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Hi All, I live in Canada on an Island that encounters numerous power outages yearly. I have a tiny planted 5g tank with 6 pygmy Cori's and do not want any harm to come to them. I run an Auqa Clear mini filter and a 50 watt heater. What can I purchase to ensure that I can still get power to them?

We lost power again last night due to another midwest storm and yes we have a Generator but Im jot always gunna be home when it goes off. Cory mentioned a wall plug that is a also a backup battery. So its always pluggee in to an outlet than your aerators are plugged into it. Can anyone tell me where to find those? Ive googled it and havent had any luck finding it.

Well I done did goofed, forgetting to plug my canister filter back in after a water change, making it go anoxic for over a week. I thought I'd share my experience in case anyone else runs into the same or similar problem. I'll explain what happened, what I did to get out of it, and what I'd recommend for anyone with canister filters to do to prevent this. I'm not here to litigate whether or not canister filters are good or bad. This situation was 100% user error and can be easily avoided. Background: The aquarium in question is a 40 gallon breeder with a Fluval 206 canister filter with spray bar and intake sponge, as well as three sponge filters for additional flow and surface agitation. This is my fish-for-profit tank and is HEAVILY stocked with guppies and bristlenose plecos. I do water changes about once or twice a week and have a dense growth of hornwort and pothos to help me with water quality. It's a utilitarian tank, not a display tank, and I don't bat an eye when the water goes cloudy as long as the fish look healthy. The Event: I start my water change. As a pump withdraws water, I go underneath to unplug the canister filter, and I find that it's already unplugged. To make sure I'm not just having a forgetful episode, I feel the side of the canister filter to see if it's still warm; it's cold. I recall that the last water change I did was 8 days prior. Fortunately, I already know what that meant for the state of the canister filter. The Problem: Beneficial bacteria in your filters need oxygen from the water to process ammonia and nitrite. When you cut the flow of oxygenated water to them, they die after a few hours. Leaving your canister without water flow for a few hours won't kill your colony, but once you start looking at days without flow, there will be no oxygen left in the enclosed system. I knew that after 8 days, all beneficial bacteria in there would be dead. It'd be no use to plug this filter back in. I also knew that between all the fish waste trapped in the sponges in the canister, the now-dead snails that lived in the filter, and the dead beneficial bacteria and the anoxic conditions, it was highly likely I had a strong colony of anaerobic bacteria going in there, feasting on rotting organic material. I have a degree in civil engineering, and my senior design project was building a small scale anaerobic digester to process solid organic waste into useable methane. It was a fun but stinky project, and an experience that really helped me deal with this situation. I knew that the canister filter was now full of dissolved hydrogen sulfide gas (aka sewer gas) and other nasties. I definitely didn't want to plug the filter back in and have it dump that gas and decaying organic matter into my money-making aquarium. The Solution I Used: I disconnected the 206 from its hoses. It's really nice that Fluval's canister design makes this easy. Already I could smell the hydrogen sulfide gas from the filter. I then took a bucket, placed it underneath the detached hoses, and opened up the shutoff valve to back-siphon all the stagnant water out if the hoses. I did this until the water ran clear. This water also stunk of hydrogen sulfide. I started to attempt to clean the filter indoors....that was a very bad idea. That gas will stink up your home, make you want to puke, and it's very hard to dissipate. I've smelled open sewer manholes and wastewater treatment plants that were more pleasant. My advice is just take it outside asap. I'll post a follow up on how I cleaned up the filter and dissipated the gas from my home if people are interested. My Recommendations For Prevention: 1. Place your canister filter on a Kasa Wifi Timer. Schedule an "on" to recur every night at 1 am (or whatever works for you so it doesn't kick on while you're in the middle of working on the tank). That way, when you change water and turn it off, you can hit a button on your phone. If you forget to turn it back on, the Kasa will always kick it on at the time you set and you're not looking at days without power and flow. 2. If you're experiencing a prolonged power outage, take your canister filter media out and either place it in your tank or a bucket of water to keep it from experiencing anoxic conditions. 3. If you do notice your filter has been without power for a long while, don't immediately restart it. Assess the state of its contents (your nose will tell you if it's as bad as mine got). 4. Redundancy in your filter systems can save you headaches. My 300+guppies and 6 plecos appeared to have thrived despite the big canister filter being out of commission for 8 days. The sponge filters and plants in the tank kept it so I only had a small .25 ppm ammonia spike as opposed to something catastrophic. It also kept me from noticing that there even was a problem so there is that to consider.

Going into major thunderstorms. Was wondering when power goes out can I shut the valve and open the can place one of my battery operated air pumps inside. Would this keep the majority of my beneficial bacteria alive?

Here is a collection of recent power outage threads: https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/tags/power outage Not that someone currently experiencing a power outage will see these.🙂

So we had a power outage last night. First time in awhile. Realized I’m woefully unprepared for this eventuality. Ended up being due to “scheduled maintenance” of course the customers are the last to know. I was in the middle of water changes when it occurred so nothing says Nerm like water changes by iPhone flashlight. Would appreciate some of your thoughts on how you prepared for these types of events. Should I have battery powered pumps on the ready? Slap down serious cash for an APS? All feedback and thoughts appreciated!

There is a planned power outage so that my city power company can join ERCOT. Yes...that ERCOT that caused all the power outages in Texas in February, the wisdom of this choice is another discussion. My aquarium is at my office and I will be out of town the weekend of the outage for a graduation, but my colleague will be in and out to make sure the equipment all comes back online (I work in a clinical laboratory) so he will be able to plug my pumps and heater back in if all goes according to plan. I'd like to have an emergency plan that he can implement should things go south. I have a USB nano air pump, my aquarium is 10 gallon and has 2 small sponge filters. Stocking is light, 1 cardinal tetra (more are coming), 3 ottos, a small number of bloody mary shrimp, 3 fresh water limpets, and pond snails My questions are: Can anyone recommend a power source that can run the nano air pump form say Friday afternoon until Monday morning? Should I set it up so that the nano air pump only runs 1 small sponge filter or should I just unplug the pump I have and replace it with the nano on the battery? My airline has a splitter so I could divert the air all one way or the other. Anything else that I'm not considering? Thank you for any advice! -Lindsay

My maiden run of my new generator with a planned outage lasting all day.. after the initial worry of getting it started, all I had to do was throw the panel switch and all my tanks with heaters, filters and lights are running! Bonus 2 fridges, freezer, all room lights, and tv. I am so happy!

My power went out since 10am today. I have 3 tanks. One 20 gallon and two 10 gallons. I had to leave to work and I’m sad that I’ll come home to dead fish. I am so upset. Power is still out and an estimate is for 8pm. I'm very heartbroken. 😞 Suggestions or tips on when I get home. I’ll be home around 6-6:30pm. 😞

So, on a positive note, I did not lose a single fish from either my 20g or 72g. However right now I'm dealing with some massive nitrate levels. Let me give some details. My house went nearly 1 week without consistent power. Between 7 days I only received around half an hour of electricity on two different occasions. So I essentially put my backup heater in my big tank wrapped both tanks with insulating blankets, gave a salute and hoped for the best. So needless to say it worked, the temps didn't drop below 68F which is 10F below where it is kept. The house was at 48F at the lowest point. The 72g has a Fluval fx4 with Biohome media and two types of sponge, coarse/fine. I've never had an imbalance like this before. After spending all of last week cleaning the Fx4 and doing 25% water changes a day and 50% on Friday yet I saw zero change in nitrate levels. So I went to my lfs for some advice and they told me to get some Biochem-Zorb and place it in my Fx4. So I placed the BC-Zorb in my bottom tray after all the biohome yesterday afternoon. I expect to run it for atleast a week before I either add another pouch or try something else besides weekly 25% water changes. So essentially Im asking for some advice here to see if anyone else has had this problem. I suppose what I'm going through is 'old tank syndrome'. Was one pouch of BC-Zorb enough? I'm beginning to think I may have needed to buy two pouches. The tank is planted so I never get any ammonia readings. Nitrites are 0, and all the other parameters are normal just the Nitrates are through the roof. One other thing to mention is when I opened up my Fx4 on Wednesday to service it. My fine sponge is normally blue yet now its red. I think this means my Biohome is deteriorating? Could this be a cause of my nitrate spikes? This tank was in a such good cycle I could go 3 weeks with no water change before I would see nitrates go above 40ppm. Bonus pic of Ricky (royal) and Leo (Para) pleco's monchin, and a picture of the full tank taken this morning.

Hey all, the winter freeze has knicked out our power. As such, filtration is out and so is temperature regulation. My tank has 10 tetras, 2 nerites, and 5 ghost shrimp in a semi-heavily planted tank. Can anyone give any low-tech method to help until power returns and also how long a 10-gallon tank will last oxygen-wise? I've been distyrbing the water on a regular basis but nit sure if I'm doing enough. Thank you.

We made it with absolutely no losses. I'm thrilled. I ran sponge filters with the nano usb air pumps. I took the media out of the canister filters and just set the baskets in the tanks. We have a wood stove so the temps in the tanks didn't get too cold. When the power came back on I did a water change on all the tanks, emptied the water out of the canister filters and put them back together. I sat back and started counting everyone, lol. Everyone is fine, including the whitecloud fry. I think the power outage was more stressful on me than the fish!

How are fishkeepers in the south managing now without power, water or heat for so long? It seems this could go on for weeks in some places. Does anyone know how long fish can survive in these conditions? How are people even surviving? And now the Mid-Atlantic is going to get slammed with another storm too!

We lost power for 16 hrs. In single figit temps. We are not used to this here. I have batteries for filters but not heaters and we are only getting 30 mins every 3 hours now for power due to rolling blackouts. My tanks are all around 60 now. I have put a spare 300w in the 36 to try to heat it when we do have power. How low can the temp go before I start seeing my fish and shrimp die??

Okay, so apparantly, my area is going to have power outage sometime during tonight or tomorrow. That means possibly no eletricity or heating for at least a 30 minute interval. How do I make sure that my fish survive? I have a 29 gallon and a 10 gallon (both communities with fish, shrimp, fry, and snails), and my sibling has a 5 gallon betta tank with snails. We have already covered the tanks with towels, but I'm not sure that will be enough to keep the fish warm. Also, I plan on aerating the aquariums by scooping out aquarium water and pouring it back in to give the fish oxygen through water movement regularly. Any suggestions on what else to do would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I am so glad I invested in the USB filters from aquarium co-op and sponge filters. During this power outage my fish are all comfy with their filtration and our wood stove is keeping the tanks nice and warm. But, I’m wondering how long the bacteria in my canister filters will survive. It’s been over 12 hrs. I’m thinking maybe I should take all the media and sponges out and just set them in the tank. Might be too late already? I think I’ll unplug them so the don’t start when the power comes back on. I’m worried the water in the canisters could be toxic or something for them. Is that a thing? I’ve never been out of power this long before. Good time to get rid of those canisters, I think I’m almost ready just to go with all sponge filters then I don’t have to worry.

The power company is doing rolling power outages and I’m concerned about the on / off of tank equipment. I’ve got battery backup air pumps I can use, but I have no idea at what point I need to turn them on. The temperature usually drops 1-3 degrees by the time the power comes back up. So, any advice on air pumps would be appreciated.

Living here in the Puget Sound Region, my home is subject to frequent power outages, when there is wind, snow, ice, or a combination. I just ordered some USB air pumps and airstones for back up that I can run off either one of those extended phone batteries or a large 12v battery for extended outages. That works great if you are using a sponge filter, but for those of us running HOBs, canisters, or other pumped filter systems it seems we could soon have a crisis. It doesn't take long for aerobic bacteria to consume all the oxygen in the filter, what are the effects going to be when the system powers back up, it the system going to pump a toxic brew into the tank? If there is a concern, does it matter if the power is off for an hour, a few hours, a day, a week? What is the critical time for the life of the bacteria in the filter? Should I just splurge and get a UPS battery backup, like those used for computers? I would not suffer financially if I had a fish kill, but I would like to take reasonable precautions to protect them.

How do I keep the bacteria alive in my fluval fx4 canister filter during a power outage? I have a battery powered bubbler I can split between the filter and 55gal tank. The power can go out for 30mins to (rarely) 12hrs. Also, will cooler temperatures around 47 kill the filter? I have those emergency blankets for the Aquarium and a blanket I was going to put over the tank. Will that keep the tank temp high enough.

What are your recommendations for backup power when you only have a couple of tanks.

I have a cobalt rescue air pump that turns on when I lose power. I would like to add a Coop- Nano USB pump to a sponge filter. Is it possible to T- the tubing to add this additional pump. The Cobalt rescue air would only activate during a power lose and the USB would then turn off due to no power. Therefore, its two pumps to one sponge filter but only one operating at once. Thanks for your help

Here is a experiment that I didn't intend to run today. My power just went out. My entire fishroom is on couple of large(ish) uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). One is an APC Smart-UPS 2200 and one is an APC Smart-UPS 3000. I have always wondered how long will they keep the whole room running during an outage? You can see all the equipment plus my computer are still up and running as of now. But for how long?

I'm experiencing a PG&E power outage for a minimum 48 hours here in California. We can't have generators at my apartment complex I can bundle up to keep warm, but what do my fish do with no heater for their tank. Tanks a lot, Karen

@Cory We just lost power in my neighborhood on the Eastside. While not uncommon, it’s the first time it’s happened since I got my three tanks. Question 1: Which tank should I prioritize in terms of doing something? Tank 1: endlers, BN plecos, Nerite Snails, yellow shrimp Tank 2: Bolivian rams, flag acaras, king tiger pleco, clown pleco, Upside-down cat, glass fin tetras, German blue rams Tank 3: Bloody Mary shrimp, BN pleco, Norman’s Lampeyes, Chili Rasporas Question 2: I’m assuming the highest concern is temp changes? Then oxygen? What do I do? Pretty concerned so appreciate any input. Utility company says working on getting back up in 2 hours, but the track record is almost always WAY longer. Thanks.

Just had a power outage and it's gonna get to about 4 degrees Celsius here tonight. I've wrapped my three tanks in every possible blanket and sleeping bag I have. Anything else I can do?