Help! Power outage issues on vacation!

[Sugars1313]

So my wife and I are visiting family for Christmas and I got a voltage warning on my apex power strip and it's says 0v going through all the outlets. I called the house sitter and she told me the tank was off and not moving. So I got her to plug in a different power strip and just turn on the heaters and wave makers for the night.

We will be gone untill the night of December 24. The tank is a 210g with mostly fish and a few leathers. If the leathers die I'm not all that worried I can just frag more from my other tank. I'm wondering if just the power heads and the heaters,in the display, are enough to let the fish survive for 4 days?

I could have her plug in the return pump as well to help with oxygen but I'm not sure the ATO is working. The display tank has lids but the sump does not so I'm not sure how long it will take before evaporation becomes a problem for the return pump? Also I have a 3rd heater in the sump which I don't need to have on but if I don't it means the display heaters are going to be working double time.

Lights are also off but I'm not sure they are needed over the next 4 days? Anything else I should plug in or ask the sitter to do (within reason, she doesn't know much about fish tanks)?

Thanks for the help!

 

[mfinn]

If you can get the tank sitter to have the wavemaker, heater and return pump working it should be good until you get home. If it's possible have the tank sitter plug in the ato. If not do a manual top off every other day.

 

[malacoda]

Heat and oxygen are your two main concerns.

IMHO, return does a LOT more for oxygenation than DT powerheads (with skimmer being next)...

The skimming action of the OF, trickling thru the pipes, and turbulence of water entering the sump will dissolve a lot more O2 into the water than just ripples on top of the DT from powerheads.

As for evaporation — have the house sitter use a piece of tape or a sharpie or something to mark the current water level in the return chamber. Then she can just use a cup or bowl or something manually top off once or twice a day.

Lights — you'll probably be fine without them for 4 days. Might be worth running them a little lower than usual for a day or two after you get back rather than jumping right back to your full schedule ... but probably not 100% necessary.

As for the 3rd heater — if she already plugged all 3 into the new powerstrip, I see no reason not to just keep it that way.