Birdsnstuff Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 I guess I get to follow some of Cory’s advice on power outages. First, don’t panic. I have sponge filters in both tanks hooked up to nano pumps. I bought and charged two battery banks. Power is supposed to come back on later tonight so this all maybe moot but it does make me feel better I have a plan. And advice. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 How are the fish faring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdsnstuff Posted January 25, 2023 Author Share Posted January 25, 2023 (edited) Okay so far. The tanks (15 gal long and 20gal H) are at 70 degrees - normally 76/77. (cold wet snow knocking down power lines). The power came back on for an hour so last night then went back off. The Habrosus corys seem happy. The cardinals in the same tank seem okay too. The Otos in the other tank are actually out - they have a habit of hiding. 4 out of the original 5 exist! 😉 The black phantoms are their usual hide when the lights are out selves. We have a small propane heater we have on in the house so hopefully it won't get too cold in here. The temp is supposed to get above freezing and the work crews are out. I'm in Arkansas in the US- we have above ground lines and we don't get these type of snows very often. Edited January 25, 2023 by Birdsnstuff acknowledging not everyone lives in the US 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
procyg Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 I On 1/24/2023 at 11:05 PM, Birdsnstuff said: I guess I get to follow some of Cory’s advice on power outages. First, don’t panic. I have sponge filters in both tanks hooked up to nano pumps. I bought and charged two battery banks. Power is supposed to come back on later tonight so this all maybe moot but it does make me feel better I have a plan. And advice. Totally agree keep calm! I lost power on Christmas eve for 36 hours where the inside temps of the house dropped to around 51 degrees. I had recently purchased a battery air pump from pondforse (Coop's dual pump wasnt available) and on intermittent setting ran both my 2 sponge filters for 40+ hours. Things i could have done better; 1. Wrap the tank in a blanket earlier to keep it as warm as possible, I did it but not until the tank temps dropped around 10 degrees 2. Unplug the heater so when the power restores you can control how fast it warms the tank up. i was a few hours away when the power was restored and by the time i got home the tank was back to normal temps. Probably too fast to not stress the fish but thankfully i only lost 2 fish in my main tank. (I did lose all 9 in my QT tank but that was my fault, i didn't have a battery pump available for it and the fish were already weakened from medications. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 (edited) On 1/25/2023 at 10:41 AM, procyg said: I Totally agree keep calm! I lost power on Christmas eve for 36 hours where the inside temps of the house dropped to around 51 degrees. I had recently purchased a battery air pump from pondforse (Coop's dual pump wasnt available) and on intermittent setting ran both my 2 sponge filters for 40+ hours. Things i could have done better; 1. Wrap the tank in a blanket earlier to keep it as warm as possible, I did it but not until the tank temps dropped around 10 degrees 2. Unplug the heater so when the power restores you can control how fast it warms the tank up. i was a few hours away when the power was restored and by the time i got home the tank was back to normal temps. Probably too fast to not stress the fish but thankfully i only lost 2 fish in my main tank. (I did lose all 9 in my QT tank but that was my fault, i didn't have a battery pump available for it and the fish were already weakened from medications. Those reflective sun shades for cars work well to insulate tanks. I learned that on Girl Talks Fish. Edited January 28, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi_Aquatics Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 Sounds like you’re taking the right steps and staying calm. I’m glad everyone sounds like they’re still doing well! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdsnstuff Posted January 26, 2023 Author Share Posted January 26, 2023 Now they're saying it will be Friday night before power is restored. It's weird - part of the neighborhood has power and part of doesn't. I guess it depends on which tree hit which line. So I've been running the nano pumps intermittently - I've been using the charging batteries for multiple things. But we now have a generator so I've plugged them in for a good long bubble. I've also run a cord to plug in a heater at a time - the tanks are down to 63! So I'm going to try to raise them to 68 before I go to sleep and turn off the generator. I have to alternate plugging them in so I'm aiming for warmer if not perfect. As far as I can tell, everyone is fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdsnstuff Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 Electricity finally came back on Thursday. I slow walked the tanks back up to a normal temperature over 16 hours. Water looked pretty good so I lightly fed. Water change on one tank today. Made notes for next time. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOtrees Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 (edited) Do you have central heat there, or room heaters? Here in Ontario Canada we have central heat and a gas furnace. If power is out for an extended time during winter I can power the furnace (and tons of other stuff) from my reasonably priced 3500w inverter generator. Since the furnace is just the blower, and the heat comes from gas, heating the whole house requires less electricity than a space heater. Glad u made it through mostly intact 🙂 Edited January 28, 2023 by TOtrees 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 Another good resource 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdsnstuff Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 On 1/27/2023 at 9:40 PM, TOtrees said: Do you have central heat there, or room heaters? Here in Ontario Canada we have central heat and a gas furnace. If power is out for an extended time during winter I can power the furnace (and tons of other stuff) from my reasonably priced 3500w inverter generator. Since the furnace is just the blower, and the heat comes from gas, heating the whole house requires less electricity than a space heater. Glad u made it through mostly intact 🙂 On the second day when the electric company said it would be two more, I bought a portable generator. We had high volume extension cords from a previous ice storm 13 years ago. The generator from then had died. So now I’m the proud owner of a generator and a kerosene heater. Our gas heater worked great once I hooked it up! I bet I won’t use as much as you do though. 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Keeney Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 What will you do when it is out for two or three weeks? I live in a hurricane country. I don't stock fish that need heaters. And power filters are only used for clearing up the water. Biological filtration is provided by oversized sponge filters and undergravel filters, all air powered. I can run several sponge filters off of one D-Cell-powered air pump. They are noisy, but they work and run for about 24 hours off two batteries. I have experimented with many systems. Most USB power packs will not last 24 hours unless you are willing to spend a lot of money, and if you have no power, how are you going to recharge them? I put an adapter on a 5 amp hour Dewalt 20 volt Lithium Ion battery expecting it to last a long time. It was much better than the USB power packs but less than I expected. It lasted about 48 hours. Now you need to recharge, and there is no power. At the beginning of each hurricane season, I ensure I have a stock of D-Cell batteries and test my air pumps. I have been without power for more than two weeks and never lost a fish because of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdsnstuff Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 (edited) @Robert KeeneyI live in Tornado country so I could conceivably being without power for weeks. But on the whole these things are thankfully few and far between. Back in 09 we had an ice storm and we were without power for a week. I covered up the tanks I had at the time and hoped. We heated the house with a generator and I didn't feed the whole time. But I didn't and don't have complicated expensive fish so while it would be sad it wouldn't be tragic if I have some losses. I do have the USB pumps and battery packs now so I have answers for short term outages. I spent $20 a piece at Office Depot for 10K packs that can power the nano pumps for a couple days at full charge. I can charge the battery packs in the car if necessary. I own a restaurant that is on the same grid as a hospital so it stays on in most emergencies. If I can get there I can charge things. But I think I'm going to get a battery powered pump for longer outages. I like that in the modern age we have more options. I didn't know about battery powered pumps back in 09. While I've had tanks for most of my life (58), I dip in and out of living a fish centric life. So sometimes I come back to fish land and Wow! Look at what's going on now! It's fun. Thanks to the forum and people like you who share what works for you, I'm going to be even better prepared for next time. Edited January 28, 2023 by Birdsnstuff Sharing my years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Keeney Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 (edited) @Birdsnstuff Battery-powered pumps have been around for many years. I remember seeing them in the '70s. They are a DC motor driving a simple rubber pump. The same type of pump that is used in most 120V pumps. Modern pumps are made of silicon or similar materials. The USB pumps that everyone has have three smaller pumps and a DC motor. I cut one apart to see how it worked. You can find battery-powered pumps anywhere in the US because fishermen use them to aerate their bait buckets. Be sure to get the ones that use D-Cell batteries. For about the exact cost, you get almost three times as much life from a D-Cell than a C-Cell. Since they are DC motors, you can control the speed of the motor by controlling the voltage. It is possible to run one or more of these pumps from a 12V car battery with a little bit of electronics. They would run a long time off of a car battery or trolling motor battery. Edited January 28, 2023 by Robert Keeney Fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdsnstuff Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 @Robert Keeney Cool. It wasn't something I cared about then so I didn't look into it. Now I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Keeney Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 It would be nice if we had some of the air driven filters that were available years ago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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