Battery Powered Heater

[graceful.04]

I'm currently living on Long Island and during hurricane Sandy I, like most people, had power outages. Luckily, the longest spell of no electricity I had was a little over an hour so my fish were ok, but I was wondering about battery powered heaters because not only do I need to transport my fish soon, but I want to be prepared incase, for some reason, I loose power again because I know that a lot of people lost their fish due to this. Does anyone know of good ones for 5, 10, and 20 gallon tanks?

Thanks!
Grace

I've been seriously looking around and this is the only website I could find
http://heatal.com/fish/fish_tank_bowl_heater.html

[lohachata]

forget the battery powered heater....if you plan on setting up a fishroom the first thing i suggest that you get is a generator....get one big enough so it can run the fishroom and a bit more.....if you lose electric you might still have hot water...fill jugs and bottles with hot water and float them in the tanks...
and always make sure you have a quart or 2 of hydrogen peroxide handy if you lose power...you can at least keep your tanks aerated that way..

[graceful.04]

Ok, I'll take your advice on that. This may sound stupid, but how can hydrogen peroxide help with aeration?

[emc7]

H2O2 add oxygen to the water.Oxygen is the point of aeration. I have never seen a battery powered aquarium heater, but you might check bait / fishing places like bass pro shops, I got my battery powered air pumps there. For transport you use chemically powered heat packs. You can buy 12, 24, 72 hour etc. The are like the "hand warmers" you get from the ski shop, but last longer. You tape them to the lid of the styro to warm the air over the fish. Look on aquabid for small quantities. In a pinch, I bet you could use these in an emergency. Bag the fish singly with an anti-ammonia product, put them in your cooler (get another one for the sfuff in your freezer) with heat packs. Then you are ready to evacuate. Now you only need transport and somewhere to go.

[graceful.04]

Wow, thats genius. Do you know the proportions of hydrogen peroxide to water that are good for aeration? And would you suggest something like prime as a good anti-ammonia product?

[Vayurules]

Originally Posted by lohachata forget the battery powered heater....if you plan on setting up a fishroom the first thing i suggest that you get is a generator....get one big enough so it can run the fishroom and a bit more.....

No offense Loha, but not all of us have gobs of money to spend on generators. Is there any cheaper alternative?

[lohachata]

i have not ever heard of a battery powered heater either....that is why i suggested bottles and jugs of hot water for keeping the temps up...
well vayu ; i don't have money either...and unfortunately nor do i have a generator...
but i do keep empty jugs handy as well as a couple of quarts of peroxide....
if you lose power watch your tank...when you see the fish approaching the surface like they are gasping for air add 3 drops of peroxide per gallon to the tank......stir it around a little...repeat as needed....

also...............penn-plax makes a great battery powered air pump that you plug into an outlet...get a box or sponge filer and hook it up to the pump..flip the switch on the pump so it stops running.......leave it that way....if the circuit loses power the pump will come on automatically....
i believe it is the Penn-Plax model B-11...........sells for about $15.00 at pet mountain..
it runs on 2 of the big "D" cell batteries and will run for about 48 hurs or so on 1 set..
you could probably run 2 filters on one pump if you use a gang valve....


GRACE...................3 drops per gallon when needed.

[graceful.04]

I actually have one battery powered air pump, a marina brand that also takes two D batteries. It works very well. I do however have a penn-plax sponge filter that I got for my guppy fry and it also works well. With all this great information my fish could survive just about anything!

[Vayurules]

Your very right Loha, most of us have no money at all. But this Hydrogen Peroxide trick is interesting. I'll have to keep it in mind when I move out. (parents have an emergency generator)

[emc7]

When I ship, I fill a bucket of clean water with a double dose of Prime and bag them in all clean water. Other people use "bag buddies" or other products that are supposed to last longer. If you rebag the fish every day, dechlor is fine. But if you use breathable bags and a longer-term anti-ammonia (and/or fast the fish a week before bagging), small fish can last a week or 10 days. If I only had one small tank, a "go bag" for/of fish would likely be my plan. You can stick fish in a plastic bin with a air-pump and sponge filter in a hotel bath room. Bag them in styros for travelling.

Peroxide, water bottles, water changes, kerosene space heater and the like all work if you are home with the fish. Being forced to leave w/o them is what killed most fish in Sandy. People came home to 40 degree water.

[kcrunch]

I read about the peroxide trick and was using it for a bit there and then things went left and I lost the fish not because of oxygen but the tank went toxic I think and left me with one fish, a Albino Cory. I named him the Trooper and he is still kicking and looking good. I have time to think to prevent and make a plan to avoid loss like I had with that damn Sandy.

[graceful.04]

What do you mean, were the ammonia levels toxic?

[kcrunch]

Originally Posted by graceful.04 What do you mean, were the ammonia levels toxic?

Yes basically what happened to sum it all up not even daily water changes were making a difference. My fish went from a 100g long to a 20g hospital tank/fry tank. There were just toooooo many fish in the tank and I was not able to save them, I saved an albino cory his name is trooper he is back in the main tank now. He has new tank mates. I was really loving the fish they all had what seemed to be individual personalities.