What do you do when your power goes out?

[FlatFourVW]

I just set up a new 55 gal. tank and was wondering what your backup plans are if the power goes out in your area or if you'd have to do something that requires shutting off the power to your house for a short time? :)

[petcrazy213]

Since I've had my 40 gal SW tank up these past 6 months we've lost power a few times. The couple times we lost power in the summer wasn't a real problem because the temp stayed up and if it started to go up over 80 I just popped some ice in and stirred it around a bit now and then and I could add cold water if I needed to. (that worked well during the big blackout we had here for a couple days ... I didn't lose any fish or anything) Now, we just recently lost pwer for a few hours during the cooler weather (45 degrees) and there was no noticable problem at all, didn't even notice the water temp drop more then a degree or so. If it had been during a really cold day for a few hours then we may have had a bit of a problem. I would then probably have had to add hot water periodically and stir the water for a bit of aeration.

Hope that helps ya a bit.

[Guy W]

i've never lost power for more than 4 or 6 hours, and on my 125gallon tank I never did anything...

If the power goes out for days... I guess I start over when it comes back on.

[Gealcath]

If you keep the bioload down, the live rock and sand bed will filter without power needed, the only problem might be water movement.

[K9Decoy]

My emergency back up plan includes one of those portable, battery operated air pumps that fishermen use in 5 gallon buckets to keep their bait alive. Power could be out for days, but at least I would have aeration and a little bit of circulation. Just an idea.

[gcvt]

I crank up my generator.

With the amount of money I have invested in my reef tank, buying a portable generator was a no brainer and it's saved my butt at least twice already.

I went to Home Depot and got one of these:
http://www.colemanpowermate.com/generators/pm0401850.shtml

[mogurnda]

Because our power company, PepCo, sucks so much, we have had 4 power outages longer than 12 hours in the past 5 months.

I managed to keep everybody alive for a few days after Isabel came through, just using battery-operated pumps. They are great, if noisy. But I didn't need heat at that point.

Since then I have bought a generator. Talk about peace of mind.

[BrianH]

I also use the battery operated air pumps. They have come in handy a few times. I would buy them(and the batteries) now. You can never seem to find them during the blackout.

Brian

[Twize]

All,
We had a 4-5hr power outage over the holidays. Though my Tank is not setup completely, the power outage did
cause some delays from me working on my "tankroom" project that day, I was doing some slab demolishing (for my drain) and wood cutting, so my powertools were crippled...until I did the following:

-I have a 6k portable generator (Generac bought at HD) and a few years ago I ordered a heavy guage/duty extension cord and applied 220 plugs on each end.
-I turned off my Main Service Disconnect Breakers.
-Turn off all the other circuit breakers.
-Plugged one end of my Ext.Cord to the generator
-Plugged the other end into the Dryer 220v wall outlet
-Double and Triple checked that the "Main Service Disconnect" was off! ;)
-Powered on the Generator.
-Slowly turned on the load (breaker) one by one
-Vualah! Power was on to everything...

Kinda cool being the only house in the block with lights on. :D

Just thought I'd share this cool trick...

Thx,
Twize
www.Twize.com

[danettem]

If it is cold, wrapping your tank in blankets will keep the temperature up, we only lost one fish in a 4 day outage, with the inside temperature at 31 degrees using this method.