That's it.
The nice thing about this is you just need to put an airstone on it to keep the water oxygenated. Attach it to a working sponge filter is even better. The problem with canisters and HOBs and long power outages is that the water inside them can foul terribly if the power is off for too long so you really don't want them to start back up before you get a chance to clean them out. 
But now I will watch out for long term power outages. How long would you say to be safe before dragging out the generator? After 2 or 3 hours the wife will make me crank it up anyway.
It's not something most think about. They are just glad the temp didn't get too high or too low and the fish are still swimming. What sucks is when it goes out for a day or 2 and then the anaerobic bacteria start to form and then the power goes back on and they contaminate the main tank.That is nice to know about the filters so far I've been lucky my power just blinks off long enough to have to reset all the clocks.
This: " However, these values were typically inferred from heterotrophic bacteria rather than specifically measured for nitrifiers. Hence, conclusive data to clarify our understanding of nitrification-related decay and death is lacking. " kinda screws up that theory. )
When you say clean the filters how clean do you mean? Just rinse everything good or kill everything and start over? On the canister could I put the output in a bucket and flush it with tank water. Or flush it with treated tap water. Does it need to come apart say if I just cleaned it before the outage?It's not something most think about. They are just glad the temp didn't get too high or too low and the fish are still swimming. What sucks is when it goes out for a day or 2 and then the anaerobic bacteria start to form and then the power goes back on and they contaminate the main tank.
As for how long you've got, a lot will have depended on how oxygenated your water was at the time of the outage. The more oxygen that was in the water the longer the bacteria in the filter(s) could survive but we are only talking like from 3-4 hours before they start dying off. So I'm sure you are thinking " But then how do those bacteria in a bottle last so long? The answer is that in the water, they use a buffer of some form that either make the bacteria go dormant or a suspended animation form which they come out of when that buffer is gone or diluted. That buffer does not last indefinitely either which is why they have a shelf life.
The answer depends on how long the power was out. The longer it's out, the more your filter needs to be sterilized as anaerobic bacteria will develop which can create a gas that will kill the fish if it gets too high. Short term outages , i.e. a day or two, just rinse off the filter material inside then replace it after dumping any water in the canister out. Longer than 2 days and you are starting from scratch.
Pay back for those four years of agitation I mean education and 3 mustangs. When the UPS starts to give up then fire up the generator to recharge it and the icebox.
Yeah, hurricane Andrew was a beast for sure. Thankfully it went South at the last minute because my house was in the path for most of the time before it hit. The whole thing was a mess. So many failures were discovered with that storm. And of course I got a lot of ribbing because of my name.OK Thanks I'm goin to drag out the old watt meter for a test of my two filters and size a UPS to run them and the air pump for 4 hours. Putting in Fathers day order early it is time he spends some money on me.
I also have some memories of Hurricane Andrew I was on the fire/rescue here in NC and drove a truck of food fuel water generator window A/C and hot plate. down to my sisters place in Homestead. The main thing that stayed with me was how many flat tires I had 6 the first week. I became the go to guy for plugging tires on her street. I got in good with the local rescue that hooked us up with all the ice we could carry to neighbors. Bad what happened but GOOD to see everyone pull together.
