Power outage looming!

I've just learned we're going to be without electricity for 12 hours on Sunday. You experienced folk must know how to deal with this? What do I do?

 

Damn, I havent had an outage for that long. Fish in planted tanks should be fine, temp should be ok, seeing we ar having warmer weather now

 

If your tank is fairly big, then the temp fluctuation should be ok. If it is small, wrap the tank in blankets.

Go get yourself a battery operated airpump... they fairly cheap from most LPS.. Get batteries, plus EXTRA batteries. Take your filter media out the filter.... put it into a bucket of AQUARIUM water, and put the airstone UNDER the filter stuff. This will help keep the filter bacteria alive.

 

Warm weather is just the problem.....warm water holds less oxygen than cooler water....thing to do is to ALWAYS have a battery opperated air pump as a backup - this has savd my fish(and filter bacteria...) many times in the past.. I usualy put a T-piece in the airline --> One in the tank and one in the filter(If possible,depending on filter type...)...Should see you thru no problem.....Just remember that in general,filter bacteria that has had no circulation for 4 hours or more,is dead...treat your tank as a "new" system for the next 4 - 6 weeks...large waterchanges,feed lightly....
Can't get hold of a battery opperated air pump? Inflate a car inner tube and jam the ait intake open - attach an airline with airstone to this,into tank - by placing some weight on the tube,you get some air into the tank...
Good luck - hope my ideas help....

 

Just wondering which areas will be affected? This is the first time I've heard of this.

 

+1

this is one of the better ideas i've ever heard as a short term solution to getting some air into your tank!!

if it has a valve in the tube, you can turn the valve to open slightly, just enough to leach a small stream of air out. like a slow puncture would, so you can make the air last for quite a while, especially if its directed mainly at your filter media! and if the tube is emptied, you can pump it up again by hand

in fact, if you have an actual spare wheel with a tyre over it, it would hold much more compressed air than a tube on its own, having a tyre wrapped around it and that..

 

@ MDM: Actualy this is the way our "pioneering forefathers" of the hobby used to keep their fish alive in the 1940's when the first real international interest began in tropicals....
One thing to ote though...the air in a tube is stale(and sometimes filled with nitrogen - something to do with better wear on the tyres...don't know cars - I know fish...),so first completely deflate,then refill tube with hand or foot pump....not a compressor - these put minute bits of oil into the tube that can be harmfull to your fish....bit of extra work,but works a charm...

 

hmm cool, guys some good ideas. How about gravity fed filters. I have one with my pond. I will have to check the max head height on it though. I do know that it goes below the pond and the water feeds round and round.

 

@tracyp - I would do a nice clean up today and a large water change. This would minimise the waste toxicity build up when the power is off.

 

no problem there Riyadh.....just upgrade to bigger airstones,longer airline and a truck or tractor inner tube.... as long as you get airflow(wich creats current that takes de-oxygenated water from the bottom to the top) past the media,some bacteria will survive and reseed your filter in a much shorter time than if nothing was done to preserve the bacteria....

 

Okey dokey! Thanks for the swift responses! I've gone and acquired the relevant equipment, and am now prepared! Oh, Nirv, with regard to which areas, I don't know for certain, but I think its just Stanford!

 

i have an air powered filter in each tank, running on a ups. for extended power failures i have a bait pump to run the air filters. had a 25 hour long power outage a few months ago and did not loose a single fish. remember to take the filter media out of your other filter and place it in the tank.

 

Diving cylinders! - for those members, among us, that are divers. Unscrew the second stage of your DV, and connect your airline/air supply pipe to the Regulator hose. Regulate the airflow, with the tap on the cylinder. 10l of air at 200 bar, now that could last for a while!
This is great for those with fish-rooms.
Gert.

 

Can you imagine if something were to go faulty with all that air and pressure?