Hurricane power outage planted betta tank help

[Rachel0825]

Hello all.  Hopefully someone is on to help.   Thanks!!!   
 

So we had this hurricane come through.   Power is still off at my office where my tank is located.  5 gal Fluval been running since Jan. Betta.  Pleco.  Snail.  And plants.  The power has been off assuming since Thursday night/ Friday am.  
 

I did go check on them yesterday and all seems well and good but power is expected to be restored Tuesday night.  I did notice my nitrates up.   In your opinion should I move the tank to my home or will Finley and gang be ok for a few more days?   
 

help.  Thanks 🙏🏻 

[Sandrock14]

What is the temperature of the water? Can you afford doing a small water change? Does your home water heater still have some remaining warm/hot water to help boost the temp?

[Rachel0825]

Hi there.   When I checked yesterday the temp was 72/71 which is about what my heater is set at anyway.    I was just thinking of going to do a water change and helping it out.  I didn’t think to test the water at work but I would assume we have water and would have hot water.  I’d hope.  

[nabokovfan87]

 

On 9/29/2024 at 10:08 AM, Rachel0825 said:

When I checked yesterday the temp was 72/71 which is about what my heater is set at anyway.    

Edit: disregard the heater setting things below, but I'll leave the original comment.

Betta want the tank warmer, so if you can set it to ~80 (I would think long term 78 is about normal for most) and then let it casually drop to room temp. Don't do a temp swing via water change, just let the tank do its thing. It'll be much less stress!

Best of luck.

On 9/29/2024 at 9:49 AM, Rachel0825 said:

The power has been off assuming since Thursday night/ Friday am.

Do you have an LFS available with a battery air filter? They do sell them at PetSmart as well now. They run off D-cell or USB. The USB ones last about 4 days. The d-cell you can get about 1.5-2.5 hours from. If you can get one, get a bag of carbon and run an air stone underneath it. Just let the tank use that as "filtration".  I tend to take the media bags and let them sit at the bottom of the tank. The main thing is to keep the filter media wet and if possible, aerated.

 

Edited September 29 by nabokovfan87

[nabokovfan87]

Snail and the betta should be ok. My only concern would be the pleco.  Depending on the type, that might be the first fish you check on asap. Air would absolutely help out that fish.

[Rachel0825]

Thanks for the responses @nabokovfan87  he is a young bristlenose.   As of yesterday he was fine and acting as normal.  I didn’t see signs of stress.   I am about to go over and do a water change and check on them.   I might stop by PetSmart and check on a battery powered stone.  As it is in my office I did open the door to the office but the office in a whole is warm.  I am also worried about the plants.   Vallisneria and a Java fern and balbitis     They were doing so good newly added and now I am worried about melting and dying.     Thank you 🙏🏻 

[Sandrock14]

I agree with nabokovfan, the temperature should be alittle warmer, closer to 78-80 F. Definitely recommend slowly warming it up.

 

If the nitrates are slowly creeping up and you can do a small 10-15% water change with warm water (hopefully around 75 degrees F) I would do it.

I live in the north where we have relatively frequent power outages in the winter due to snow storms. The temperature issue is a serious concern here with multiple day power outages. After the last major power outage I purchased a 1000 Watt Jackery to assist in powering at minimum my heaters for a few days. I strongly recommend purchasing a backup power supply if you can afford it.

https://www.jackery.com/

Jackery has really good reviews and numerous sales through the year. I would wait for a good sale and pick one up if it is something you would be interested in.
 

[Retrophyllum_minus]

On 9/29/2024 at 2:53 PM, Sandrock14 said:

I live in the north where we have relatively frequent power outages in the winter due to snow storms.

Same. In Maine here. I just have a big old gas powered generator but it can plug into my house's rinnai heater and run that when there's a power outage so I can still keep the ambient heat in the house up during the winter. Which I can keep up enough for the tanks if needed, theoretically.

If I didn't have that I'd definitely go with a backup power source to heat the heaters. 

[Rachel0825]

Thanks all 🙏🏻 I did a water change.  Everyone seemed happy and no stress.  I’m hoping in 2 days the power will be back on and we will be in business.   But I will def check into a battery powered something or a small power source to avoid this in the future.  👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[Sandrock14]

On 9/29/2024 at 4:27 PM, Rachel0825 said:

Thanks all 🙏🏻 I did a water change.  Everyone seemed happy and no stress.  I’m hoping in 2 days the power will be back on and we will be in business.   But I will def check into a battery powered something or a small power source to avoid this in the future.  👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Not a problem! Can definitely be stressful.

I would probably feed them only every other day or so, try to limit the fish waste. What type of filtration do you have? A sponge filter or hang on back filter?

[Rachel0825]

Hi!   Great news - power is restored.    Woohoo.   Finley and crew look good.  No signs of stress.   The plants are ok.  Luckily I have my Easy Green and so they’ll get plenty of that.    The tanks cloudy and nitrates and nitrites off but I’ll watch it today.  Hopefully now the water is circulating and running through a filter it will cycle it through.   
 

thanks for yalls responses 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻♥️

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/29/2024 at 11:53 AM, Sandrock14 said:

I live in the north where we have relatively frequent power outages in the winter due to snow storms. The temperature issue is a serious concern here with multiple day power outages. After the last major power outage I purchased a 1000 Watt Jackery to assist in powering at minimum my heaters for a few days. I strongly recommend purchasing a backup power supply if you can afford it.

https://www.jackery.com/

Jackery has really good reviews and numerous sales through the year. I would wait for a good sale and pick one up if it is something you would be interested in.

The main issue to keep in mind with any sort of these things for power is the conversion from AC-->DC circuits and how expensive it is in terms of long term use. 

If you are able to avoid AC you save a lot of energy (low voltage) and you are able to have things last for a very, very long time. 

I would have on hand, and it's what I have personally:
-1 battery (d-cell) backup pump for each tank.  (you don't want to have to split a bunch of taps here)
-1 air pump that can run off a USB (no AC-->DC conversion) for each tank
-1 "backup source" to be able to charge the batteries for those USB banks. 
-1 extra usb battery bank, does not have to be large, in order to run the USB devices while the big bank is charging

Something like a USB solar panel or something where you can use the jackery devices to charge up the big bank is critical to get longevity for me.  For shorter, half a day or 1-2 days, outages it's not a major issue, but once you have 4+ days it becomes a lot more of a challenge depending on what fish are involved.

This is similar to the one I have.  They also have 40,000 maH devices now.  This would be able to last ~7 days or more potentially without recharging.  Once they get to 15-20% power remaining you'll want to stop use and recharge them. 

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Portable-Double-Speed-Recharging/dp/B01JIWQPMW?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

They also have little things like this you can use in an emergency, check the size you need against the battery bank you select:

https://www.amazon.com/Ecosonique-Waterproof-Detachable-Compatible-Smartwatch/dp/B0D3DSXBKZ/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3240QBURYIVXQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MrehVTTzC1Yjps1CP90ZmGVDpUT99XKBxDXugiUaKoYgHE20L15Rx8M32pgiNhwDkDBVNbRK04_rSYtJG1xtOZ3apMrzsolHm2ANkKpGOkQFUb4BW8dIzIs4fOb29KnpNYhTtPjn9NCFvYP3oxtejRMHqazLtMW7eBnrLNX3-e-bnLCguw77He8noZ5R6wjt3EnvEdcJ5W_2fIujjUbfOLX2wx-755C5Nk__YTuAesYrnaxmQT0Ykz-nYdQYeEHHTrUSuclO7aY3TjzMQVi0qWxNgaEGMuYwZz3vSkhP_NI.lwWfvYddNbFjut6RXGT6QbPi0Ss5FUGWSDjRMxrOyVY&dib_tag=se&keywords=usb%2Bsolar%2Bpanel%2Bcharger&qid=1727719304&s=electronics&sprefix=usb%2Bsolar%2Bpanel%2Bcharge%2Celectronics%2C176&sr=1-5&th=1

Edited September 30 by nabokovfan87