8 Hour Power Outage!!!!

Last night I lived every reefer's worst nightmare - an 8 hour power outage. My 6-week old reef tank with perfect water conditions sat for 8 hours with no lights, fan, filtration - NOTHIN! Went home at lunch today to check the carnage -- everything survived. I was stunned. (But, I'll be someone's gonna tell me that it will be a couple of days before the corpses start to stack up! ).

 

Sounds like you came thru it just fine...you are right, it is one of reefer's worst nightmares (along with aptasia, asterina's, hair algae, bryopsis, heater failure, etc)...

A cheap generator will do wonders for peace of mind!

 

You always make me laugh...thanks.

 

Hey Linda, the biggest killer during power failures is lack of O2 in the water. the larger the tank the longer the O2 will last for fish. A simple aid (not that you can do this for long) is to simply get a glass or bucket and scoop water from the tank and pour it slowly back into the tank. This will help circulate the water and introduce O2 to the water. I picked up a couple of battery operated air pumps so that I can through a couple of air stones in the water if the power goes out. But like Scott said a generator is the best solution.

But don't run it in the house.

J

 

I don't anticipate it happening again any time soon. In fact, this was the longest power outage I have ever experience (and I'm really old). :laughings BUT, I will keep your suggestions close at hand cuz ya never, never know.

 

Why not a generator in the house? I personally like Co2 and heaps of exhaust

Glad to hear all is well! Jason and omard had 2 good suggestions for temporary power loss. 02 is a KEY factor

 

8 hours! Thats not so bad , Jk. Last year the power went out for a whole week after a hurricane, I live in south Florida so power outages is nothing new to me. I agree with Jason in scooping up water and adding it to your tank, like that you get some flow and oxygenate the water, since you dont plan on having more outages then I would not worry about a generator.

 

I have had that happen as well and the best thing that I have experienced, with no deaths in my tank is aeration!
Take a bucket and pour the water back into the tank as Jason suggested! Also with all the live rock and sand, complimenting the biological filtration, you should be able to have success during a power outage.
A battery operated pump or generator is also a god idea!

 

Please, no talking about being "really old" here --- could cause a flurry of argument posts!

 

Last winter we had a ton of wind storms here in BC. People were loosing power for days. You would not believe the amount of people who lost their lives but using generators or even BBQs in there houses. Just insane

J