How long without power before problems

[Jaybird]

My apartment building is going to shut off the power to the whole building for about nine hours.

Could this cause a lot of problems for the fish, being without heater or filter for so long? I would hate to come back from work to find some floating.

 

[rich311k]

I would get a battery operarted air pump or two to keep the water oxygenated. It shouldn't cool off that fast but raise it slowly once the power returns. Good luck.

 

[Jaybird]

Thanks. I won't have time to get a battery operated air pump. I don't understand why the building doesn't have a backup transformer to switch to.

If something happens to my fish, I am going to have a beef with the building management.

 

[rich311k]

If your bioload is not to high you may be all right. The filter and heat wont be a problem for only 9 hours, but the fish could deplete the O2 available to them. If this was winter it would be worse especially since you are from up north. One more thought, can you get your hands on an UPS unit even a small one to run a pump?

 

[jsoong]

If you have a canister, you'll need to keep that aerated or H2S can form in anaerobic environment & kill your fish when power comes back on & flush that into your tank. If you are not home when power goes off, you'll have to open the canister before you leave (unplug / disconnect hoses first!)... That'll increase the time the fish is without filter ....

If you have a wet/dry (eg a power wheel), you'll need to keep the media wet to prevent the nitrifying bact dying. <Put it in a bucket of tank water ... should be good for 24 hrs>.

I don't know how cold you are in Ottawa (but we had snow in Calgary this Sat ). If the temp is cold, your might want to cover the tank with blanklets before you leave to keep the heat in longer.

 

[Macrosill]

I don't understand why the building doesn't have a backup transformer to switch to.

If the reason for the shutdown is an upgrade of the electrical service or distribution panels then they can not utilize a back up generator, they will effectively re-energize the components they are woking on, they you will have some well done electricians. It is an incovenience but it should be worth it in the long run, less chance of an unexpected power outage due to sub par wiring.

 

[lovemybarbs]

Do you have live plants? Why size tank? What kind of fish?

 

[Jaybird]

I've got a 30g with a little java moss, and patches of other plants (I can't remember what they are called).

As for fish, there are 4 mollies, 6 little tetras, a few guppies, two rams, a pleco and some cories.

 

[lovemybarbs]

Good. Correct me if I'm wrong fellow posters, but won't the live plants help in this situation?

 

[SCFatz]

When the power went out here,Mrs.Fatz called the LFS for advice and they said live plants very much lessened the worry of an outage.The "fish guy" really lost all concern in his voice when he heard we had live plants in there according the the wife.

Kinda made it sound like even a few days and all would be good.lol.

I'm sure there a lot of variables like bioload/fish population and plant size/plant population as well as over all tank size ect...

I've been meaning to ask about this so I'm glad somone brought it up.

edited to add:he also said that when they lose power at the store the start adding the plants for sale into the tanks of the fish for sale.No doubt it helps I guess...just a matter of how much I wonder.

 

[Jaybird]

Mcrosill: I agree that regular maintenance is a very, very, good thing, but if they don't have a backup transformer that they can move to while working on the main one, there could be a worse problem should something ever happen to the single transformer.

jsoong: It's only about 8C here. So, not too warm, but still no snow

I just did a 25% water change to be safe.

 

[CompMage]

Yea I just lost power for 4 long days while I was away on vacation. My planted tank had no deaths. I screamed when I walked in the door and found no power and later found out it's been gone for a while. (Nasty thunder storm knocked power out) Power came back on late that day. But I was able to do a PWC every 2 hours after I got home to help get things back to normal.

So yea, if it's a planted tank and you're not over stocked you should be fine for that little amount of time.

 

[lovemybarbs]

Nine hours should be nothing then.

 

[Jarred Darque]

The tank looks lightly stocked so surely no foreseen problems. On wether a planted tank helps or hurts the tank in a power outage depends. If it gets some lighting, then it will help, the plants will continue normal photosynthesis and remove CO2 and replace with O2. for heavily planted tanks though that do not see any lighting other than what is over their tank. then when the lights go out, the plants start using up avaiable O2 and converting it back into CO2. Plants do this at night, you will find alot of planted tank guys will turn CO2 off at night because it is just going to waste after lights out.

But problems for your tank, shouldnt be anything. GL keep us posted.

 

[Jaybird]

Thanks for all the support. I was nervous about the power failure for nothing! None of the fish seemed to have noticed that anything happened.

Again, thanks for the support. Man, I was afraid I would freak-out if I suffered losses because of the outage.