Power outage. Will my fish be okay?

[puffer-face]

Hello!

I’m panicking a bit and my anxiety causes me to go into worst case scenario thinking. I’m not home right now, no one is and won’t be for about 3 hours, and there’s a power outage -planned by the city but not announced to the residents. I have a 120 gallon tank with live rocks, a tang, and a dog faced puffer. I don’t have a battery operated pump. I plan to dip a cup into the tank and pour the tank water back in to encourage some oxygenation. Thankfully where I live the high is 71 right now so the temperature isn’t what I’m worried about. I’m worried about the oxygen and filter (though less so than the oxygen) would my fish be fine until I get back?

 

[Dragen Fiend]

Seeing the tank is 120G and your only livestock is two fish. You should be fine until getting home. Highly recommend investing in a backup solution. $100 can buy you time for events such as these.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Hello!

I’m panicking a bit and my anxiety causes me to go into worst case scenario thinking. I’m not home right now, no one is and won’t be for about 3 hours, and there’s a power outage -planned by the city but not announced to the residents. I have a 120 gallon tank with live rocks, a tang, and a dog faced puffer. I don’t have a battery operated pump. I plan to dip a cup into the tank and pour the tank water back in to encourage some oxygenation. Thankfully where I live the high is 71 right now so the temperature isn’t what I’m worried about. I’m worried about the oxygen and filter (though less so than the oxygen) would my fish be fine until I get back?

Get a couple battery air pumps with some air stones. THis will go a long way. A generator is even better. When you have a reef tank, you need to be prepared for things like this. I actually had a whole home generator installed because of my tank. THat's extreme I know, but it's good for the entire house. so.... a win win! When I set up my first ever saltwater tank about 20 years ago, I used a car battery with a small inverter, and had which things I would want to run off the inverter labeled as such, so it was an easy to switch thing.

 

[vlangel]

If there is a bait shop nearby, pick up a battery pump that runs on 2 D batteries. They are cheap and will run continuously for 4 days. On Amazon you can buy an auto battery pump that uses D batteries. It has a plug so senses when the electricity goes off. They are made by Penn Plax and very reasonably priced.