What do you do when the electric goes off?

[Welsh]

Last night the boiler tripped the house switch nobody noticed until 5am but thankfully all my fish are fine so my question is what do you all do in the winter when the thunder storms start and the electric can go off for what can be days? bettas aren't a problem as they can live without heat but what about other tropical fish, surely it will kill them.

[FloridaBettas239]

That is a very good question i just had my power go out for 5 1/2 hours last night anyway from having hurricans here i have a generator if the power is out to long i can fire it up also i bought a couple battery back ups like 75.00 each for my 55 gallon and 29 gallon and they store hours of power in them depends on how much you spend i think mine will go for 3 or 4 hours and they just plug into the wall and my pump also my filter is hooked to it so when the power goes out everything stays on besides the light because it will draw everything down to fast and its not important as a filter and in my betta breeding room i have emergency back up lights like in schools and hospitals so if one of my males are catching eggs and putting them back in the nest i dont want him to be without light and he could get upset and eat some or anything so them lights kick on and at least they can see until there foam filters kick back on and stuff

[Oldfishlady]

In the filter and media-after 6 hours of no oxygen the good bacteria start to die and can become toxic-the water in the filters need to be dumped out and cleaned and expect a mini-cycle and need of some daily water changes until things stabilize

During bad weather and the electric is out and it may be out for awhile-unplug everything-lights, filter, heaters etc....stop all feeding, in the winter you can cover the tank to try and hold in the heat the best you can, you can fill bottles with hot water and place in the tanks after you remove some water for the off set of the weight of the bottle

All you can do most of the time is hope and pray that they survive and the electric comes back on sooner than later.
Having the battery operated pumps are a great idea
I don't know about you but when my electric goes out I also don't have running water because I have a well......

The less disturbance the better in my experience and I have loss of electric at least two times a year from either tornado or ice storms and some last up to 10 days of no electric or water...so much fun......

[Narnian]

Sorry to hi-jack slightly, but what Oldfishlady said about having a battery-operated airpump is a great idea. This whole issue worried me as well.

Would you happen to have any recommendations on a good one to get? Thanks. :)

[Romad]

We just built a new house and spent 4k on a generator. I say it's for us but we all know it's for the fish in case we lose power this winter (which happens a lot here apparently).

I can't even imagine trying to heat up the tanks in the dead of winter for a few days or a week without one. NOT!!

[FloridaBettas239]

You would get the battery powered air pump at a fish or tackel store or something like that when people go fishing and the have a bucket full of shrimp the use a battery powered air pump to keep the water moving and stuff or you can get a battery back like i have it looks like a amp in a car for the stereo and it holds hours of running time depends on how much you spend is how long it will run or you can go get a 100 dollar genrrator that will run a frige and fish tank and a fan or get one like they said cost 4k that will kick on as soon as the power goes off it up to your budget

[wallywestisthebest333]

When I get back to school I'm gonna get with my professors to build a solar generator and a battery bank. =] I'll probably never lose power up there but in the off chance I do I wouldn't have to worry about genie and whatever tankmates he may or may not have in the future! =]

Plus if all else fails and you're out of school/ can't get to work and had to call in anyway you could always just pump air into the aquarium manually using a foot pump. if it's cold outside it might help keep you warm too. =]

Oh! If anyone can, invest in an oldtimey wood stove! =] We have one and when the power goes out in the winter we just fire it up and cover the doors to the colder parts of the house to trap the heat in the kitchen and the bedroom and restroom areas. =] Or we just go hang in the basement where it is. :laugh:. It's also good for cooking too since it's just like any stove eye. =] You can have soup and fried things to your hearts content. =] The only problem is we have no stairs to our basement. =/ we have to go outside, down the hill, behind the house and in through the only locked door! XD

[Welsh]

I like the foot pump idea haha I'm just crossing my fingers that this winter wont knock the electric off. When I was a kid it used to always be going off but its been pretty good the past couple of years and all our fish back in the day survived somehow lol. How long could a tropical fish go without oxygen anyway?