Power out

[Crobb]

Hello. I have a 125g freshwater tank. It's being filtered with the fluval fx5. It has two airstones, live plants, fake plants, a African sideneck turtle And lots of fish. I'm using water heater and two 150 watt UVA/UVB bulbs for lighting.

About to have to do a panel upgrade on house and will be without power for a day or two. Was wondering what to I do? Do I get a generator? Do I just leave be and hope for best? Water changes?

Please help!

 

[Crobb]

Will me having lots of small fish mean i will run out of oxygen in water faster? Also if heater isn't on how bad will temperature changes be?

 

[Scottyhorse]

What is the temp outside? If the water can stay 75 or so w/o a heater, you would be okay as long as you can agitate the water.

 

[Crobb]

What is the temp outside? If the water can stay 75 or so w/o a heater, you would be okay as long as you can agitate the water.

Kind of varies. In northern Cali, could be a 60-90 degree day. Night gets cold too. Maybe I should just get a generator? Anyone know how long they run on a tank of gas?

 

[Scottyhorse]

Depends on what you are running. But they are kinda expensive. Any way you could make a thick layer of insulation around it to help keep the heat in?

 

[Crobb]

Depends on what you are running. But they are kinda expensive. Any way you could make a thick layer of insulation around it to help keep the heat in?

Would probably just use the generator for my filter, a light and the heater. The insulation isn't a bad idea, I'm guessing I could do water changes with warm water to help too.

Do you know how long an aquarium that size can go without filter or airstones?

 

[Crobb]

Any ideas?

 

[Cloudhp8]

Battery operated air pump enough to give proper O2 in the tank....changing water with very close/exact temp should help....the insulation idea is good too, maybe wrapping a blanket or something around it at night and keep an eye on the thermometer....but a battery air pump would be far cheaper than a generator unless you have plans to buy one anyways depending on size a smaller model of about 2 gallons or so should last idk several hours maybe....or if you have a nice neighbor willing to let you run and extension cord to your tank maybe?

 

[ezy33]

IMO a battery powered pump would be all you need if your tank is not too over crowed. I'd pull the turtle as it's a heavy polluter. As the temperature goes down so does the fishes metabolism so they need less oxygen. When you have power again let you heater slowly bring the temperature up slowly.
Good luck.

 

[Crobb]

You guys are awesome, thanks for reply been stressing over this. My neighbor next door I know pretty good so I might just ask to run an extension cord from their garage or something. The tank is pretty crowded. I wanna be prepared in case I can't run an extension cord.

So, how long would I get away with the battery air pump and no filter?

125 g. The 5 inch sideneck turtle, 15 small tetras, 8 tiny octos, 5 small Cory cat fish, 4 small bristle nose plecos, 3 small bala sharks (until get too big), 1 small rainbow shark, about 8 guppies, small african featherfin catfish and 2 fiddler crabs.

I know might sound overstocked but all fish are small right now with lots of hideouts and live plants. I realize will have to get rid of some once get bigger.

 

[Crobb]

Bumppy !

 

[Crobb]

Anyone ?

 

[blert]

Are you doing the panel upgrade yourself or paying an electrician? If you are paying an electrician and they told you the power will be out for that long then you need a new electrician. Seriously, mine took about two hours to replace the entire breaker panel.

 

[Bix22]

You might be able to rent a generator from the hardware store for 1-2 days. Would be a lot cheaper than buying one.

 

[Crobb]

Are you doing the panel upgrade yourself or paying an electrician? If you are paying an electrician and they told you the power will be out for that long then you need a new electrician. Seriously, mine took about two hours to replace the entire breaker panel.

My buddy is an electrician and doing the job with
me for practically free as long as I help him in future with whatever he needs. The house has underground wiring which makes everything a pain. I'm assuming your power lines are overhead to do it in that time. The house was also slapped together quickly in the 80's so everything is going to take way longer.

We are going to take the current panel make it a distribution box for existing wires. Then new trench pge will run new wires in. We will sink new larger panel in wall few feet to the left. We have to get wires through foundation of house for this project to.

Not the brains behind this operation, but my buddy is well respected electrician, who had his respected father of a contractor come over along with dude from pge to make sure we were addressing the problem the easiest way that would safely work.

I appreciate your concern to make sure I'm not being ripped off, but with design of house and underground wiring going to be a pain no matter what.

 

[Crobb]

You might be able to rent a generator from the hardware store for 1-2 days. Would be a lot cheaper than buying one.

That's not a bad idea, ill have to start calling around.

Does anyone have an idea to the amount of fish I have and how long oxygen will last with no filter or airstones?

 

[dwayne.aycock]

Would probably use a generator or run power cord to a neighbors house. Too long without O2 and circulation, your BB start to die and produce amonia, which is a nightmare not quickly resolved. Do your like your neighbors?

 

[cgthebeast]

I had to go a week without power and I din't loose any fish, try to run a generator or go buy battery powered air stones

 

[Crobb]

I get along with my neighbors pretty good so im going to ask them to run an extension cord. I'm jut trying to figure out back up plans in case they can't for some reason. Sounds like I should be good for a day or two with battery powered airstones.

Really appreciate the help. Put way too much time in this thing to take any chances lol.

 

[blert]

My buddy is an electrician and doing the job with
me for practically free as long as I help him in future with whatever he needs. The house has underground wiring which makes everything a pain. I'm assuming your power lines are overhead to do it in that time. The house was also slapped together quickly in the 80's so everything is going to take way longer.

We are going to take the current panel make it a distribution box for existing wires. Then new trench pge will run new wires in. We will sink new larger panel in wall few feet to the left. We have to get wires through foundation of house for this project to.

Not the brains behind this operation, but my buddy is well respected electrician, who had his respected father of a contractor come over along with dude from pge to make sure we were addressing the problem the easiest way that would safely work.

I appreciate your concern to make sure I'm not being ripped off, but with design of house and underground wiring going to be a pain no matter what.

Wow, that sucks. Best of luck to you.