Winter Emergencies

[mrmoby]

I have a question for those of you who live in cold climates. Has anyone one experienced a long term winter power outage? I have one 55, soon to be two. Here in Maine it gets cold in winter, and there have been storms that have knocked out electricity for days. If I lose electricity, I lose everything, heat, water, etc. . Has anyone had to deal with this? What did you do? My main concern would be keeping the tank temperature up. Any thoughts?

[maxpayne_lhp]

Never deal with this, Im not in cold climate. But for this is emergency. I don't know, I was once told that mix the water with hot water (careful this may be dangerous) slowly in case your heater is useless. But, we should try waiting other guys come up with ideas, I'm not sure on this,

[maire]

My Mom and Dad had fish tanks while I was growing up. They lived on the western PA-NY border.
They used to keep the 2 litter pepsi bottles and put hot water in them to regulate the temperature if power went out. Since Mom stayed at home (with 7+ - kids) she could watch it closely...and often had help with it (one in timeout chair! )

Later when Dad finally retired he bought a generator and set it up for them.

I used the water bottles this winter during the three power outs we had in the same week and was ok. had to watch closely...checked throughout the night...I also covered the tanks with quilt/afghan to help retain heat for longer periods of time.

Good Luck and may you not loose power

[Damon]

A battery backup works well. If all you run on it is the heater, it should last for awhile depending on the size you get.

[maxpayne_lhp]

Hmm.. sounds inconvinient! Hot water come from boil water is always avaible. However, is the hot water manner safe?

[shev]

Yes it gets cold here, and i have had a few power outages. 6 people a year, on average, crash right in front of our house, and there is a powerline that keeps getting knocked down. Last week it was around -45 and i think i killed my heater, it was 250W in a 55 gallon tank. was on all the time i think it burned out, or wasnt strong enough to heat my tank so i ordered a new heater off the net. the biggest heater at my lfs was a 150W, my 250W couldnt keep it up to 70 degrees, which is really cold, so i put a blanket over the tank, heated water, siphoned it under my filter intake tube, and once a long time ago, i had to take one of those mini bbq gas powered grills, put a metal bucket on it, and siphon water into the bucket from the tank, and have a pump run water back up into my tank and under the filter intake tube from the bucket. but that was when it got really cold out. we also have a wood stove, and generally dont heat our house with anything else.

[mrmoby]

Simpte, when you speak of battery power, are you talking car battery?

[scuba_steve]

battery backup is a great thing to have, you can run off car batteries or a (homemade if you must) generator. you need to convert the power to ac first though unless you have a heater and air pump that will run off dc. i recommend having a sponge filter and an air pump along with your heater because this will keep your bacterial colony going. but just so you know converted dc to ac current is not good for the motor in your air pump, dont know the specifics on this, so it is better if you are using a spare air pump or even better a pump made to run off dc. you can get them on ebay cheap!

[mrmoby]

A buddy of mine is a solar freak. He plays around with batteries and inverters and such. Thanks foir everyones responses, I haven't had a long term outage here yet, and am really hoping I don't ever have to deal with it, but this is Maine!

[mrmoby]

A buddy of mine is a solar freak. He plays around with batteries and inverters and such. Thanks foir everyones responses, I haven't had a long term outage here yet, and am really hoping I don't ever have to deal with it, but this is Maine!

[scuba_steve]

good that you are thinking about this BEFORE it happens and is to late. that is very responsible, and your fish will thank you when it does happen! a karma point for you!

[mousey]

This using hot water is assuming the water heater water stays hot!
I read where you can put the fish in a bucket and stand it near a gas fireplace. There is always a bit of heat coming out from the pilot lite. you can also wrap blankets around the tank if it is located well. I know what you mean--I live up in Ontario and we almost always have a blackout of some kind in the winter.
mouse