Tropical fish keepers

[GinaB]

Do you have some sort of back up for heaters/filters etc for if your electric goes out? We had horrendous weather a few weeks back and had no electric for nearly 48 hours. As a result all my beautiful fish died very distressed.
Currently, I am not planning on setting up another tank until I move house , but looking into how I can run the tank if the same happens again.

 

[catxx]

I don't have a back up, and am concious of this fact!

48 hours is a long time to go without power, you can buy battery powered air pumps which can help in the short term. OR you can buy those back up power transformer things that computer geeks use for similar situations! My dad used to have one, it was huge though.

In a case of emergency with no back up, your best bet is to wrap some blankets around the tank and cross your fingers. Most often its a sudden temperature drop that gets them.

If bad weather is forecast and you know your power is flakey, it may be worth filling a couple of buckets of dechlorinated water and keeping them in a warm area of the house, so in the case of a power outage you can still do a few small water changes to keep the oxygen levels in the tank up.

I also recommend not feeding in such cases too, to remove the risk of manky food causing poor water quality.

And the bacteria in the filter media can be damaged in such instances so once the power is back up and running, treat the tank carefully and limit feeding while the bacterial colony builds itself back up again.

 

[cloverleaf1985]

I bought a power pack from halfords for £99 but it was worth it to have the peace of mind that I could keep my filter running and wrap blankets round to keep the heat in.

 

[mandwhy]

Those power packs are mega useful, I saw them on offer in maplin, and they are obviously useful when your car battery dies too! And camping, so many things!

Sorry about your fish :-(