No Power - how long will my tank last?

So I got a notice last week that my local power company will be doing some planned maintenance and installation of new equipment tomorrow (8/4), and that they expect to have the power down starting at 8am until around noon - at least 4 hours

Of course I lined up a generator I was going to barrow from a friend (of a friend) and, long story short, it fell through this evening :-/

So, my questions is - how long do you think the tank can handle no power?

My tank is a 125g mixed reef with 10 smallish fish a medium size Cole tang and large Copper band as well as the usual assortment of crabs and snails, a Tuxedo Urchin and a sea hare and a large pistol shrimp.

Tank temps hovers around 78 - 79 this time of year. I'm in Phoenix and temps outside won't go below 79 tomorrow, and will likely be at least 105 or more by noon time. house will warm up quickly - I would expect it to be around 80-85 or more inside the house by noon.

I have enough batter backup to run a single MP40 for about an hour, maybe two if I slow it way down.

Should I be worried?

 

Put some plastic bottles of water in the freezer to float in the tank if you need them. If you need more oxygenation, siphon off water into a gallon jug and poor it back into the tank from a distance of roughly a foot, do this hourly and as needed.

I live south of you and have rolling black outs this time of year, the method above has always gotten me by. BTW it will be 108 here.

 

Thanks for the suggestions - I never would have thought about the gallon jug thing. I do however have a handful of water bottles with RO in them sitting in the freezer for emergencies. I should probably freeze a few more.

Before the day's out, it should hit 110 here, but by noon I'm guessing only around 105 or so

 

Well good luck, but I think you should be fine.

Come on Monsoons!!!!!!!!!

 

Good advice given! Are you going to be home while this happens? The last time I had a power outage I used a turkey baster to stir the water around. I would suck some air into the baster to help increase oxygen. I did this for about 5 minutes every 30 minutes for about 5 hours. Temperature was not a concern because of the mild weather. My tank is much smaller and I had no noticeable damage to anything.

 

Yep, I'll be here. so I'll be able to monitor the tank.

Since I last posted, I was able to secure a small 200watt inverter that I can hook up to my car. So in case of a real issue, I can simply run the car on the driveway and with a really long extensions cord, plug in my tank

200 watts should be more than enough to run the return pump and a small fan to cool the tank should I need it.

I also have the air cranked down right now to cool the house, so it should stay cooler longer into the day once the power cuts out.

 

Nice work with the inverter. That will help.

Do you have a LFS near you?

This little battery air-pump has saved my tank more than once now:
http://www.3reef.com/threads/cheapo-battery-powered-air-pump-saved-my-fish-today.116690/

 

I do have a number of LFS near me, unfortunately none of them have one of those battery powered air pumps for sale. I should get one of those for the next time this happens. I would have ordered one had I known the portable generator I had lined up was going fall through :-/

Anyway - I'm a few hours away, I've got the house temp down enough that I'm actually cold, the tank temp actually dropped enough for the heaters to kick in, and have 2, 50ft extension cords at the ready should my batter backup run out. Wish me luck!

 

Bicycle air pumps work.Just add the needle for pumping up basketballs.Tape an airline/airstone to the end.Couple pumps every half hour or so.Kept my fish alive through a couple hurricanes that way.

 

This completely slipped my mind when I responded the first time.... You can wrap some blankets around the tank to help insulate it, reducing the effects of temperature. Good luck, and let us know how everything turns out.