# Power Outages



## Rookie_Rob (Jan 4, 2009)

What do you do for your tank if electricty goes out?


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

Will I have a generator, and turn of the lights except for 2 hours a day just so the plants get some light, but mainly it for the filtration. In the smaller tanks I just use battery powered air pumps. Just a point of refrence you need two for a 55 gal tank.


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## Chickadee (Nov 15, 2008)

I use sponge filters attached to battery powered air pumps in my tanks all the time. The air pumps are dual powered and do not run on battery power until the power is interrupted and when the power is off they take over and the sponge filters take over and aerate the tanks and filter the ammonia for me. The tanks may get a bit cool if it is off for long but if it looks like it will be a longer time I wrap them in a blanket. The fish have never suffered from outages and the sponge filters reseed the larger filters if I have a mini cycle from their being interupted too long. I have never lost a fish this way.

Rose

I should say that the sponge filters and air pumps run all the time whether they are needed or not in preparation for just such an occurence. That way they are cycled and charged at all times.


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## Rookie_Rob (Jan 4, 2009)

Well all I have right now is a 40g tank with an emperor 280 on it.


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## fishfinder (Aug 31, 2008)

Is your power out or are you just preparing for one? So far this season I've avoided an outage even though areas near us have had power outages in the snow/ice and wind. Twice in the last two weeks. In the past I have used my battery powered air pump and wrapped the tanks in bubble wrap and bath towels. They weathered the 4 day outage well last year. The temp in the house was 38 degrees.


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## Rookie_Rob (Jan 4, 2009)

Preparing...Hurricane season gets us. Last season we were out for at least a week. It STUNK!


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## fishfinder (Aug 31, 2008)

That's a rough one. At least your temperatures stay above freezing. That's a plus.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Last year our power went out for 9 days due to an ice storm, had a generator for my tanks but after the first day was unable to get gas for the generator as most everything in town was closed down or out of gas. I ended up loosing over $5000.00 in fish alone. Now we have a whole house generator that is hooked up to our natural gas and don't have to worry about it.


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## Rookie_Rob (Jan 4, 2009)

I wish I had a generator that kick on right after the lights go out. One day though...One day.


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## chrisgrier (Feb 21, 2009)

Use a UPS Belkin is cheaper than APC and you get more for your money. Then a generator when the batteries get weak. I am starting a fresh tank and what I am planning on doing... I have an RV, I took the household voltage battery charger out, along with the batteries, then I have an inverter to conver the 12volts back to household if the light goes out. Then the generator with the batteries goes dead. You can put as many batteries as you have money and space if you put the in series.


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## Marty (Jan 1, 2009)

Here in AR we went thru a huge ice storm i lost power and water for over a week.this is before i stocked my 40 gallon so all i had to worry about was my daughters ten gallon.i went to memphis and bought several cases of spring water,to drink and for the fish.I had no power whatsoever on the tank so i just did 2 gallon changes everyday and used a cup every so often to turn as much water as i could.everything made it thru ok..


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