Planned Power Outage.....What do I do???

[linuxguru]

Our local electric company is planning a 6 hour power outage for Wednesday morning from 9am to 3 pm, It is impossible for anyone to be home at this time and I am EXTREMELY worried, what can I do so everything will survive???

[Ninong]

Six hours may or may not cause problems. A lot depends on the size of your tank and what you have in it. And what you have in it includes the sand bed.

You could get a couple of battery operated airstones to provide oxygen.

You could wrap the tank in one of those insulating blanket things if you expect the room to get cold.

You could pay some kid in the neighborhood to stand there the whole time dipping out a large bowl of water and pouring it back into the tank to keep up the oxygen levels.

Try to make sure that the ambient temperature in the room is at least 72 degrees Fahrenheit before the power goes out. If your tank is an acrylic tank, it will hold temperature better than if it is a glass tank. Also, the volume of water makes a big difference in how fast the water temperature will fall. A large volume of water will take much longer to drop in temperature than a small volume of water.

I doubt that the temperature will fall low enough in six hours to cause problems unless you have a small tank and a cool house. As long as the water temperature stays above 72 degrees, you will be fine.

Your biggest problem is oxygen depletion and this depends on the stocking level in the tank and whether it has a deep sand bed or not. A deep sand bed will deplete oxygen at a fairly rapid rate. I would hate to risk more than four hours without power in my 120-gal tank because of the 6" DSB.

[The R/C Man]

Sorry this is a bit late. A battery operated air pump is good in a pinch. If you or someone else will be home during the outage youcan always churn the water by hand every 15-30min. This will help keep the water oxygenated.

For the 375 gallon tank I have in the works I will be using an automated battery back up to run the sump return pump. Tripplite makes a converter/charger/monitor. Plug it into the wall, wire two car batteries together (for back up) then plug in your pump into the recepticle on the unit. When the power goes the unit automatically switches to battery backup. When the power comes back on the unit switches back to AC and then begins to charge the batteries. http://www.tripplite.com/products/pr...?productID=177

Good luck! Be sure to let us know how you fair.

[SeaMe]

linuxguru, what distro are you running? I like Gentoo myself and sometimes Suse.

[Reefland]

Well, how did you and your tank inhabitants fair?

[G]

I know this wont help for your past issue but it may help in the future....For ease of mind, I bought a generator. For extended periods of no electricity, I can pop on my generator. This could even address any small appliances that I may need to use.

[naser]

i have a power converter. just clip it on to your car battery and it will run your pumps for atleast 6 hours.. and a steal at 40 bucks.

[BubbaWPB]

My generator got me through hurricane Wilma and the subsequent several days without power without any tank fatalities. I ran it for about 4 hours a couple of times a day. I used a battery powered air pump in between the generator runs.

I couldn't see spending thosands of dollars on the tank and and livestock and not spend a few hundred bucks on a small generator. By the way, I could have gotten 3 of the generators for what I paid for my calcium reactor....

[linuxguru]

Well everyone, thanks for all suggestions. Unfortunately the power company left me with little time abnd through it all, I lost a flame angel. I came home and found him dead, everyone else seemed to be doing fine and I had the angel for almost a year, I guess it just wasn't hardy enough. I have since purchased a generator and a power inverter and will be extremely prepared if this situation presents itself again. Again, thanks for all suggestions..........