J J Indy

Last night our power went out I was not at home and did not get there untill the power had been out for about 2 1/2 hours. My question is how long after the power goes out do I have to be concerned about water quality and air supply in the water become harmful to my little buddies? Luckily I knew some one with a generator that I could borrow to put some power back in the tanks and my house because the power was out for 18 hours. I was just wondering how long it could be out before I should become concerned.

Chief_waterchanger

I would be more concerned about temperature in colder months than lack of oxygen in water or water quality. Dino and I know what we are doing as far as stocking the tanks with fish and live plants, but the majority of our tanks do not have filters on them (probably over 130 of the 160 we have do not have filters), and do just fine with our normal maintenance. That means the quality and oxygen levels for an understocked, cycled tank with plenty of live plants should be alright for a week or more if you play your cards right. (Temperature is a different story and depends on variables such as the air temperature around the tank as well as surface temperatures of the item on which the tank sits, etc.

Tavel

I've generally heard that things might get a little stinky after 3 hours, and you should be concerned after 6 hours.

I have batteries that can operate my filters for 6 hours or so. So I have 6 hours, and then another 3 to 6 hours for a total of 9-12 hours before I should be concerned.

I've also measured the temperature drop (calculated, really), and found that the temperature will only drop 5 degrees over a 6 hour period with a temperature difference of 15F at the onset.

(You can figure it out, measure the temperature, unplug the heater and measure the temperature drop after 1 hour. You can then use newtons law of cooling to extrapolate out to longer time periods or whatever.)

The temperature will stay at room temperture (slightly below, actually) once it reaches it...so unless you don't use the heater or a/c to save money, you should be fine.

edit: just noticed you have planted tanks. don't listen to me, my advice is for non-planted

J J Indy

I know that water quality will get worse over time with no water movement and in my community tank it is pretty well full load I didnt know about oxygen levels even though I have planted tanks I have read that the plants will actually use oxygen in the night time and produce carbondioxide but during daytime the absorb carbondioxide and produce oxygen since there was no power I didnt know how it would work.

Chief_waterchanger

I see your tank lists oscars in one of the 55s and a rope fish in the other, sorry didn't look before. I would do a waterchange every 24-48 hours if you don't have filtration since both of those tend to be given live food (and rightfully so.)

Tavel

PLANTS have normal respiration whereby they produce oxygen and consume carbon dioxide at the same time (animals do the same thing...roles reversed). In the dark, they simply don't respirate. They don't consume co2, nor do they produce oxygen.

Algaes consume carbon dioxide during the day, then turn around and produce carbon dioxide at night. That's one of the key differences between a plant and an algae. That's also why algae blooms kill ponds.

J J Indy

Thanks For all of the advice and knowledge about plants and algae. My neighbors power was also out and he has tanks. He went out and bought a trolling motor battery and a power inverter large enough to run his tanks and they lasted 10 hours before the power came back on and he probably had enough power to last a couple of more hours just running the filters ,air pumps, heaters I may go that route next time.

Tavel

haha awesome idea. my battery backups are automatic, but have a pretty low capacity.

sirdarksol

Temporary hijack:
Out of curiosity, do you do anything to provide surface disturbance? I nearly have two of my tanks to the point that I would feel comfortable taking the filters out of them, but I'm wondering how to deal with the surface scum that builds up.

ER9

well this makes me wonder...if someone doesn't have alternative power supplies to run a tank....can we just keep changing water to keep oxygen and temperature levels up? in a pich of course during an extended outage.

Chief_waterchanger

ER9, yes. Dino and his parents had to work together to do this back in the early 1990's when a blizzard put them without power for days. They continued to heat water (gas oven) and do waterchanges. The problem with that is that it is a tricky thing to get the water to be within 2-3 degrees farenheit of what is already in the container.

Sirdarksol: We do not currently have anything for surface breaking except when we feed daily, in most tanks. We have sponge filters in some of our tanks and are, when we finish the current project are going to start a PVC air-system setup so that each tank has a sponge filter (or more than one for larger tanks) and of course air pump. However, the fishhouse has ran just fine for 2 and a half years with 90%+ of tanks not having filters or water surface aggitation simply with weekly 50% waterchanges, but again, our tanks are understocked and planted with live plants. Sirdarksol, if you want Dino and I can get together and either PM you further information or we could do a thread about it, whichever you think would be better.

Sorry for contributing to a semi-hijack, but it kinda holds to the subject of oxygen and temperature of unfiltered tank.

MousePotato

What about during warmer months? Where I live it never gets all that cold in the winter and we don't have winter storms knocking out the power, but we do get hurricanes and tropical storms during the nine months of summer! When Rita hit (far to the east of us) our power was out for 4-6 hours every day while they repaired the power grids in Louisiana. The house was unbearably hot - 10-15 degrees warmer than we usually keep it. If we get a direct hit, we could be out for days. I do plan to get some form of backup power for my tanks, but is there anything I can do if the power is out longer than the battery will function? Right now my tank stays a pretty constant 78 degrees without a heater when the house is at 74-76. If the house gets up in the eighties or so and stays that way, will I have poached cichlids?

Thanks!

Tavel

keeping a tank cool is easier than warming it because it can be done passively. Normally, you would open the lid and set a fan blowing accross the top...but that won't work without power. The alternative is to drape some towels or cloths over the edge, with the ends sitting in the water. it should be good for 5 degrees below ambient.

Either way uses evaporative cooling to get the water below ambient temperature.

Dino

Water heats slower than air.
There are some days that the air in the fishhouse gets in the upper 90's, but it is rare for the tank water to get above 82.
Any type of cross breeze( open windows or doors) will cool the tank water.

MousePotato

Thanks for the tips, guys. We don't get much breeze down here (except those seasonal ones above 60 mph), but I'll bet I could manage with a combination of techniques. I feel better already having some sort of plan. I never used to worry because my tank was at my office and that building had priority over residences when it came to restoring power, but I am changing jobs, so the aquarium came home last weekend. Then Dolly came through a few days ago and I went "Uh-oh! What if it had come here? My babies!!!"

MousePotato

Thanks again, everyone, for your advice. It looks like it may have come just in time as we are expecting landfall of a tropical storm, or possibly a hurricane in the next twelve hours. It doesn't look as bad as Allison (thank goodness - that was one miserable storm!), but I must be prepared to lose power. Hopefully, all will go well.

COBettaCouple

Good luck and I hope that if the power goes out, it doesn't take long to be restored.

MousePotato

Thanks. I think we'll be okay. Edouard came ashore this morning as a strong tropical storm (65 mph winds) and nothing more. We're almost to the eye in my area of town and the power hasn't so much as flickered. Granted we still have the "dirty" side of the storm to go, but it doesn't look like much more than a big summer shower giving us some desperately needed rain. This is no Allison!

At least I got a day off work (even though I was on a boring conference call this morning).

Shawnie

my biggest fears, and it happened sat nite, is when it goes out while asleep, the water drains from my filters, and the filters run waterless unless I get to catch it in time after power comes on...

MousePotato

Yikes! That is a scary thought. Fortunately, every time our power comes back on, so does every piece of electronic equipment! That means the TV, DVD player, CD changer, etc.. It's hard to sleep through that racket.

Shawnie

LOL thats what I said to my bf...next time we are turning everything up so loud that when it does come back on, we get up immediately and fill the filters with water!

ER9

yes much thanks to everyone for the great info in this post. its something we never think about until it happens but by then it could be too late. great info here to keep out fish alive in an emergency.

mrsmuffin

I lost a filter for that very reason about a month ago. The power had gone off while we were at work, so I wasn't even there to try to catch it...