Power Outage

[Katie3G]

Although I don't live in an area that is threatened by hurricanes (blizzards yes) we had one yesterday. The power was out for 22.5 hours. I have no back up power so my 2 salt tanks (55 gal and 10 gal) were without heat or water circulation during that time. Both tanks dropped to 70 F and were at that temperature for about 12 hours. I did stir the tanks to get some water movement every hour when I could. The 55 gal has 4 LPS corals, kenya tree and toadstool leather as well as 4 fish. All but one of the corals and two of the fish were added to the tank on Saturday. Moreover, I had ordered them online and they had been in transit for about 16 hours. The 10 gal has two new fish from that same online order. Everything but the frogspawn in the 55 gal (from the online order) is looking good. The frogspawn had still not opened up much from the shipping experience and it is really closed up now. Hopefully it will recover from the latest stress. The 10 gal seems fine.

My question - should I assume that everything turned out okay and that I should not worry. Or, should I watch for something over the next few days.

[julie180]

There is not much you can do but wait. You will know in several days what the final outcome will be.

Best of luck and you might look into some type of inverter or battery air pump. I would not feel safe with my generator.

[Acefspds]

You gotta think that when you buy a coral or get a coral shipped to you it goes in a bag with very little water and no flow. Most corals will be fine for 24 hours or so in the bags. I would say everything should be fine but it wouldnt hurt to get some sory of power back up. Some people use computer backups just for pumps/heaters. GL

[Dino]

Agreed, all you can really do is watch and see what happens. Might not hurt to throw on some carbon if you have it handy but your main course of treatment right now is simply to watch and see if anything acts stressed out.

FYI, my tank once went for 24 hours without power after our electricity got knocked out in a particularly bad blizzard. I have no clue anymore what the tank got down to but I know it was about 40° in the house by the time the power came back on. Surprisingly everything survived just fine (although, I didn't really have anything extremely sensitive anyway).

You might consider investing in some kind of backup for the future, especially if you're in a blizzard prone area. Small generators aren't very expensive and can easily power a few things for the tank and a few household appliances (just remember to run them in a place with proper ventilation). An UPS is another solution, an inverter and a deep cycle marine battery are another (marine batteries are much better suited for this than car batteries, car batteries aren't really designed to provide a trickle of power over several hours).

[Katie3G]

Thanks for the feedback. I too thought about how both fish and coral are kept in bags for many hours when shipped - the thought helped the anxiety I was experiencing during the power outage. As for back up power, I will look into it. I have lived in St John's for 6 years and during that time I have experienced only 4 or 5 power outages. The longest that power was out was 2 hours. The power is usually back on within an hour of going out. Needless to say, I was very confident that a back up power source was the last thing I would need. Tuesday was very unusual. I have also found out that I am very lucky in getting my power back in 22.5 hours. Some areas of the city are still without power.

[James77]

I'd give it a couple days before you are fully out of the woods. The gradual temperature drop would not really affect them. The combined stress the shipped fish received plus the power outage would be the only ones I were worried about.

Im the same with electric, Ive lost it 2x in the city where I live, the most for less than an hour. I am adding backup battery power to one Tunze pump. If you don't have vortech or controllable tunzes that can be run on battery, I would into a battery powered air pump to keep the water moving.

[Uncle Salty 05]

+1 on getting a generator, they are literally life savers for your fish and can help keep you comfortable as well.
One caveat being that generators need to be shielded from rain and snow.
You might need to use a tarp or build something to protect it. That or wait until the weather breaks to fire it up, but I know from experience that blizzards can go on for quite a while.

[Katie3G]

Thanks again everyone. The frogspawn coral is not doing well. I think I will lose it. It did not handle the shipping well. James, I am also extra concerned because the coral and fish have only been in my tank for a few days after the stress of shipping.

I do have a Vortec powerhead so I might look into a battery back up for that. Temperature is a concern for me for most of the year - even our summers are cool. So I think a battery back up for both the powerhead and heater are in order.

A generator is not possible for me as I have no place to put one.

[gweston]

For power options, you may be looking at an inverter with some deep cycle marine batteries in series. With a decent set up you can run a few power heads for a very long while. Heaters suck power. Your best bet would be to wrap the tanks to help keep as much heat in as possible. Maybe those reflective emergency blankets would help? If you run heaters, you'll want a higher amp hour rating on the batteries. It may be good to aim for a certain outage length. 12 hours, 24 hours, for example. Calculate how much power your 'required' devices use... and figure out the battery power you are going to need.

There are a few threads on backup power options.

As for heat in the house, I rely on a wood stove as backup on that front. The house temp shoots up easily into the 80's and stays there if the fire is kept going.

I'm having my house wired to accept a generator in the coming month.. I have a renovation project under way, so tossed that into the mix. They are putting a transfer switch on the main breaker box, and running a wire out to the back yard where I can run a generator. I'll probably start with a 7000 watt generator, but no less than a 5000 watt.

There are some mini 'camping' sized generators that are rather quiet. If you have a deck/porch, maybe could just run a tiny generator with just enough juice to keep the heaters/powerheads and a desk lamp going. But research cost and maintenance of those suckers. gas vs diesel. Actual run-time on a tank of fuel, etc.

[Uncle Salty 05]

I have a big 5000 watt generator and one of these:
http://wisesales.com/honda_EU2000iA.html

These things are great! Very quiet, will run for 5 hours on one gallon of gas, and can run everything in my tanks including the lights if wanted.
And if the power is out for days you can alternate between your tank and your fridge and or heater.