Power Outtages suck.

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MistaSparkL

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
57
Location
Centreville, VA
I had a power outtage for about 24 hours, my aquarium water temperature dropped 12 degrees....it was 66 degrees this morning. The power just came back on.. my fish look lethargic. Has this happened to anyone before? Did your livestock pull through?
 
It has happened to me but I have an inverter and hook pumps up to a car battery to keep the flow moving in the tank. I also heat the house with a wood stove so I don't have the temp swing, well at least not that large. I didn't lose anything in the tank but it stunted things for a few weeks.

Bring the temp back up slowly. To much of an up and down of the temp could be a very bad thing.
 
I have never had an outage that long I run a UPS battery on my tanks , it runs just the pumps , since the pumps put out heat it helps keep it warmer . The battery lasts on our 10 gallon aprox 12 hours or so ... I need to take the tank down and let the battery drain and recharge every now and again so that I can make sure the battery is at full capasity , the down side to that is if you do that with a battery , and your power goes before it is fully charged ;)
However I have had my tank drop due to a heater malfunction and when I got the extra heater out (I always have a spare ) I brought it up about 1-2* an hour then let it do it the rest of the way once I hit 71* in the tank .. I had some ticked corals but every thing did fine... The temp hit 65* on mine so not much less than yours ..:D Next time think about wrapping the tank in a couple blankets to insulate it a bit if possible
 
Yes!!! if the power is out for more than 48 hours, I would maybe change ALL filter media before it comes back on. All the bacteria are presently dying without the water moving through them...you may want to float your biological media in the tank...otherwise, if you don't act, when it comes nback on you may dump a ton of harmful dead bacteria into your tank. I survived a 6 day outage during IKE. battery pumps kept it oxegenated. I wrapped blankets..about 4 around each tank to keep them from dropping too low. you can go and get a autombile voltage converter from the store. it plugs into your cig lighter, and you can plug stuff to it. you'll have to use and extension cord. plug in only the heater!!! the cord greatly reduces the load that it can carry....you'll have to run your car off and on...but for the good of your livestock....i'd do it for sure. buy the best one you can find.
 
i bought a small generator for my reptiles.. now its just got the 4th outlet in use

-Brad
 
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