[freph]

Fun stuff. No power outside of Fayetteville...but cell service and 3G. I can live. Worried about the fish though. I couldn't find a battery operated air pump at petsmart...so how long will fish and filter bacteria generally be alright in case of a prolonged power outage?

 

[Alec]

I would like to know this as well! I live in Baltimore, thus i guarantee the power will go out

 

[scapegoat]

i know cichlids are more stout fish, but i left a tank at my parents house for weeks without a running filter while i was moving into my house. the three cichlids in it were just fine.

i think a couple days of no power will be fine for our tanks. with the lights out and co2 off we're not looking at algae issues and if you need to get some o2 into the water for the fish you could always manually disturb the water by mixing it.

i'm not too concerned, i have more important things to worry about than fish dying... like possible branches coming through windows, flooding, trees uprooting from the saturated ground and keeping my family safe. if all that happens is i lose my $75 worth of fish i'll consider myself lucky.

 

[chicken]

My "plan" is to just hope for the best. I figure I'll manually stir the water from time to time, and perhaps do some small water changes.

 

[joekidwell]

How big are the tanks....a tank that is longer than it is tall should be fine for a few days. Its all about surface area...more water exposed at he surface means more oxygen exchange will take place. I never use air pumps or let my filters disturbs the surface. It can be hard to just let it sit there if ur not used to it, u can always stir it up every half hour if need be.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Water changes is the key. Keep down toxic levels, aerates the water. Use cooler water which should slow fish down a little and also helps retain O2 levels in water column.

Fish can last a while though, especially in larger tanks. Lights off will keep fish somewhat dormant.

 

[2in10]

You can dip into the water and then pour it back in to stir up the water every once in a while.

 

[freph]

Luckily my power is currently on. I hope it'll last a while if not permanently. Fish seemed to be fine but the water did cloud slightly in my actual fish tank...the iwagumi tank and shrimp are doing just fine. Cloudy water reminds me though....I haven't done a WC on my fish tank in like 2 weeks haha.

 

[scubasmac]

Most wal-marts have battery operated air pumps in the fishing section designed to keep bait alive

 

[bsmith]

The bacteria in your filters will die off in a few hours due to o2 starvation but the bio filter inside the tank should be fine for quite some time.

 

[150EH]

My tank went 4 days during Isabel with no power, I never checked for ammonia spikes, etc., but I never lost any fish and life went on as normal, so..........

 

[redfishsc]

If you need help, post for help on www.carolinafishtalk.com

I'm up in Wake Forest which is too far to do much good but we definitely have some Fayetteville folks on there.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Water changes is the key. Keep down toxic levels, aerates the water. Use cooler water which should slow fish down a little and also helps retain O2 levels in water column.

Fish can last a while though, especially in larger tanks. Lights off will keep fish somewhat dormant.

Agreed.

Floating ice can help both keep the temps from spiking and keep a slight bit of current going, both of which can help with the O2 levels.

If you live near the coast pay attention to the water coming out of your tap, though- storm surge can sometimes contaminate the water supply.

Sending lots of prayers and thoughts hoping everyone stays safe (tanks, pets, and all!)

 

[Deahttub]

If you have a battery backup for your computer, use it for a filter a few hours at a time and you will have no issues....

 

[OverStocked]

Water changes is the key. Keep down toxic levels, aerates the water. Use cooler water which should slow fish down a little and also helps retain O2 levels in water column.

Fish can last a while though, especially in larger tanks. Lights off will keep fish somewhat dormant.

But if you don't have bottled water, I would not use the tap water during a hurricane if any sort of warning is in place about tap water.

 

[GDP]

My power in spring lake went out about 330pm yesterday and as of this morning 730am is still out. Hope my shrimp will be ok. They look okish I guess. Sucks that all my bacteria in my filter will die though.

 

[freph]

Yeesh. We were about for about a solid 12 hours (1am-1pm). Best of luck man.

 

[150EH]

3 days without power this time, but we had a gererator so we only suffered a 5 or 6 hours period without filters running. I continued to dose EI and with some new plants in the tank just on the day the storm hit so they must be sucking up some extra nutrients. I checked my nitrates vs nitrites and they were low and zero so all is well.

Gatekeeper & Scapegoat most likely got hit the worst by this storm, are you guys still out there???

 

[chicken]

We got off lightly --only lost power for about 30 hours. Tanks all made it through OK.