Power outage!

I have been fortunate to not have had to witness very many power outages in my many years maintaining saltwater aquariums, atleast for any sustained period of time.
The longest time frame was 8 hours last year. I was pleased to experience no casualties during that venture.
Last night, I was succumbed to yet another power outage for some unseen reason as their were no high winds, lightening strikes, snow or ice storms, just rain. The power went out around 7:00 last night just after returning from taking my son to Yankee stadium to watch the Yankees play Seattle(Yanks won 10-0! by the way). Anyway, not to get off on a tangent, I called the Electric company and they said power was estimated to be back on around three hours later.
Not bad, I can handle that as well as the livestock in my tanks based on previous experiences. The three hours came and went, still no power...called again and they said estimated time another couple hours. Still should be ok as I am still in the timeframe witnessed last year. Fell asleep and woke up around 3 in the morning, still no power, now panic was sinking in and thinking of the worst. Fell asleep again for a couple hours, woke up and it was now after 5 in the morning...STILL NO POWER!
Didn't know if I should voice panic, dispair or be pissed off at Ct. Light and Power for taking so damn long to fix the problem!
Well, power came on just before leaving for work at 5:30 this morning. I made sure that pumps and filtration were up and running before heading out the door. I came home after a 10 hour day and am happy to proclaim that, once again, I lost nothing after over 10 hours without power!
A credit to my livestock though I have to take some of the credit as well. The reason for this is throughout the night I would take some of the aquarium water out with a large glass and pour it back into the tank, causing air bubbles and water movement. I would do this for a few minutes with each tank. The reasons for my action were to replenish dissolved oxygen in the water that was quickly becomming depleted through fish respiration, bacteria and other lifeforms and for water movement. It was night time so photosynthesis had ceased.
I am a firm believer that my actions aided in my not loosing anything in my tanks.
I just wanted to share my thoughts, sigh of relief and also offer valuable info for anyone who has or will witness this potentially detrimental situation regarding power outages.

 

That's good news. I experienced the longest power outage so far this past winter at 4 days. I boiled water on our gas stove and put the bottles in there. I also mixed the water as you did. I also was able to plug my tank in for a few hours at a time using our generator. For shorter periods, 4-8 hours, I've had no issues and haven't had to do anything. Also, wrapping the tank in towels, blankets will help in the winter.

 

Thanks. I have a 5500 generator I plug into the house using a seperate fuse box and swithch over to that. It runs the entire house except the Air conditioner. We were slammed with 3 tornadoes last Thusrday here in Mi and one just missed our house. We were out for 7 hours and I was complaining a bit but many were out for 3 days! I considered myself fortunate.

 

Great to hear CR - I can relate to the stress there...
I've experienced a couple lately myself.
TO DO - get a battery operated air-pump - I've said this for years - I have do it!
Also, get a controller to delay my skimmer from going back on right away with elevated sump level. It flooded the other day.

Glad you came out ok!

matt

 

Ouch!!!
Good points and ideas and great to hear all worked out for all...

 

Battery powered air pump is what I used that when I moved from FL to GA. Great invention! 8-9 hours and I lost 1 crab.

 

Agreed, it's been on my to-do list for a while.

 

Wow sorry about what happened, but your post couldn't have been at a better time. I'm in richmond, tx which is sw of houston and my power has been out for roughly 2 hours. Gonna go mix my tank now. Thanks

 

We have allot of outages here at the jersey shore. I installed a natural gas generator that starts 30 seconds after the power goes out. This keeps the tank up, and it is nice to have all the amenities in your home. Except the AC. The one that I have is to small for that.

 

Omg!! My power went out too last night and i was freaking too! It went out at about 5:00pm and came on at 1:13am in the morning. I was so scared that my babies were not going to get enough oxygen because of the the no movement too so I did the exact same thing as you. I live in north Dallas, texas and it is getting close to 110 degrees. Luckly we had a generator so i plugged my chiller, pump and wave maker back in get thing movin again. The house temp was 101 when we were going to bed so we had about 10 fans going too! Well, when it was all said and done, everybody was ok and none died. My $900 ricordia is ok too so we back in business. The electrical guy said that the fuse blew and 9 houses didn't have electricity because it was getting so hot in the day. You must live somewhere close to me because it sounds pretty much like the same story. Glad everyone is safe and sound back in their home!!