Scheduled POWER OUTAGE?!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Bonez

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
59
Okay, so...there is a scheduled power outage, they give no time frame or anything - just say "when work is completed" Arrrrg!



I have many concerns about this, and the least is what will go bad in my refrigerator...


1.) How long is too long for the power to be off to my tank? I just have 1 polyp and 4 fish.

2.) Will it alter my tanks water levels at all with no filtration/circulation while the power is out? I'm guessin the power will be down for at least a few hours... :x


Dreadfully concerned about my fish!

Thanks in advance for advice, I know I always can count on the people here to help!


-Derrick
 
Tank will probably be ok for a few hrs. as for the fridge, I would set the temps lower just prior to the outage, say 6 hrs, and leave the door closed while it's out.
 
I agree. The fish will be fine for a few hours :)

It being the summer, I'd venture to say you'll be just fine for atleast a day, if not more than that. The fridge, not that long! Hopefully it'll only be one of those instances where the power is only out for 1-2 hours and then back on again.
 
What a pain in the butt! Just curious, what size tank and what type/size fish?
A heavily or overstocked tank will deplete O2 faster than one w/ a light-moderate bio-load. As O2 decreases it will cause bad things ex. PH to drop, etc.
 
I also have battery back ups for power heads, I also do not run lights on them you can also get a battery air pump to keep the water moving and o2 in the tank.For the fridge perhaps a cooler stocked with ice for the really need to get to stuff . As was said also set it to lower and keep the door opening to a minimum
 
Hopefully it wont be that long but you should be OK for a while. As MT79 said it will really depend on your bioload and tank size. The battery backups are good ideas.
 
I assume this is in your 24 nano tank with:
1x Striated Frogfish
3x Yellowtail Damsels
2x Large snail
3x hermit crab
1x medium sized star polyp

Considering all your fish are pretty small now a power outage not lasting longer then 6 hours should be fine. If you can't get a battery backup to run one ph or a battery air pump then you can also circulate the water every half hour for a couple of minutes yourself.
 
I agree, try a UPS for your ph. I only have my phs on a battery backup.
 
Wow! thanks for the quick responses! I do have a battery I could probably make work, if not, then it's good to know that a couple of hours won't hurt them!


Thanks for the input guys! appreciate it.


-Derrick
 
AndyH5512 said:
The battery backup is a good idea. How long will one last if it is running only PH's?
That is going to depend on the Wattage of both the phs and back up.
 
roka64 said:
AndyH5512 said:
The battery backup is a good idea. How long will one last if it is running only PH's?
That is going to depend on the Wattage of both the phs and back up.

Yup. A real real REAL rough estimate is to find out how many "amp-hours" the battery is rated for. Then take that number, and divide it by the current you're putting through it - in Amps. To get amps, divide the wattage of your load (powerheads) by the voltage of your load (most likely 120V). As an example:

Say you have two powerheads that are rated 12 Watts each.

Total current for the two would be:

2 x 12 Watts = 24 Watts
24 Watts / 120 Volts = 0.2 Amps

Say you have a 4.0 Amp-hour rated battery in your backup. Then, the absolute MOST time you could get would be:

4.0 Amp-hour / 0.2 Amps = 20 hours

Again... this doesn't account for a lot of stuff (like the inverter efficiency, the starting current when things power up, blah blah blah) but it at least gives you an absolute maximum for time to expect. To be safe, I'd cut the number in half so you wouldn't be disappointed.
 
I found a battery backup system at Costco for around $100.00. It says its designed to be used for computers or home thater systems. Will this work for my tank as well? I only really need to hook it up to my powerheads. I'm assuming it would be fine but just wanted to make sure.

The battery system is like this one (not sure of the exact specs but this is the same brand)

http://www.tripplite.com/products/product.cfm?productID=3195
 
Personally I would go with a name brand like APC.
 
Since we're talking battery backup, I just need to point out something I've mentioned in other posts before. Don't mean to beat a dead horse, but it's a safety thing, and is probably worth repeating...

If you go with a battery backup, make sure you have a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) on the output side of the UPS. You can get one of those GFCI/extension cord combos that will do the trick.

Reason for this is that even if you have your UPS plugged into a GFCI in your wall, it does no good. Let's say you've got a short in whatever you have plugged into your UPS and you're lighting up your tank with stray voltage. You stick your hand in and *bam* the GFCI in the wall trips out. Great... just like it's supposed to. BUT... now the UPS says "Hey... I don't have power anymore. I better fire up and get those amps flowing again" and *bam* you've got electricity back in your tank again. This all happens quicker than you can blink an eye.

I like the UPS - I have one on my tank. But if you're playing it safe to start with and have everything plugged into GFCI outlets, then don't forget about the possible ramifications of that UPS!
 
Kurt_Nelson said:
roka64 said:
Personally I would go with a name brand like APC.

Tripp-Lite is definitely a name brand.
Ok, thanks for the info. The only ones I ever looked at were the two models they had a Staples, one was APC and I can't remember the other brand.
 
Kurt_Nelson said:
Since we're talking battery backup, I just need to point out something I've mentioned in other posts before. Don't mean to beat a dead horse, but it's a safety thing, and is probably worth repeating...

If you go with a battery backup, make sure you have a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) on the output side of the UPS. You can get one of those GFCI/extension cord combos that will do the trick.

Reason for this is that even if you have your UPS plugged into a GFCI in your wall, it does no good. Let's say you've got a short in whatever you have plugged into your UPS and you're lighting up your tank with stray voltage. You stick your hand in and *bam* the GFCI in the wall trips out. Great... just like it's supposed to. BUT... now the UPS says "Hey... I don't have power anymore. I better fire up and get those amps flowing again" and *bam* you've got electricity back in your tank again. This all happens quicker than you can blink an eye.

I like the UPS - I have one on my tank. But if you're playing it safe to start with and have everything plugged into GFCI outlets, then don't forget about the possible ramifications of that UPS!


Now there`s something I never thought of 8O
Very good point
 
I believe that one of the more important things to stay on top off is to make sure you have good surface aggitation. Doing so will help maintain o2 levels in the tank. The last power outage we had hear I used a battery powered air pump with some tubing to keep the surface going. But ph's on a battery pack is a great idea too.
 
Back
Top Bottom