Power outage/Never wish out loud...

Just the other day, in the midst of a water change, I was thinking I'm kind of bored with my tank. Everything is flourishing, I just haven't had any new additions in awhile, fish or corals. Hmmm, how nice it would be to have a species tank, or a planted tank, or a schooling fish tank. Well, in a twist of sick fate, we are in the midst of a power outage, about 4 hours now. No generator to be had at 3 in the morning, when this happened (we actually own a generator, it just doesn't work...). DTE promises nothing, of course, and could be 8, or 10, or noon, or never when the power is restored. I have to work, so the husband is home babysitting. I REALLY hope nothing dies, and promise to never wish out loud again!!!

 

That bad, however, I have had the power go out for about 5 hours with no problems and others have had it go out for much longer with no problems. As long as the temp doesn't drop too much and you can agitate the water for oxygenation, you should be fine.

 

Many Walmarts sell battery powered air pumps in the fishing section. If not, you can wait until your LFS opens and see if they sell them.

This is the model I always keep around. You plug it into the wall and it will automatically turn on if the power goes out. battery powered air pump penn plax b11 - Yahoo! Hosted Search Results

 

That's the idea I was searching for! I'm on mission now...

 

We have an air pump similar to the one in this photo:

http://www.edmunds.com/media/ownership/driving/we.test.the.tips/tire.pressure.500.jpg

Pretty much saved our tank when a tornado blew through our town last Friday. We did lose a few fish and one coral but we would have lost everything if we didn't have it.

 

Connecticut has not had good weather this summer! We are not having any "weather", just a transformer that blew for no apparent reason. I don't realize how much I rely on electric things until something like this happens. I've got the husband looking for our battery powered air pump for the air mattress right now- with a little tubing and some fresh batteries, I think I've got it!

 

The one that we have can be hooked up to a car's power port so buying a ton of batteries isn't necessary. Oh, and it's also handy for inflating tires and other non-fish related stuff

 

My power was out for 24 hours a couple weeks ago and it was 95 degrees outside. The tank didn't get over 80. I wasn't home or could have hooked up stuff to my car inverter.
Nothing bad happened to the tank though. I have a lot of fish but most are very small. Only 2 big fish in 210 gallon system. So I've heard of people having fish run out of O2 with heavier fish loads.
Luckily my girlfriend was here and had an electrician come out.. cost me $1100 for a main breaker panel outside.
You can always sit a bag of ice in the sump if necessary. I think you can buy an inverter from walmart and run an extension cord to the car.

 

Happy day- the power is restored, 12 hours later to the minute. My very very nice neighbor who runs the bait and tackle store hooked me up with a air pump, and all is well in the fish bowl. Gotta love happy endings (and I can't wait to get a shower...)!

 

Man, these are NOT the things I want to hear while getting ready to move to CT