Emergency! Power Outage

[tcp316]

My daughter in law just called very upset. My son is out of town and she has been without power for 2 hours. The tank temp is down to 74 and she is afraid of losing all the fish and corals. Any ideas on how to get the tank temp up and keep oxygen in the tank. She doesn't have a generator at this time. They just moved. She is in Georgia.

[ReefTech]

Not sure about keeping the heat up but I know you can add small amounts of peroxide to the tank every 30 to 45 minutes and that will help keep the water oxygenated. Try google you may be able to find out what the exact dosage is recommended. I've done this before and it did help me out. I didn't have power for two days.

[tcp316]

Thanks, I will check on that.
Right now she is heating water on the stove and will add salt and mix it with tank water and try to warm it up a little that way. I told her to be very careful or she will shock the fish

[ReefTech]

Especially since she's gonna be adding a lot of fresh water that maybe high in phosphates or other nasty stuff. It would probably be better to take a couple gallons of tank water, warm it up to around 80, then add it back to the aquarium and try and see how long it takes for the water temp to drop back down to 74. That seems safer than constantly adding freshly mixed salt water that isn't fully mixed yet.

[tcp316]

I told her to take a pitcher and scoop the tank water and hold it about 2 - 2 1/2 feet over the tank and dump it in to break the water surface. I told her to repeat that over and over for about 5 minutes and it should bring up the oxygen. I also told her to stop feeding the fish and keep the lights off so they would use less energy and oxygen. She is doing the pitcher thing now. I will tell her about the temp.

[jimsflies]

Thanks, I will check on that.
Right now she is heating water on the stove and will add salt and mix it with tank water and try to warm it up a little that way. I told her to be very careful or she will shock the fish

This sounds like a bad idea to me...maybe a last resort. 74 is not a big deal. If the house is cold, bundle the tank up in a blanket to help keep it warm. If she is going to do anything with that warm water from the stove, try warm water in plastic pop bottles and float it.

Also for aeration, get a battery powered air pump with an air stone. In addition to aerating the water, it will get some movement going in the tank (as well as move water at the water surface for additional aeration). I think Petsmart and other shops like that would carry them. A bait store may is another source...not sure if Walmart would carry these in the sporting goods area or not.

Check this article for more ideas: http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/feature-articles/backup-your-reef-8942/

[tcp316]

Especially since she's gonna be adding a lot of fresh water that maybe high in phosphates or other nasty stuff. It would probably be better to take a couple gallons of tank water, warm it up to around 80, then add it back to the aquarium and try and see how long it takes for the water temp to drop back down to 74. That seems safer than constantly adding freshly mixed salt water that isn't fully mixed yet.
The water is from their RO/DI unit and has saltwater in it. I will suggest to use the tank water although I told her should wait until the temp drops way low. I don't think it will be critical myself but she was panicky. This tank is his baby and he is out of town depending on her to take care of it.She doesn't want him to come home and everything be dead. I don't blame her:)

[jimsflies]

Doing a bunch of stuff in a panic, could be more of a problem than the power outage. Any idea when the power will be restored?

How big and how many fish does she have...and what size tank is it?

[tcp316]

Doing a bunch of stuff in a panic, could be more of a problem than the power outage. Any idea when the power will be restored?

How big and how many fish does she have...and what size tank is it?

I think she has calmed down.. She is holding off on the water and will only use warmed jugs if she has to raise the temp. I told her to wait until it is down closer to 65 to float a jug. She is aerating the water with a pitcher and wrapping the tank with a quilt. She also turned down the lights.

I don't know exactly at this point how many fish there are but they are not really big. There is a yellow tang but it is small. The tank is a 60G cube. with a small acrylic sump in the stand. There are not a whole lot of corals either. They lost a lot in the move. I know the tank is already probably in a bit of trouble from the move. He had to go out of town for an extended trip and the tank wasn't tended to. He didn't listen to me about the aiptasia and it went crazy. His rock was covered with hair algae and cyano and aiptasia when they were moving. I came in for a visit and suggested getting new live rock instead of reusing this horrible rock. I have never seen any in such bad shape. The LFS kept his livestock for a week and I helped him reset his tank up. I told him he would still probably have a cycle so he needed to wait to add his livestock but he only waited 5 days. I know he will have a cycle.
You know how it is with adult children. Mom doesn't know anything. LOL

Jaime his wife is desperately wanting to keep everything in good shape. We will just see how it works out.

Power has been out almost 3 hours and the power company can't give her an estimated time yet for it to come back on.

There is a yellow tang, a peppermint shrimp and a royal gamma

[tcp316]

Looks like they are looking at 6 AM before power is expected back on.

[jimsflies]

Do the neighbors have power? Why do the lights work?

[tcp316]

Yeah I don't get the no power but lights work unless maybe a radion w/ the battery backup... which if thats the case is there a vortech on back up as well... if so no sweat for a while. Also like I said keeping the lights off isn't a big deal (if possible I would just run them like normal), will actually help with oxygenating the water anyways. The couple fish in there aren't going to use that much oxygen that I'd be overly worried about it, especially only until the morning.



Waiting until 6am isn't a big deal. Shipped corals and fish go longer w/o heat/ new oxygen etc. ;)
Ha Ha. I told her not to run the lights. Not even thinking about the power aspect! She didn't correct me. I am laughing at myself. His are LED's. I can tell I am too tired tonight.

Thanks guys for all your help. I was relieved when they told her it would be 6 AM. Her landline isn't working and her cell has terrible reception so she has had trouble communicating with the power company.

[MizTanks]

Ha Ha. I told her not to run the lights. Not even thinking about the power aspect! She didn't correct me. I am laughing at myself. His are LED's. I can tell I am too tired tonight.

Thanks guys for all your help. I was relieved when they told her it would be 6 AM. Her landline isn't working and her cell has terrible reception so she has had trouble communicating with the power company.

I needed a good laugh-thanks :)

[tcp316]

How's your dear sister?

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[jimsflies]

Ha Ha. I told her not to run the lights. Not even thinking about the power aspect! She didn't correct me. I am laughing at myself. His are LED's. I can tell I am too tired tonight.

Thanks guys for all your help. I was relieved when they told her it would be 6 AM. Her landline isn't working and her cell has terrible reception so she has had trouble communicating with the power company.

FWIW- Its debatable as to whether to run the lights or not if that was an option. The lights would continue to drive photosynthesis which would in turn process CO2 into O2. But if it where me and I had to choose between a small pump and light, I would go with powering a small pump. Although I haven't thought about this since LEDs have come into the hobby...historically, the lighting was pretty power hungry and a battery wouldn't last as long. I have read a study on this before, if I can find it I will post a link.

This is another place where a vortech (tunze too) have a nice solution because you can easily (not necessarily cheaply) connect a battery to your pump that will automatically work if power is out. I have a vortech backup on my tank, granted my tank is only 30 gallons but I figure the MP-10 will run in backup mode for about 4 days. Leaving temperature as the biggest concern for me in an extended winter power outage. During the last power outage, I wrapped my tank in a sleeping bag to help.

BTW- Is your daughter a CR member?

[jstan]

I know this is a bit late, but in a pinch I've ran my tank (minus the heater and lights) off my car.
I bought a small 100watt power inverter plugged it into my cars cigarette lighter and ran all my power heads from it. Just ran an extension cable to the basement, and left my car running in idle.

I guess you could buy one of the 400 or 500watt ones and run a heater off it as well.

It's not a generator, but it works in a pinch. And it's cheaper than a genny.

[tcp316]

Power came on at 9 this morning. Everything made it. Thanks for all the help. Its nerve wracking when they are so far away and I can't jump in and help:)

[tcp316]

FWIW- Its debatable as to whether to run the lights or not if that was an option. The lights would continue to drive photosynthesis which would in turn process CO2 into O2. But if it where me and I had to choose between a small pump and light, I would go with powering a small pump. Although I haven't thought about this since LEDs have come into the hobby...historically, the lighting was pretty power hungry and a battery wouldn't last as long. I have read a study on this before, if I can find it I will post a link.

This is another place where a vortech (tunze too) have a nice solution because you can easily (not necessarily cheaply) connect a battery to your pump that will automatically work if power is out. I have a vortech backup on my tank, granted my tank is only 30 gallons but I figure the MP-10 will run in backup mode for about 4 days. Leaving temperature as the biggest concern for me in an extended winter power outage. During the last power outage, I wrapped my tank in a sleeping bag to help.

BTW- Is your daughter a CR member?

Thanks Jim. I will keep that in mind. They have Koralia pumps. I am thinking of trying to save to get a vortech myself and eventually get battery backup. All in good time as I can get the money.
I told them about Captive Reefs and so far they haven't gotten on. They were in the midst of a big move and unfortunately, the house they chose is absolutely gorgeous with a creek view from the back, a walk out mother in law plan and it is up against the woods. Being this rural they have terrible reception with mobile phones and internet. My son just started working for Google and is in the midst of getting a booster for the internet. Hopefully, they will get online and join then.

Thanks
Vicki

[tcp316]

Thanks Chris, I appreciate you and Jim giving me feedback. It is really nice to have a site that members jump in to help another reefer in trouble:)

[dlhirst]

Take out pitchers of water and dump them back in. Scoop, dump. Scoop, dump. Alternately, agitation with a slotted spoon or a whisk can add oxygen into the tank, too. Literally blowing bubbles in with a tube will also work.

As for the temperature, I would worry about that less. But, if you are gonna heat water - like on a gas stove - just start with tank water in the pot. All the params will be the same as long as you don't start it aboiling. I wouldn't want to add in water much above 90 degrees. Never know what you might scald!

[tcp316]

Yeah she did the pitcher thing and held off on adding water. They made it thru the night.

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