Power Cut

[Fishy Smell]

Hello All,

It appears that my power is going to be off for up to 8 hours next week due to routine maintenance by the local electricity board. Not happy as you can imagine. Anyway, i have 3 tanks in the house and am concerned. The ideas i have are as follows;

Heat
Basically, just whack the heating up in the relative areas before it goes off and leave it at that. I could float hot water bottles i know but i may not bother.

Filtration
I understand that the benefitial bacteria will die after and hour or so if it is in water that is not oxygenated. What about if i get all of the pads from the 3 tanks, put them in a bucket with tank water and put an air stone in the bucket and link to a pump that could be plugged in at a friend/relatives house for most of the day?
I have active carbon as well and bio balls in 2 of the tanks, but i'm not sure of the deal with those. I'm thinking initially just about the sponges with the bacteria on.

Anyway, any help or advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Paul

 

[GodFan]

Hello All,

It appears that my power is going to be off for up to 8 hours next week due to routine maintenance by the local electricity board. Not happy as you can imagine. Anyway, i have 3 tanks in the house and am concerned. The ideas i have are as follows;

Heat
Basically, just whack the heating up in the relative areas before it goes off and leave it at that. I could float hot water bottles i know but i may not bother.

Filtration
I understand that the benefitial bacteria will die after and hour or so if it is in water that is not oxygenated. What about if i get all of the pads from the 3 tanks, put them in a bucket with tank water and put an air stone in the bucket and link to a pump that could be plugged in at a friend/relatives house for most of the day?
I have active carbon as well and bio balls in 2 of the tanks, but i'm not sure of the deal with those. I'm thinking initially just about the sponges with the bacteria on.

Anyway, any help or advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Paul

Here is what I would do. Heat wise just let it ride. Its only 8 hours. Unless your house gets to like 60 degrees you will be fine.
Filter wise maybe take all the soonges and stuff out and just drop tjem in the actual tank. There should be enough oxygen for 8 hours.
God bless and Good luck!

 

[rmiller]

Godfan is right, drop your media (rings in a nylon hose would be fine) into the tanks they belong to so you don't cross contaminate your tanks on the off chance you have anything lurking in a tank that you're not aware of.

If your house does tend to get cold, I would wrap each tank in a blanket to keep the heat in.

 

[T1KARMANN]

To save the filter bacteria just take the media out of the filter and put it in a bucket then use a battery air pump to keep it aired

As for the temp just raise the tank temp 2 days before

Also us the bat air pump for the tank

It all depends on stocking levels how much air the tank will need

Also don't feed the tank the day before the power goes out

Battery air pumps are cheap and worth having just in case

My tank would die the fish included after 8 hours but others maybe ok

 

[Baddog671]

Now's when you're wishing you had a sponge filter so you didn't have to worry about your BB dying off. Air power FTW

 

[T1KARMANN]

Now's when you're wishing you had a sponge filter so you didn't have to worry about your BB dying off. Air power FTW

Yeah right then all the bacteria can absorb all of the ox in your tank and all your fish will die

How lucky you are lol

 

[Baddog671]

Please explain to me why you think an air powered sponge filter (w/ battery) would depleat the oxygen levels in your tank during a power failure.

 

[candymancan]

I personally wouldn't do anything.. 8 hours isn't a long time and most of your bacteria are in the rocks and stuff anyway not the filters

 

[molliwopp]

I personally wouldn't do anything.. 8 hours isn't a long time and most of your bacteria are in the rocks and stuff anyway not the filters

Most of the bacteria is inside the filter.

The air powered sponge filter is a great addition i agree!

As is not feeding the day before.

 

[T1KARMANN]

Please explain to me why you think an air powered sponge filter (w/ battery) would depleat the oxygen levels in your tank during a power failure.

You stated a internal filter is much safer than a canister filter in a power cut when It's not

A internal filter in a tank the bacteria of the internal filter will suck all the ox in the tank to try to stay alive

 

[aqua_chem]

You stated a internal filter is much safer than a canister filter in a power cut when It's not A internal filter in a tank the bacteria of the internal filter will suck all the ox in the tank to try to stay alive

Not really. If they're not getting ammonia, they're going to have negligible metabolism and minimal oxygen consumption. Fish will be using the vast majority of oxygen in a tank.

8 hours really shouldn't be a problem for a correctly stocked tank. If you've overstocked the tank, then you might consider getting a battery powered aerator (and it probably wouldn't be bad idea regardless). Otherwise, it should be fine. You're not going to get a bacterial die off from 8 hours. If you're worried about it, you can put your filter media directly in a tank so it stays a good temp and has access to oxygen, but I probably wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Masha]

Been reading up on this (as I'm a complete newby) and according to quite a few sources, BB is a lot more resilient than many people think.

For example: Think you know filter bacteria? Dream on

Actually that particular article may not be all that helpful in this case as it applies mostly to how BB reacts when bottled, rather than in the aquarium, but it's pretty interesting all the same.

 

[Masha]

...and another interesting piece of info:

"While active Nitrosomonas require oxygen, they require much less oxygen then is generally believed. The natural environment for these bacteria is beneath the surface of the sediments at the bottom of the oceans or body of freshwater. This environment is not characterized with an abundance of dissolved oxygen. While the Nitrosomonas can tolerate oxygen depletion they cannot tolerate the waste products of anaerobic bacteria such as hydrogen sulfide. Even a one hour interruptions of air flow to an under gravel filter, for example, can provide enough time for lethal levels of these waste products to accumulate."

Nature wonders part 3

Although this article goes on to speak about nicrobacter rather than nicrospira as the bacteria responsible for converting nitrites so it might be a bit out of date

 

[Baddog671]

You stated a internal filter is much safer than a canister filter in a power cut when It's not

A internal filter in a tank the bacteria of the internal filter will suck all the ox in the tank to try to stay alive

I never said an internal filter, I said a sponge filter.

Airstones help put a little oxygen in the water