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Power outage advice


Hemali
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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.

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I don't know many bacteria that die at cold temperatures above freezing so you're probably good there.

 

As for insulating your tank, everyone's conditions are different so I think the best way to figure it out is empirically.  wrap it up and cut the heater (and your house heat) and measure how fast it cools with a digital thermometer.  You can stop the experiment early at whatever you think your minimum safe temperature is.

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I wouldn't sweat 30 minutes. 12 hours is quit a bit of time. If it happens frequently, you can look into a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This is basically a big battery backup. They can be quite pricey, so just know that going into it. I now run a sponge filter with a USB air pump in my tank as well as the canister. I can run the air pump but not the canister filter. If I lose power for a long time, I hold back food for a few days then feed lightly for a while. It helps allow the beneficial bacteria build back up. This method worked for me during the spat of hurricanes we had last year. 

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1 hour ago, Fish Folk said:

Sounds like you've got your basics covered. We run sponge filters, so bacteria colony is loaded in the aquarium already. 

Irene (Girl Talks Fish / A Gamer's Wife) made a video about surviving a power outage in cold weather that is helpful:

 

I completely forgot to mention I have a sponge prefilter on my intake. 😅

Also, thank you for the video!

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