Preparing for Power Outages

[dmurray407]

I've been working hard on my aquariums for the last 6 months or so and now it's getting cold out. I live in Minnesota-it gets really cold here-well below zero. What do you all do if there is a power outage during the winter months? I'm getting some battery pumps, but what about heaters? I don't want to run a gas generator in my house-what other options do I have? I have a fireplace in the room where my aquariums live, but haven't used it in a couple of years....(my dog is afraid of it😏) but I do have a wood source if I need to use it. Just curious how other folks prepare...

[Odd Duck]

There are several posts on this topic if you search and there are many different answers to this question depending on where you live and how paranoid you are.

I'm in Texas and we had Snowpocalypse this last February that decimated many people’s tanks.  In Minnesota the amount of snow and freezing that happened here would have just been a normal Thursday, but Texas was ridiculously unprepared for temps that were that cold and especially for that long.  I grew up in Nebraska and it might have been a small blip for Nebraska but it caused massive, widespread power outages in Texas.

We actually had people living at work because they weren’t comfortable driving in the snow.  I drove 15 miles to work and back each shift because I grew up driving in snow and it was no big deal, to me.  I was very lucky and my section of grid never spent down, I suspect because I’m close to a fire station.  It was a lesson for me, though, and I have taken steps to minimize my risk.

I now have large battery UPS on each air pump and sponge filters in every tank.  I am going to be consolidating all my small tanks and one large per tank into a fish room so I can run a generator and heat that room and run my linear air pump that will run all the sponge filters in that room.  I have no canister filters so I’m not risking an anaerobic bomb when power returns.  I do have HOB’s but they should not get too nasty when off.

I will be heating the living room with a fireplace and/or a space heater with another generator (my hubby finds them at pawn shops not working, buys cheap, fixes, keeps the best, sells the rest) where my 100 G and 46 G are located.  Everything else will be in the fish room.

I will also have battery UPS on the linear air pump in case of short power outages when I’m at work.  This should keep the fish room decent until hubby and I can get home and set up the generators if it looks like it will be a long power outage.

I know there are people that posted from Florida (and elsewhere) that have automatic whole house generators since they live in a hurricane zone, people have posted about having car batteries with inverters as back ups to pumps/heaters, but there’s not going to be any aquarium heaters that will keep your tank warm enough if your house is freezing cold.  People tried it with extra heaters in their tanks in February here and it wasn’t enough.

Wrapping the tank in layers of bubble wrap (apply directly to the glass with water and the smooth side against the tank), wrapping in blankets, floating hot water bottles in the tank, lighting candles under the tank inside the stand to give at least a little heat to the tank, etc, etc.  Everyone with their power out was desperate, some were more successful at saving fish, snails, shrimp, plants, corals, etc, than others.

The more you can do to hold heat in the tank(s) the better.  The more you can do to keep up aeration and filtration the better.  If your tank is heavily stocked it should also be heavily planted if your species will allow.  This gives you room on filtration.

Another thing to consider, a lot of people had fish die after water changes they did AFTER water and power were restored.  The water company was likely adding far more chlorine and chloramine to the system for a couple weeks since some water plants got contaminated and water sat stagnant.  Use extra dechlorinator or just wait on water changes if you can.  Consider storing water if your area has frequent issues.

[dmurray407]

On 12/4/2021 at 3:13 PM, Odd Duck said:

There are several posts on this topic

I looked but couldn't find any-even though I was sure this had been addressed at some point. I'll take another look......

 

On 12/4/2021 at 3:13 PM, Odd Duck said:

UPS

Sorry, what is this? I've seen it mentioned in a few other posts...

Thanks for the suggestions!

I do have a ventless propane heater in my basement that I could bring upstairs if I needed to. I should make sure my propane tanks are full. I just gave all my husband's ice fishing stuff to my grandson-there was a nice little heater in the collection-maybe I should try to pick up couple to have "just in case". They heated our little ice fishing house  nicely-if my living room (where my big aquarium is)was sealed off, I bet they might keep it warm along with the fireplace. Hopefully there's no power outage, but I like to have a plan....

 

[Odd Duck]

Battery UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply like you would use for delicate electronics.  Most have a couple plugs that are on the battery back up section and more plugs that are just direct to the power supply.  You can essentially use it for a big, bulky power strip but it has a big battery inside that supplies power to the plugs that are UPS vs just to power. Like this,

[StevesFishTanks]

 

[eatyourpeas]

Wrapping your tank in a blanket and inserting one of these in the layers also works wonders, just make sure it is not touching the glass directly. I also have all the nano USB air pumps connected to UPS backup units.

https://www.amazon.com/Relief-Pak-Water-Bottle-Capacity/dp/B001VJC3ZE/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2775HK8E8QJ34&keywords=hot+water+bottle&qid=1638663240&sprefix=hot+water%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-6

Edited December 5, 2021 by eatyourpeas
Forgot the link.

[dmurray407]

On 12/4/2021 at 4:47 PM, Odd Duck said:

UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply

Thank you so much!!!!! I'll look into  one. 

On 12/4/2021 at 5:15 PM, s1_ said:

 

I have a couple battery air pumps on order to try them out.....

[HH Morant]

A fireplace in the same room with the aquariums is a big advantage. I think it is a good idea to make it operational if it is not already.

During the Big Freeze back in February, a lot of us in Texas lost power. During the power outage I used my gas cook top on the second floor to heat the house, but the aquarium was on the first floor.

For about 48 hours, I removed 5 gallons of water from the 120-gallon tank every four hours and poured 5 gallons of hot water in. I covered the aquarium in blankets. That was enough. I also had battery-operated air pumps.

Then My neighbor's power came on and we ran an extension cord from his house to keep my fish alive. I have very good neighbors.

 

[Ophitoxaemia]

When I replace a battery from the cars, I keep the core and use it with an inverter to power the filter and the heater. If it got colder than that I would heat dechlorinated water on the stove

[dmurray407]

On 12/6/2021 at 1:45 PM, Ophitoxaemia said:

I keep the core and use it with an inverter to power the filter and the heater.

I have a small solar set up at my cabin (it was my husband's project so I don't know very much about it)-would this inverter set up be similar to that? I do have all my batteries for the boat and campers-I think there are 6 total) home for the we winter (I keep them charged in my basement) so I have lots of car batteries available.

[Ophitoxaemia]

A DC to AC power inverter has clips to connect to a car battery, and 115 AC sockets on it, so you can plug in the heater, etc. The small ones I use are about $35 and are pretty efficient. 

[dmurray407]

On 12/6/2021 at 4:22 PM, Ophitoxaemia said:

A DC to AC power inverter has clips to connect to a car battery, and 115 AC sockets on it, so you can plug in the heater, etc. The small ones I use are about $35 and are pretty efficient. 

Thank you-this is really helpful! Any idea how long a fully charged battery would work in this situation?

[dmurray407]

On 12/6/2021 at 4:22 PM, Ophitoxaemia said:

A DC to AC power inverter

Something like this? It looks like most of them have a couple plug-ins as well as some USB type ports....https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082MDRC64/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B082MDRC64&pd_rd_w=cffRC&pf_rd_p=54ed5474-54a8-4c7f-a88a-45f748d18166&pd_rd_wg=YAEI3&pf_rd_r=VX2AH15Q00K6G1ADV8CE&pd_rd_r=8134e8e4-2d41-4ebe-acb7-d62ba90c9617&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzS0RNRVlaVUY3RzAmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAwNjE2NTUzRFAwNVhEUkZFNzZCJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAwMTYwNDIzODFZU0NIQzhCWjZDJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsX3RoZW1hdGljJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[Ophitoxaemia]

Yup, that's one. They come in many sizes.

I powered my 50 watt heater and hang on filter for almost 12 hours on a core (won't start a car, worth $15), and little math and you can figure out based on the Amp hours of the batteries you have and the load.

This is my cheapskate solution as I'm home all the time. A real UPS will auto fail over but is expensive and in my experience fail at the worst times.

Edited December 6, 2021 by Ophitoxaemia

[Wingman12r]

Living in Minnesota you probably have a bag of sidewalk deicer. If it's Calcium Chloride based it has an exothermic reaction when mixed with water.

You could put some in a water bottle and float it in the tank while the bottle is still warm.

[dmurray407]

On 12/6/2021 at 5:56 PM, Wingman12r said:

Living in Minnesota you probably have a bag of sidewalk deicer. If it's Calcium Chloride based it has an exothermic reaction when mixed with water.

You could put some in a water bottle and float it in the tank while the bottle is still warm.

I had no idea!  Sounds like a great experiment! I'm not sure which type of deicer I have, but I know the calcium chloride is the most common. I'll try it in a bucket and see what happens 🙂.