15 replies to this topic

[Kleinz]

So come Monday, Western Power is cutting my electricity for the day so they can do whatever in the street.

They say 10 hours, but I assume that's a maximum and it could well be less.

Given that the temp prediction for Monday is 40, I'm not ecstatic.


IF, I can get my air powered sponges going on battery, will the canisters be OK if I leave em be for that long or should I gut them and dump the media in tank for the duration?


Also, anyone who wants to lend me a UPS for a day would have me in their debt.

[simmoman]

Do a search on the forum

dc backup air pump
ac/dc air pump
cpu
generator

Depends on your setup and how many tanks

[Neakit]

a few years ago my power was cut for 24 hours, all i did was get a generator and run one filter in each tank, no lights no heaters. If you have a big air pump running multiple just get that going. As for the canisters if you have nothing else to do why not clean them anyway? i personally didn't bother but then i was also busy with 15 tanks at the time.

[dazzabozza]

Hey Kleinz?

If you are looking to run air with some sort of backup power you could always put your filter media into a bucket (with tank water) and keep it aerated also.

It's been discussed a few times here about how long the bacteria will survive when filters are off but I don't recall any accurate answers or proof/studies done. I could be wrong


Daz

[simmoman]

Daz I test a Resun 120 DC backup airpump with 2x3000ma "D" size rechargeable batteries and they lasted 12.5hrs.

As I said it depends what you have. Mine is useless if you have more than one tank.

[dazzabozza]

Hey Simmo

I was referring to how long "bacteria" will survive not "batteries"

[simmoman]

I humbly beg your forgiveness Daz

Filtration
This is the most important piece of equipment in any aquarium, and will cause the most problems in a power cut. Filters depend on bacteria that live within them, and those bacteria depend on a continual supply of oxygen obtained from the water flowing through the filter. Once that water flow stops, the remaining oxygen is used up, and after a period, the bacteria begin to die, followed by a release and build-up of toxins. When the filter is eventually switched back on again, all the de-oxygenated and polluted water flows back into the aquarium, and because of a loss of bacteria, the filter does not remove waste products present in the aquarium or produced over the following days, or weeks. When this happens, aquarium conditions worsen for many days after the power loss, and fish health problems are the result, often occurring days later. For long power cuts, there is the added problem of oxygen loss in the aquarium, since the outflow of water from the filter is normally the main source of surface agitation, where oxygen enters the aquarium.

Aftercare
Unfortunately, the problems associated with aquaria and power cuts are not over once the power is back on. If the loss of power was for anything more than an hour, it is very likely that the aquariums population of filter bacteria has been disrupted, meaning that waste will not be processed in the normal manner. Therefore, after a power cut you should keep feeding light, and monitor the aquarium daily for any signs of ammonia or nitrites, in the event of which you can stop feeding temporarily, and apply the relevant actions to return conditions to normal.

From another forum

Bacterial decay and death during prolonged resting or inactive periods occurs due to the natural onset of entropy. Aerobic bacteria may attempt to retard and prolong this tendency toward disorder through a process known as endogenous respiration, whereby a nominal energy flow is secured for limited maintenance purposes. This energy provides for resynthesis of critical metabolic material, as well as facilitating such activities as transport, motility, and pressure and heat control.

Our best estimate for the collective impacts of decay, endogenous metabolism, death, and predation on nitrifiers presently ranges from 0.05 to 0.12 days-1 . Correspondingly, these rates imply that resting, non-active nitrifiers will deteriorate at rates of 5 to 12% per day.



So I suppose after a long black out is to monitor the water yourself. Have 6 fry in a 700lt tank compared to 50 juvies in a 300lt tank will make a huge difference, that's why I say depends.


Cheers

[Buccal]

It's not a big deal, nothing probably would happen even if you did nothing, assuming you don't have huge stocking volume.
Battery operated pump or a computer backup inline battery power pack with a five watt power head running of it.
Dose water water with the trusty seachem prime conditioner for the event of a slight ammonia spike.
And freeze water inside of a 300mm coke bottle and drop bottle with lid on in the tank.
The slow melt will keep temp down to a safe level and water will hold oxygen much better.
Waters ability to hold oxygen decreases when it gets past 29' .

[werdna]

A 300mm coke bottle in a tank larger than around 18 inch will do nothing to keep the tank cool.

[simmoman]

We're having this great discussion but where is Kleinz.
Knowing what he has will make a big difference. 2lt coke in a 40lt tank will make a difference.

[Kleinz]

I have 5 smallish tanks to keep running. 200l, 200l, 130l, 80l, a 30l quarantine tank and a and a 5 foot of 315 or so.. The 315 is fish free atm, so I'm not fussed what happens there.


One of the 200's and the 130 is IMO heavily stocked, so that might be problematic. They both have canisters attached which I do not want to set back.

The rest are stocked pretty lightly. I could conceivably spread the load a bit with the 130, but not the 200- what is in there has to stay.

I should be fine for temp. It might get to, say, 29 or 30 with no air or water movement. They can probably cope with that. I just don't want my canister media to die off, as this would screw me down the track. I have yet to find any good data on this.

Edited by Kleinz, 26 January 2012 - 12:56 PM.

[werdna]

The cannisters will be fine for 1 day

[Gareth]

why not take the cannisters somewhere else whilst the power is out?
A mates place or fish store, so they will still be running. Pay them for ur electricity use...
Sounds like alot of stuffing around but if ur so worried about media dying, then it'd be ur best option wouldn't it???

[Buccal]

Just use a bit of seachem prime, that's all that's needed to play safe, don't forget when fish get shipped interstate or internationally they spend spend the same time or longer as your power outage and they are in tiny bags with hardly any water.
I've had power outages like you wouldn't believe out in Two Rocks in the past, one year it went out almost every fortnight, sometimes up to ten hours, then we had a big fire that come very close and power was out for a day and a half.
I did absolutely nothing and everything was fine, all 48,000 liters of it.
If you clean your filters today they should be strong for Monday and still airy enough for bacteria to rest in a unclogged media and survive.

[sandgroper]

Yea they will be fine ,I've never had a problem when the powers gone off for hours at a time. If your still worried then take this time to do some tank maintenance (water change, filter clean) etc. cheers Steve

Edited by sandgroper, 27 January 2012 - 10:19 PM.

[Kleinz]

Doing my changes today. Less worried now that the temp is not redlining every day. Cheers.