Emergency-power outage questions

Mrs. Gixxerman · 06/30/2012, 07:14 AM

Last night a series of atorms ripped through Va. Short story is we've been without power since about 10 pm. To make matters worse the temps are going to reach above 100 today. We have two large battery operated airstones running and hubby got ice so I can but ziplock bags of it in the tank to keep the water temp down.

Here are my two questions. How long can the fish survive on the airstones and at what temp does the water become dangerous?

We currently have a 75 gal with six fish (two clowns, tomini tang, coral beauty, blue chromis and a foxface) and mostly softies.

I'm scared of losing the tank inhabitants and I certainly don't want them to suffer. I'm on my cell phone so I can't search the forum easily. Thanks in advance for your help.

sponger0 · 06/30/2012, 08:10 AM

If I were you go look into renting a generator from home dpeot if you dont know how much longer it will be without power.

Or do what I did when my power went out for 3 days. Get a power converter for your car. Run your powerheads and heaters as need be. And make sure to start your car once in awhile to keep the battery charged. I did this for 3 days and didnt lose any livestock.

If you ever forsee a storm coming, make sure to have some water bottles filled with RO frozen. They will help in a circumstance like this.

djp183 · 06/30/2012, 09:20 AM

Sorry for your situation. I'm in Baltimore and we had the same brutal storms. My power just came back on an hour ago but I did go get a battery airstone 1st thing this morning thinking it would be a while. Good luck!

Mrs. Gixxerman · 07/03/2012, 05:42 AM

Obviously a generator is the way to go, but with such a massive power outage on the scale we had, finding a generator to rent or purchase was next to impossible. Borrowing one wasn't much better, as just about everyone who had one was using it for their own purposes. I was more concerned with the immediate circumstances concerning our tank. Fortunately my father in law (who was one of the lucky ones that didn't lose power) had a generator that we didn't know he had, and was able to use it to power the tank late Saturday evening on...however tank temp was still an issue. I'll check into that power converter though. Thanks for the idea.

The power came back on yesterday, and despite a little stress and some ****ed off corals, everything survived fine. We are lucky to have such healthy fish that they were able to make it.

For the record, our tank got up to 85 with no apparant damage, and the fish survived on the airstones for about 24 hours. I wouldn't want to push my luck on that though.

@djp183, glad to see you got your power on quickly. They were estimated that it would be a week for us. So I'm happy with getting the power back on Monday. Those storms WERE brutal weren't they? I'll be perfectly content if I never see the words "derecho storms" again.

06/30/2012, 07:14 AM	#1
Mrs. Gixxerman Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Central Virginia Posts: 95	Emergency-power outage questions Last night a series of atorms ripped through Va. Short story is we've been without power since about 10 pm. To make matters worse the temps are going to reach above 100 today. We have two large battery operated airstones running and hubby got ice so I can but ziplock bags of it in the tank to keep the water temp down. Here are my two questions. How long can the fish survive on the airstones and at what temp does the water become dangerous? We currently have a 75 gal with six fish (two clowns, tomini tang, coral beauty, blue chromis and a foxface) and mostly softies. I'm scared of losing the tank inhabitants and I certainly don't want them to suffer. I'm on my cell phone so I can't search the forum easily. Thanks in advance for your help.

06/30/2012, 08:10 AM	#2
sponger0 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Virginia Beach Posts: 6,659	If I were you go look into renting a generator from home dpeot if you dont know how much longer it will be without power. Or do what I did when my power went out for 3 days. Get a power converter for your car. Run your powerheads and heaters as need be. And make sure to start your car once in awhile to keep the battery charged. I did this for 3 days and didnt lose any livestock. If you ever forsee a storm coming, make sure to have some water bottles filled with RO frozen. They will help in a circumstance like this.

06/30/2012, 09:20 AM	#3
djp183 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 68	Sorry for your situation. I'm in Baltimore and we had the same brutal storms. My power just came back on an hour ago but I did go get a battery airstone 1st thing this morning thinking it would be a while. Good luck!

07/03/2012, 05:42 AM	#4
Mrs. Gixxerman Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Central Virginia Posts: 95	Obviously a generator is the way to go, but with such a massive power outage on the scale we had, finding a generator to rent or purchase was next to impossible. Borrowing one wasn't much better, as just about everyone who had one was using it for their own purposes. I was more concerned with the immediate circumstances concerning our tank. Fortunately my father in law (who was one of the lucky ones that didn't lose power) had a generator that we didn't know he had, and was able to use it to power the tank late Saturday evening on...however tank temp was still an issue. I'll check into that power converter though. Thanks for the idea. The power came back on yesterday, and despite a little stress and some ****ed off corals, everything survived fine. We are lucky to have such healthy fish that they were able to make it. For the record, our tank got up to 85 with no apparant damage, and the fish survived on the airstones for about 24 hours. I wouldn't want to push my luck on that though. @djp183, glad to see you got your power on quickly. They were estimated that it would be a week for us. So I'm happy with getting the power back on Monday. Those storms WERE brutal weren't they? I'll be perfectly content if I never see the words "derecho storms" again.