Hurricane Due - What Do I Do With My Fish?!

URGENT: Okay there is a BFT force 10/11 storm due to hit Saltwater Ireland with wind forecasts predicting 90km/h base winds and gusts of up to 180km/h and because of where I live, that more than likely means POWER CUT. It could be a couple of hours, but it could also be a couple of days (3-5). I DON'T have any kind of back up power supply or generator, and I have 2 tropical tanks that I'm worried about.

I have one 5G with a betta, heater and filter, planted with good lights and ada aquasoil - if the power goes, my first plan is to insulate his tank with some blankets of some sort. For the plants, they'll have to suffer.

The second tank is a 50G community with endlers, a disabled guppy, kuhlis, cherry barbs, amano and bamboo shrimp, CPDs and otocinclus. Its fully planted too, has a sponge filter, juwel ecoflow500 and a heater. If the power goes I'll try my best to insulate it with blankets. (I just realised. Without the kettle - I have no hot water for them :'( )But this is me pulling at strings here. Our water may also go, so I'm doing larger waterchanges than usual tomorrow. Both tanks are well established, with regular water parameters.

Is there anything else I could do? I really need your advice guys - In all my years alive I've never experienced a Hurricame and I'm quite worried. Whats the best plan of action if we loose power for my fish?? Thank you so much - all info is greatly appreciated!!

 

Do a search on here for hurricane Irma, tons of tips on readiness kits and supplies...

More then anything if you are under evacuation be sure to evacuate, don't stay for the tanks... unfortunately, livestock is replaceable, you are not....

 

I keep oxygen tablets handy for power outages. The kind fishermen use in their minnow buckets.

 

Just went through Irma myself... here's a thread about steps people took to prepare.

Question - Preparing Tank For Hurricane Irma

I lost power for about 5 days. My Freshwater tanks were fine with very light feeding, daily doses of Prime and using a whisk to 'stir' the tank fairly often. It's warm here though, and all my tanks went UP in temp to about 83°F. I also have a Saltwater tank with fish and corals that surely would have died without light and flow. I couldn't run the light, but luckily have lots of windows so sunlight helped. For the flow, we used a car battery with an inverter we could plug a pump into. When I came home after the storm, the power had been out for 24 hours... I thought the reef tank would die. It stank! Corals were looking crazy too. After letting sunlight in and getting the pump running, things settled and everything is still doing great now.

I tell you all that to show that we were unprepared and made it work. Hoping for the best for you!

 

Thank you all for your replies! The hurricane has been upgraded to a category 3, and is above a bft scale force 12. Wind estimates are ranging from a mean wind of 90-130km/h, and gusts of 120-190km/h. My family and I have been keeping a very close eye on the weather, woth modles being updated almost every few mins. Schools are closing and public transport is cancelling its routes through effected areas for monday. Unfortunatley where I live is supposed to be hit hardest. We live in an estate on a hill, flooding shouldnt be a problem but weve stocked up on batteries, fire supplies, bottled water and non perishable food. My brother is severely disabled so I'm really hoping its not that bad. We've stocked up on his medication too. Before the storm hits we're planning to boil as much water as we can possibly hold incase the power and water goes. I just finished cleaning my tanks, and have stuff to insulate them at the ready. Hopefully power won't be gone for more than a few days. Thank you all for your replies. (Is it okay to say I'm kind of excited for my first hurricane?)

 

If evacuation is advised (which I don't think it will) we are ready to drop everything and go. We have a dog, cat, and many fish. The dog can travel in the car, hes a toy breed anyways, and the cat can more than happily spend a few days by himself. He'll have a few litter trays ready, enough food for a week and enough water too. The fish will have to fend for thenselves.

Whats weird is the hurricane. Ophelia formed very low in the Atlantic basin, usually an area where storms don't form ans survive. The second weird thing is that it didn't turn went to the Americas - its travelling east and is instead of getting weaker, is getting stronger. :/

 

From someone who lives in an area that is sometimes called Hurricane Alley, I am astounded that this storm is heading your way while retaining the strength to still be called a hurricane. I am glad to hear that you guys are well prepared, as well as prepared to evacuate if necessary. Based on the forecast I see....

(Is it okay to say I'm kind of excited for my first hurricane?)

Totally! Looks like it's going to be a category 1 when it hits the coast of Ireland. We'd be boarding up the windows and having a party. Well, kind of... usually once all the prep work is done, we get together with family and have a big cook out and play games. Everyone is trying to use up refrigerator/freezer food before it goes bad from a power outage. Just make sure you're back home before the wind starts.

I'm hoping that Ophelia won't cause very much damage over there. In my mind, she's weak, but that may be because we're kind of used to this stuff. You and your area are in my thoughts!

 

From someone who lives in an area that is sometimes called Hurricane Alley, I am astounded that this storm is heading your way while retaining the strength to still be called a hurricane. I am glad to hear that you guys are well prepared, as well as prepared to evacuate if necessary. Based on the forecast I see....



Totally! Looks like it's going to be a category 1 when it hits the coast of Ireland. We'd be boarding up the windows and having a party. Well, kind of... usually once all the prep work is done, we get together with family and have a big cook out and play games. Everyone is trying to use up refrigerator/freezer food before it goes bad from a power outage. Just make sure you're back home before the wind starts.

I'm hoping that Ophelia won't cause very much damage over there. In my mind, she's weak, but that may be because we're kind of used to this stuff. You and your area are in my thoughts!

Thank you so much Stella! Yeah I'm following the updates very closely... hopefully she looses strength before hitting us - our national news station made a hames of the forecast tonight on the news (lol) and all the weather nerds are buzzing with excitement. I'll give an update on what its like when it hits

I've never had to board up windows though yikes. Dad and I brought everything outside that could move with the wind (including a punt boat) into the garage. My neighbours have some large trees in their garden - that's a bit of a concern.

I suppose I'm a little bit of a weather nerd too hehehe ^_^ being a sailing instructor makes the wind something of intrest to me. I hope now that it veers off course or dies down a little before ophelia hits!

 

I've been a bit of a weather nerd myself, especially when I worked for a business that took people out diving and snorkeling. It was part of my job to know the daily forecast, winds, tides and underwater visibility. It is interesting stuff.

I wonder when the last time Ireland had to deal with a hurricane was? I'm not sure I'm finding the most accurate information on this storm. Do you know the ocean temperature near you? Do you expect Ophelia to make landfall the day after tomorrow?

 

Wow interesting to see Ireland to be excepting a hurricane.

I had to prep for Irma recently and while I have a 4-5yr old 55 gallon I didn’t worry about it at all. A power outage isn’t the end all for a planted tank most fish would be able to feed for 1-2 weeks on the bio film on the plants/glass.

If you have water but lose power you could do a water change every couple days to keep it fresh. Blankets around tanks might insulate pretty good.

Hope everything goes well for you guys/gals over in Ireland.

 

I've been a bit of a weather nerd myself, especially when I worked for a business that took people out diving and snorkeling. It was part of my job to know the daily forecast, winds, tides and underwater visibility. It is interesting stuff.

I wonder when the last time Ireland had to deal with a hurricane was? I'm not sure I'm finding the most accurate information on this storm. Do you know the ocean temperature near you? Do you expect Ophelia to make landfall the day after tomorrow?

The last hurricane to stike Ireland was hurricane Debbie, back in 1961. Ophelia is already expected to be much worse than Debbie, and the storm of 1912. As a relitavley small island country, our media isn't taking this very seriously. The American media is doing a better job (lol). Theres a press confrence being held now by the government. I've been warning family, friends and neighbours all morning, and checking the old folks in our neighbourhood will have sufficient supplies. The coastal Saltwater is preparing for flooding with sandbags - that totally helped stop the last bout of bad flooding we got (-_-).

Ophelia is supposed to make landfall some time tonight/early morning. And the ocean is warmer than usual which I guess isn't good either.

Tonight we'll fill the bath with water just incase the water goes.

(I'm actually getting very excited now!)

Wow interesting to see Ireland to be excepting a hurricane.

I had to prep for Irma recently and while I have a 4-5yr old 55 gallon I didn’t worry about it at all. A power outage isn’t the end all for a planted tank most fish would be able to feed for 1-2 weeks on the bio film on the plants/glass.

If you have water but lose power you could do a water change every couple days to keep it fresh. Blankets around tanks might insulate pretty good.

Hope everything goes well for you guys/gals over in Ireland.

Thank you for the advice The main tank has lived without lights for a few days before, and both can stretch to three weeks without a waterchange if I really need it. I suppose its temerature I'm really worried about

 

Its almost 11am here, and the eye is due to be over my county by 2pm. She hasnt made landfall yet, winds are going from the Saltwater then backing NW which isn't a good recipe with trees. 5,000 people without power already. Woke up this morning to a very ominous, completley orange sky. Our head of government (Taoiseach) is adressing us now. All schools, colleges, civil services, government departments are all closed. Three of my neighbours trees have fallen and my other neighbours have two massive trees so that's worrying. Scary but exciting!!

Ophelia has now left 22,000 people without power and defence forces are bring sent out to help people when the flooding hits. (Keeping in mind we have a population of about 4.6 million)

 

Oh god, I'm up in Dublin. I hope you're alright.

 

Oh god, I'm up in Dublin. I hope you're alright.

150,000 without power now - eye is due to be over clare by 2pm. My neighbours big tree is swaying ominously...

 

My local news and the NHC has stopped reporting on Ophelia.... Last I heard she's a Tropical Storm, but still carries the possibility of hurricane force wind gusts.

Top heavy trees that have not been trimmed recently are the most dangerous. In my area during Irma, lots of trees went down, and there is an absolutely huge one just outside my bedroom window. That tree is a big reason why we did not stay in our home during Irma, but we did stay in town. The next day, driving home was very scary because I saw trees down everywhere. I was terrified at what we might find at home, but all was ok! My giant ficus tree is still standing. Why you may ask... because it is near enough to power lines that it is regularly trimmed by the power company. In my area it is highly recommended that all trees get trimmed just before storm season every year, and this is why.

BlackNotebookTanks - I'm assuming since you've checked in that you still have power. Is that right? I hope your brother is doing alright during this scary & exciting time. Do you have a battery powered radio so you may listen to news in case your power goes out?

OK, so my national news just did an update... looks like you're getting winds of up to 96mph, though I don't think that is constant. Key words that stick out to me are 'up to', since the media is known to dramatize things. Either way, that's nothing to sneeze at. Please check in when you can OP... You've got someone across the Atlantic thinking of you!

 

The sky is strange here today, like twighlight hour but it's been all day and the sun looks off, everyone is looking up at it.

 

Hoping for all in Ireland to be safe!

 

View attachment 366439 The sky is strange here today, like twighlight hour but it's been all day and the sun looks off, everyone is looking up at it.

Grant Does the sky look ominous to you too? We will often get up to a week of 'strange' weather when a big storm is nearby. It's usually a relief to have the breeze and clouds in the hot & humid storm season here.

 

Checking in! The power keeps flickering and the light is gone on my nano tank. One of my neighbours massive oaks is after blowing over, thankfully into the farmers field behind us. 230,000 people without power and 800+ power lines down so far.

Two people have been confirmed dead as a direct result of the storm. My thoughts a prayers go out to their families :'(

This morning a lot of the birds nesting in large nearby trees were blown assunder, some of them were caught in gusts and blown into solid objects :'(

The rooves have been blown entirely off a lot of schools and into peoples gardens. Our local Lidl has no roof anymore, neither does the Crescent shopping centre. Pretty much everyones polytunnels and greenhouses were blown away.

Ive wrapped up my fishtanks and stored a lot of hot water in flasks. We prepared food earlier for this evening as we definatley won't have power later on. We do have a lot of charged batteries and power banks and I'm posting from my phone here - I will update when I can. Good luck to everyone else in Eire and thank you for your support over west!

Grant Does the sky look ominous to you too? We will often get up to a week of 'strange' weather when a big storm is nearby. It's usually a relief to have the breeze and clouds in the hot & humid storm season here.

Yeah the sky looked very strange this morning. I woke up and it was totally orange. Very ominous

A lot of very very dumb people have been spotted SWIMMING off the west coast at Salthill. Its an INSULT to the people who are in life threatening situations in the south west. Wow. I'm shocked people are still walking the promenade in Salthill and even SWIMMING. Wow....

360,000 without power. I'm shocked we still have power lol. Flooding has begun in the costal counties

 

Oddly enough there’s always those stupid people. During hurricane Irma in west palm someone decided to ride the storm out on his sailboat in the inter coastal. Mid storm in 70mph wind he decided to leave his sailboat in full scuba gear and swim to shore. All in all doning his scuba gear might have saved his life.

 

Oddly enough there’s always those stupid people. During hurricane Irma in west palm someone decided to ride the storm out on his sailboat in the inter coastal. Mid storm in 70mph wind he decided to leave his sailboat in full scuba gear and swim to shore. All in all doning his scuba gear might have saved his life.

Some people are just illogical jeez...

 

Keep us posted!

 

Oh my, I am so very sorry to hear that roofs are being blown off! That is exactly what I fear the most.... roofs that are not built for wind like that just can't take it. My heart really goes out to the people who have lost someone, lost their homes, as well as everybody there, who are likely feeling the nail-biting fear that a major storm can bring.

You know what's crazy to me? That you can report on damage that you see outside! I'm imagining that you can still see through the windows, which isn't the case when we expect a storm here, because the are covered in steel or wood. When the storm starts to abate, but while it's still a little windy, we get outside to take shutters off so we can open the windows. Power is out, and it's hot in that sealed up house!

People at the beach... it happens every time! It is an insult to those who are suffering, not to mention dangerous.

As far as power... in my experience your power may not even go out, or perhaps for only a short time. It's all about location. Some lines may be buried, and certain grids are just stronger. With Irma a few weeks ago, I lost power for almost a week, while a family member 10 minutes away only lost it for a few hours. She is in a neighborhood near our local hospital. You may get lucky!

Thank you so much for checking in BlackNotebookTanks Good luck, and keep us posted when you can.

 

Just heard another person has lost their life that makes three fatalities. Again, someone out driving and a tree fell and bang...

The Ex-Hurricane Ophelia wasn't as bad as it could have been thank god, but it still did some damage. We as a country aren't very prepared for storms at all. Thankfully no-ones windows blew out though! It died down for a but where we are, but now its started sheet raining and there's a thick fog/cloud cover after rolling in. Spooky stuff...

 

Just heard another person has lost their life that makes three fatalities. Again, someone out driving and a tree fell and bang...

The Ex-Hurricane Ophelia wasn't as bad as it could have been thank god, but it still did some damage. We as a country aren't very prepared for storms at all. Thankfully no-ones windows blew out though! It died down for a but where we are, but now its started sheet raining and there's a thick fog/cloud cover after rolling in. Spooky stuff...

Stay safe! My thoughts are with you and all affected. Keep us posted.

 

I believe its finally passed us! I can't wait to see the village tomorrow. Yikes - the amount of trees and power lines down! Other than some messy gardens and broken flower pots, our neighbours seem alright too.
This is one of the roof-less schools:

And this is the roof in someones garden!


Theres a video of one of the rooves flying off but I don't think I can post it here. The emergency services really had a run of it with people totally ignoring warnings.

 

Wow! People really need to respect nature. It is more powerful than we realize until is upon us. Glad you are safe.

 

I was in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 05, worst three weeks of my life.

 

I was in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 05, worst three weeks of my life.

Oh god that must have been terrifying!

In Ireland we're not used to any out of the ordinary weather at all.

 

Oh god that must have been terrifying!

In Ireland we're not used to any out of the ordinary weather at all.

Yeah it was not a good upcoming. Two floors of my apartment building were underwater. My neighbors had to stay with me for 6 weeks.

 

Yeah the sky looked very strange this morning. I woke up and it was totally orange. Very ominous

Not sure if you know this already, but the orange color to the sky is due to the hurricane winds blowing up dust from the Sahara desert, the way it is then reflected causes the orange/red colors in the sky.

 

Penn plex battery operated air pumps saved my tanks when Irma hit Florida and we lost power. Great investment for any outage. Don't forget to get plenty of d batteries too

 

Yeah it was not a good upcoming. Two floors of my apartment building were underwater. My neighbors had to stay with me for 6 weeks.

Oh my god that's horrible! Thank god you were alright!

Not sure if you know this already, but the orange color to the sky is due to the hurricane winds blowing up dust from the Sahara desert, the way it is then reflected causes the orange/red colors in the sky.

I remember hearing that off someone the past few days but it totally left my head! Thank you so much for explaining That's incredible that dust all the way from the sahara was blown up here!!

Penn plex battery operated air pumps saved my tanks when Irma hit Florida and we lost power. Great investment for any outage. Don't forget to get plenty of d batteries too

I didn't even know those existed! Thank you for putting them on my radar ^_^

 

My husband and I both went through Andrew when we were kids, then recently Irma and other small ones in between... Wilma and Georges come to mind. It's the tornadoes in these things that usually scare me the most. The town I currently live in was almost completely destroyed by Andrew in 1992, some say that the wind was close to 200mph when the instruments used to measure it were blown away.

I am very grateful that I haven't experienced major flooding like Katrina caused in Louisiana and Irma just did in the FL Keys. Unlike the water from Katrina, the floods in the Keys receded pretty quickly. Still, it gave us a taste of what the ocean flowing through a room can do. My parents live there, in a house on stilts with a downstairs utility room. So, while the living quarters are on the 2nd floor, that downstairs room took about 12 feet of storm surge. Large appliances that were in the downstairs room were shoved all around from the storm surge moving through it. It's a narrow island with the Atlantic on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other, so even for the houses on stilts, the ocean nearly came in the front door.

The aftermath of these things is certainly no picnic. I hope that your family and your town can get things back to normal in short order. Did your power stay on? Do you know if any power remains in your area's shopping centers and gas stations? Usually for us, the day after starts with a hunt for ice so we can keep some fresh food, so as to not have to eat too many packaged foods like Ramen and Campbell's soups. Having a gas stove or propane for a grill is nice too.

 

I remember hearing that off someone the past few days but it totally left my head! Thank you so much for explaining That's incredible that dust all the way from the sahara was blown up here!!

I didn't even know those existed! Thank you for putting them on my radar ^_^

One of them is so nifty...you plug it in and when it detects the power is out it will automatically start up..prayers to you and your family and fin family hope you fare well and it isn't a bad hit and the power resumes as soon as possible. Much love from Tampa, Florida!