Out of power.

[Damian]

Hey guys I live in a area that is going to be affected by sandy. I am expecting power outage for a long period of time. When the last hurricane past last year I lost power for a day. I kept the water moving in my aquarium by dipping a small bucket in out creating air bubbles. This time I am expecting power outage for at least couple of days. Whats the best to keep my fish alive.
55 gallon
Planted tank

 

[meegosh]

Generator. That is the easiest way to prepare. Battery backups won't last days, or even a day, depending on loads.

 

[Evilgrin]

I'm going to go on the assumption that you don't have access to a generator, If you have a power inverter you can run an air stone for several hours as well as your filters that should help depending on how far your car is from your home you can run the car for 20 min at a time say every hour or so just to keep things moving.

Otherwise it's kinda late to try to purchase any thing best you can do is get something to agitate the water surface to promote oxygen exchange a battery drill with an egg beater will work just run it for a few min every hour or so and your fish should be OK.

If you have a canister empty it and leave the media in a bucket of tank water just agitate the water every so often so your BB don't die off.

Good luck I'm in the same boat you are I'm on the south shore of Long Island.

 

[tamtam]

Are you going to be close by your home during power outage?

I would fill a few buckets of water and have them set aside. Every 18 - 24 hours I'd do a partial water change with the water to help keep your water quality ok with out filters running. Stick your media directly into your tank to keep it wet and reduce your feeding amounts or just don't feed at all for a few days. The fish will be fine without the food.

How heavily stocked is your tank?

My 20 went without power for about 18 hours here a little while ago. I just did like you with pouring water back into the tank to add air but most of this was over night. I had a good 6-7 hours where the tank was just left so I think you can leave it be to an extent as far as air goes.

I'm up in Eastern Canada, most of this should miss us except a whole bunch of rain. It's made me realize that I need to start thinking about power outages here for winter. Especially when it gets cold. It's not uncommon to have -4F through a good portion of the winter here.

 

[Damian]

Alright guys, I have been without power now for six days. The water temperature drops down to low 60s at night. I did a water change already, and I'm doing another one tomorrow. I peeled off some of the background to let in some sunlight. At this point I don't care if I get algae I just want my fish to survive. I noticed that my two algae eaters have developed a white film under their bodies.

 

[vao71]

When my power was out from the storm, to help maintain temperature I filled up some water bottles with very hot water, capped them and let them sit in the tank, replacing the water every few hours or so. And yea definetly keep that filter cartridge wet with tank water. Good luck man I'm sure the power will be on aoon