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Hey reefers! Today marks 1 day after power was restored. I waited to post this just incase something else bad happened. On Friday my my small city in Missouri had a bad snow storm come through. Adding 14 inches of snow over night. Around noon on Saturday the electricity went out, effecting over 100,000 homes and buisnesses. At first I thought it was a short outage but after 4 hours, I began to worry. My biggest worry was my 30 gallon tank.
Please ignore the dirty glass and the cyano. This was my most recent picture of the tank from maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago.
My other worry was my 14g freshwater tank.
Sometimes we think we have covered all aspects of what could go wrong during emergencies but is it enough?
My 30g has a 900w APC brand UPS connected to it. Its my battery backup if power is out. I have a 30w return pump and a 30w jebao pp-4 for circulation. Since it was cold in the house I intermittently used my 150w Finnex heater. This allowed my tank 5.5 hours of run time without lights.
Unfortunately, the power outage lasted 24 hours in total. The ambient temp in the house fell to 51 degs. On Saturday after the UPS ran out of juice, it was up to me to keep the tank going. I don't want to get into the other issues involved with being snowed in. One being food for myself. Apparently, my disgust for junk food nipped me in the butt as without power, I can't cook anything. All I had was hot water provided by a gas powered water heater. No fireplace, no wood stove. I had to make a trip to the grocery store by foot. Luckily only 3 blocks away.
Anyway, back to the tanks. So, how did I keep my 30g going? I used water bottles that I filled with hot, skin burning, water. I worked tirelessly in the dark with only a few candles lit, switching out and filling bottles every 30 minutes. I would then circulate the water with a ladle. Around 9pm that evening, i accidentally fell asleep. I didn't wake up until 8am the next day. That was nearly 12 hours later. I woke up crying think it would be impossible for any life in the tank to survive. Regardless, and before looking in the tank, I filled water bottles. I switched them out every 10 minutes. Then every 30 minutes. The thermometer was reading 56 degs. The fish laying on the sand started moving after 40 minutes of changing bottles out. I couldn't believe it.
It's Monday now and all 7 of my fish are accounted for. 12 hours of stagnant cold water and these little guys are back to normal. My coral appear alive as well. I still can't believe how everything pulled through. Anyway, thats my little 24 hours of mental torcher.
Please ignore the dirty glass and the cyano. This was my most recent picture of the tank from maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago.
My other worry was my 14g freshwater tank.
Sometimes we think we have covered all aspects of what could go wrong during emergencies but is it enough?
My 30g has a 900w APC brand UPS connected to it. Its my battery backup if power is out. I have a 30w return pump and a 30w jebao pp-4 for circulation. Since it was cold in the house I intermittently used my 150w Finnex heater. This allowed my tank 5.5 hours of run time without lights.
Unfortunately, the power outage lasted 24 hours in total. The ambient temp in the house fell to 51 degs. On Saturday after the UPS ran out of juice, it was up to me to keep the tank going. I don't want to get into the other issues involved with being snowed in. One being food for myself. Apparently, my disgust for junk food nipped me in the butt as without power, I can't cook anything. All I had was hot water provided by a gas powered water heater. No fireplace, no wood stove. I had to make a trip to the grocery store by foot. Luckily only 3 blocks away.
Anyway, back to the tanks. So, how did I keep my 30g going? I used water bottles that I filled with hot, skin burning, water. I worked tirelessly in the dark with only a few candles lit, switching out and filling bottles every 30 minutes. I would then circulate the water with a ladle. Around 9pm that evening, i accidentally fell asleep. I didn't wake up until 8am the next day. That was nearly 12 hours later. I woke up crying think it would be impossible for any life in the tank to survive. Regardless, and before looking in the tank, I filled water bottles. I switched them out every 10 minutes. Then every 30 minutes. The thermometer was reading 56 degs. The fish laying on the sand started moving after 40 minutes of changing bottles out. I couldn't believe it.
It's Monday now and all 7 of my fish are accounted for. 12 hours of stagnant cold water and these little guys are back to normal. My coral appear alive as well. I still can't believe how everything pulled through. Anyway, thats my little 24 hours of mental torcher.
