power outages and our tanks

[adhd]

so im sitting here writing this by candle light on my phone bored out of my mind. our power went out just before 1030.. this is actually the longest its been out sense weve lived in this house.

so anyway as im scrambling to find a book to entertain myself with I walked past my tanked and thought.. OH SNAP!

I relize 45 minutes to an hour shouldn't hurt anything but aT what point should I start to worry? im sure the tank will do fine without any water movemnt or filtration and I don't think it'll get to cold as our ac is off haha.

but is there anything I should do to it now, or once the powers backon.

ps.. sorry for any typos, no spell check on my phones web browser.

[cmeek]

I don't have a good answer but I would assume it's ok for an hour or two at least. I've always wondered exactle how long ''too long'' is too.

[jwestwood]

Aside from a generator (which is a GREAT thing to have), I would recommend an automatic battery operated pump. The Penn-Plax Silent Air is an inexpensive, effective, pump that I use on my reef tank (I actually have two). Its just a simple battery air pump with one really cool feature: it automatically turns on when the AC power goes out!

This is my best bet for powering your tank when you're away (minus the Vortech battery back up)

[nubaquaman]

a computer battery backup works as well

[cmeek]

I've actually thought about the compter battery back up before but wasn't sure how well it would work.

[nubaquaman]

well think about if it can run a computer for 1hr+ a hour for the cheap ones. it could run a heater and powerhead for a while never seen how long yet it last for at least 1hr before. i soaked it with water so it doesn't work so well now but it did great while i had it. i think next time getting a bigger one and putting it on a shelf.

[adhd]

A computer battery back up is a good idea. My 10g would probably last quite a while on one of those with only 50w heater and I’m pretty sure my Koralia nanos only draw like 4w's each as well.

BTW, The power was out for just short of 6 hours last night, and finally came back on just after 330. I checked out my tank this morning and everything looked fine.

[cmeek]

good I'm glad you didn't have any problems.

[in2cichilds]

I have just got my battery backup last week.so I had to give it a try,basically I went around to all six of my tanks and plugged in the power strips and ran each one for 20 minutes just to see if I could, and it worked. But I didn't run any of my really big canister filters while doing that. I am so stoked I got one of them.

[harry-garry]

We have a generator we hook up and I can run my entire set up but usually kill the lights just for less draw on it.