Curious About Your Winter Outage Strategies

[ADsnail]

Hello All,

How do you keep your tank up to temperature when ice and winter storms knock out your power?

I live in a warm climate where winter often doesn't go below 50ish. I use a heater for a few months right around now, then go back to not needing one for most of the year.

We had a 20 minute power outage recently on a day when temps were in the low 70s. I was just starting to think about scooping out tank water and heating it a bit with a thermometer on the gas stove, then mixing it with more scooped-out water before slowly pouring it back in. If it happened today, when we're having extremely unusual cold weather, keeping their water warm would've been my priority of the day. And I have only a small tank.

What do you do? Especially with a larger aquarium? What if it goes out for days?

 

[charliebankston]

I live on the Texas gulf coast, so same issues here. My hot water heater is gas and my central heat is too, so I think I'll be OK if I can keep o2 pumping in. It's a valid question tho

 

[fishwonder]

I've never really had a power outage that was that long. As far as heat goes, most fish can survive down to about 65 degrees water temp so that's not an issue. What is an issue is aeration. Nothing to break up the water on top for oxygen. I keep 2 battery powered air stones, still in their box, for just that case. If the power is off over 6 hours, I could just drop them in and they will run for 48 hours. This is more important.

If you really need the heat, wrap the tank in a blanket and insulate it as much as you can.

 

[charliebankston]

I just bought 2 battery powered aerators today. And will run some on a battery backup module. I need a generator, haha!

 

[ADsnail]

I just bought a couple also. You sure you don't own the battery air stone company?

Though if we got hit hard with a hurricane and services were out for days I'd probably pack up Plankton the fish in a travel tank and go to a motel for the duration. Bring the air stones and his beloved mirror ball. Maybe get a crib for the snails

 

[fishwonder]

I just bought 2 battery powered aerators today. And will run some on a battery backup module. I need a generator, haha!

So run and buy a nice whole house $7000 generator. What's stopping you?
Might be cheaper to get some Deep Cycle Marine 12v batteries and a power inverter. This would keep things running for days for you. Are you really prone to power outages?

 

[charliebankston]

So run and buy a nice whole house $7000 generator. What's stopping you? [emoji38]
Might be cheaper to get some Deep Cycle Marine 12v batteries and a power inverter. This would keep things running for days for you. Are you really prone to power outages?

I'll buy 2 generators if that's all! Haha! No, power is good. But we do sweat it thru hurricane season. Now tomo night is supposed to be freezing rain and sleet and Monday night a low of 13. That's like the artic circle to us, haha!

 

[charliebankston]

The deep cycle batteries are a great idea tho!

 

[charliebankston]

I just bought a couple also. You sure you don't own the battery air stone company?

Though if we got hit hard with a hurricane and services were out for days I'd probably pack up Plankton the fish in a travel tank and go to a motel for the duration. Bring the air stones and his beloved mirror ball. Maybe get a crib for the snails

Where are you and plankton located?

 

[ADsnail]

One word: Katrina. And I suppose for you it would be Laura? Or Ike?

 

[charliebankston]

Haha! Yeah, Harvey was our last one. We lucked out this past season. You poor folks in Louisiana got hammered over and over

 

[charliebankston]

One word: Katrina. And I suppose for you it would be Laura? Or Ike?

We did get ike too. We live about an hour straight south of Houston, about a 25 minute drive to the beach

 

[pyealands]

Would the following work? get a 3 or 4 litre plastic food grade bottles one for each tank , and stab 2 holes in the bottom of them with a big darning needle , so water poured out a little bit under pressure , sit one above each tank , so it was disturbing the surface water and top it up with tank water hopefully as needed .
Surely it would be better than no agitation. Aeration ??
And no batteries to rely on ...i hate relying on batteries...
A stack of cheap plastic buckets would be better .. faster to top up ...

 

[charliebankston]

Would the following work? get a 3 or 4 litre plastic food grade bottles one for each tank , and stab 2 holes in the bottom of them with a big darning needle , so water poured out a little bit under pressure , sit one above each tank , so it was disturbing the surface water and top it up with tank water hopefully as needed .
Surely it would be better than no agitation. Aeration ??
And no batteries to rely on ...i hate relying on batteries...
A stack of cheap plastic buckets would be better .. faster to top up ...

That's a cool idea, I'm sure that would work good to agitate the water. Smart!

 

[ADsnail]

Sounds like an interesting DIY solution. It would work with warm water to bring up the temperature too.

It's a weather planet: I originally addressed the question in regard to cold, but aeration expands it to any natural disaster, temporary or otherwise. I've been through several earthquakes in California and also experienced blizzards and ice storms in the Northeast; tornados and floods happen in many places (FYI, 3" of water from an overflowing creek can knock you off your feet if it's moving fast enough, and take out the power in a neighborhood for 10 days).

So I guess the question is more like: what have you done for your tank(s) during a power outage, or what's your plan in case it happens in the future?

 

[Brookster123]

Small gas generator in my garage. Only needed to use it once.

 

[charliebankston]

Small gas generator in my garage. Only needed to use it once.

That's what my wife calls me!

 

[charliebankston]

Sounds like an interesting DIY solution. It would work with warm water to bring up the temperature too.

It's a weather planet: I originally addressed the question in regard to cold, but aeration expands it to any natural disaster, temporary or otherwise. I've been through several earthquakes in California and also experienced blizzards and ice storms in the Northeast; tornados and floods happen in many places (FYI, 3" of water from an overflowing creek can knock you off your feet if it's moving fast enough, and take out the power in a neighborhood for 10 days).

So I guess the question is more like: what have you done for your tank(s) during a power outage, or what's your plan in case it happens in the future?

Wow! Crazy. And your final sentence was spot on

 

[pyealands]

Going back between 6 months ago and 14 months ago, we used to get heaps of power outages ,( very isolated rural area ) eg between at minimum 4 to 8 hrs sometimes up to 20 hrs , this was quite regular at least twice per week ,
But most times 4 to 8 hrs .. ( in the last 6 months power lines company been doing lots of replacing poles etc and now just get planned outages about once every couple months )
Anyways I quickly learnt that goldfish , playties , guppies,can handle this, even regularly without any intervention at all.
Hope this helps someone ..?

 

[ADsnail]

How cold does it get where you are, pyealands?