Contingency equipment for power failures?

[MonkeyMonk86]

What type of items does everyone have or suggest to have ready for power failures or municipally planned brown outs?

I'm new, but I found this:
AC-DC One Battery Operated Air Pump | thatpetplace.com

Are there better battery operated air pumps? If yes, please post the links

And I found this video:
HOW TO: Build a very simple aquarium filter - YouTube

I assume you would just move your existing bio from your regular filter to this DIY during the power failure and when power restored move it back.

 

[Cichlid.Keeper]

Battery powered air pump for air
I put my Filter media in a mesh bag and into the aquarium with a battery powered air pump under it because it puts bacteria into the aquarium. If it's too hot, a water bottle with ice, or dry ice packs in a water bottle ( never did this one)
And if it's too cold put a blanket over the aquarium and there are plenty of diy things on YouTube as well

 

[Brookster123]

Or go full crazy and buy a small generator

 

[MonkeyMonk86]

Brookster123, funny! You know for y2k I looked into that, but they didn't make one small enough to fit into my subterranean window wells. (If I had a house in a remote area, I'd definitely have one.). Like Ian086 pointed out, I'm a worrier. My whole family is.

Chichlid.Keeper good to know. Thanks!!!

 

[Brookster123]

I was serious! I lugged a 100 pound beast up 3 flights of stairs to my apt for last winter in hew England.. It sat under my kitchen table until my girlfriend threatened to smother me with a pillow..

 

[MonkeyMonk86]

Oh, no! Where did you put it? Storage locker? I have a propane heater works on small tanks, but it's dangerous and you can end up gassing yourself.

 

[lectraplayer]

Those things are worse than meth labs from the carbon monoxide. It's a miracle you didn't kill yourself and your girlfriend. I would go with a battery backed UPS to keep the filter running and keep a couple of Bubbles air pumps (sold where you find fishing bait) and a box filter or two. Sink the box with gravel from your tank instead of carbon.

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[Brookster123]

Those things are worse than meth labs from the carbon monoxide. It's a miracle you didn't kill yourself and your girlfriend. I would go with a battery backed UPS to keep the filter running and keep a couple of Bubbles air pumps (sold where you find fishing bait) and a box filter or two. Sink the box with gravel from your tank instead of carbon. Sent from my ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Fierce using Aquarium Advice mobile app

ohh no no no, I hadn't even put gas in it, it was new, it was more for emergency use only, in which case I would have run it outside on the porch!

 

[lectraplayer]

Ok. It sounded like you had it running inside. Glad to hear that.

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[gimmethatfish]

I just got a 4 pack of these. It will kick on automatically when/if the power goes out. I do have a generator, but I figure this would keep my fish alive if it happened while I was at work and had to come home, gas up, and pull out the gennie.
Amazon.com : Silent Air® B11 Series Battery Operated Aquarium Air Pump, UL Listed Twin-Pack w/Bonus Tubing : Pet Supplies

 

[mattcham]

Depending on the number of tanks you have and the number of heaters I recommend getting a power generator that connects and runs from your home natural gas line. They cost around $3,000 from Costco including installation. You can go 50-60% cheaper using a gasoline powered generator. In my experience all the battery backups that use D cell batteries will not last more than 1 hour. You need to have really valuable fish or love your fish a lot to spend this much money.

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[lectraplayer]

You would do best with a UPS. Around $120 and you can keep filters alive for quite awhile. Add backup batteries and you, without question, will have the filters running for days. Play it right and you can exchange batteries every day or so and charge off of your truck.

The generator is also certainly viable. Making your own power after a tornado is certainly worthy of a premium price.

Also, I don't know exactly what you ask out of a contingency plan, but to me, it is absolute essentials. No lights, no heat, no auxiliary devices. Just the filter and "enough" aeration to keep the fish alive.

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[mattcham]

How long can UPS units last? I was under the impression it was about 500 watts for 15 minutes depending on UPS model. That would be about 1000 minutes running a single HOB filter or 500 minutes running two HOBs which is certainly feasible, practical, and less expensive than a generator.

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[lectraplayer]

That's about what they're good for. Many now run a computer for two hours or more.

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[Redwolf91]

Generator that runs the tank, fridge, and ac system, lights etc.

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[lectraplayer]

A generator is certainly great when you need to run more than the tank. Then you can say "screw contingency." Otherwise I would go with a UPS.

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[jlk]

Battery powered aerators are inexpensive and easy to use (as long as you have good batteries). Mine will run for 2-3 days with super heavy duty batteries. Another inexpensive option is an power inverter. They run $20-40 at any big chain store depending on the number of outlets. They plug into your vehicle power outlet and provide actual outlets to plug things into. A generator, without a doubt, is the best (and by far most expensive) option and has saved my fish and my sanity on multiple occasions.

 

[mattcham]

Do you know of any good brand power inverters? I bought one from BJs wholesale many years ago and it fried the cigarette lighter jack in my SUV. All I plugged in was a laptop computer AC Adaptor... I need a reliable power inverter but don't know the best one to get.

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[Brookster123]

Do you know of any good brand power inverters? I bought one from BJs wholesale many years ago and it fried the cigarette lighter jack in my SUV. All I plugged in was a laptop computer AC Adaptor... I need a reliable power inverter but don't know the best one to get. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

if you want a quality piece go to Home Depot, rigid makes one that is about as good as they get..

 

[lectraplayer]

Better yet, you can ask an electrical contractor. We usually put in Generac.

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