power left on my laptop.

Please help!

Bylaag

 

You dont have to do anything, but if you want to, you can fill some 2L bottles with hot water from the geyser, leaving a small air gap, and floating them in your aquarium. This will prevent the temp from dropping further.

 

will definitely do that, thanks wickets!

 

You dont have to do anything, but if you want to, you can fill some 2L bottles with hot water from the geyser, leaving a small air gap, and floating them in your aquarium. This will prevent the temp from dropping further. Depending what fish you have, they might be distressed, but I doubt if you will have any mortalities, unless your water drops below 12 degrees

 

Seems mosy of the country experienced or are currently experiencing power outages. This weather is baaaaad

 

Good idea with the bottles. We also had power outages on Thursday & Friday in the early hours (2am-ish - wasn't load shedding though...more like sub-station issues)...was concerned when my water dropped to 20 degrees...even went and wrapped blankets around the tank like all the Joburgers do...guess I'm OK to leave the tank in future since room temp at the moment is at around 17 degrees without any heating.

 

Nice one @Wickets I will keep that idea in my emergency tool kit

 

Did the water bottle thing and wrapped the tank in blankets. They all survived the cold weather and the power went on about 7 last night.

Thanks @Wickets!

 

Wickets, this is briliant!! n boer maak n plan...I will also remember that one!!

 

@bylaag Plesier. Bly ek kon help.

 

I wish I had read this yesterday our power was out from 5am to 8pm last night and the only thing I could think of is putting a blanket over my tank and get a UPS to run my heater (didn't last long) and a battery operated air pump.

So the power came on at 8 last night and I thought ok everything should be ok, I left the blanket until the tank is back to normal temp. So I went to bed this morning woke up and went to check on my tank and surprise surprise tank still on 20 degrees, check the heater and it wasn't on so I turned the gauge up to 28 and on goes my heater so I am not sure what happened (any ideas)

 

Bi-metal strip contacts can form an oxidation coat after a while, and the contacts can also become pitted, preventing contact. Adjusting your heater, changes pressure on the contact, causing it to make contact again. Once a heater has reached this stage, I would discard it, unless you feel qualified enough to polish and re-coat the contacts.