Good Morning.
Hope a lot of tanks and LFS have weathered this mess. Heard a lot of horror stories.
Here in Texas we are not really prepared for long periods of sub freezing weather and usually nothing below 20F.
I have managed to keep my 600g tank going. Generator to power the return pump, heated pots of tank water on our 70 year old gas stove (with pilot lights). The 1000 gallon propane tank was great because I used a lot of gas. Because I have a pool (pumps need to run to prevent them from freezing) and chickens (heat lamps) i could not use all the generator power for the tank. Not fun getting up every few hours to refill the generator with gas. Power was out for 8 to10 hours at a time and when on, it was for 1 to 2 hours at time. Water line from our storage tank (rain water collection) was kept alive with a seed starter heat mat wrapped around it. Did lose water to most faucets and toliets (frozen pipes). Yesterday it was 35F for a brief time and I was able to unfreeze the hot water heater intake. Woo Hooo hot water. Did drive out our road. Steep grade across the low water crossing was pretty icy on our private road. Texas does not own snow plows so the roads were sketchy. Was able to get my neighbor and his cat to the vet for an emergency and get some more gas for the generator. Tank is good this morning as we have had power for 8 hours now. Fish are relieved that they were not treated to the apex rebooting light show for most of the night. Me too. The fish wonder when they will get a (bath) water change. Maybe this weekend when it will get up into the 50's . Calcium reator was a challenge to keep Ph constant and flow going because of the recirculation pump not being on much.
I would recomend anyone with a fish tank get some sort of battery back up or generator. At the very least double the time you think it might have to be in use.
Anyone else have a good story let me know as I am always open to creative survival ideas
Hope a lot of tanks and LFS have weathered this mess. Heard a lot of horror stories.
Here in Texas we are not really prepared for long periods of sub freezing weather and usually nothing below 20F.
I have managed to keep my 600g tank going. Generator to power the return pump, heated pots of tank water on our 70 year old gas stove (with pilot lights). The 1000 gallon propane tank was great because I used a lot of gas. Because I have a pool (pumps need to run to prevent them from freezing) and chickens (heat lamps) i could not use all the generator power for the tank. Not fun getting up every few hours to refill the generator with gas. Power was out for 8 to10 hours at a time and when on, it was for 1 to 2 hours at time. Water line from our storage tank (rain water collection) was kept alive with a seed starter heat mat wrapped around it. Did lose water to most faucets and toliets (frozen pipes). Yesterday it was 35F for a brief time and I was able to unfreeze the hot water heater intake. Woo Hooo hot water. Did drive out our road. Steep grade across the low water crossing was pretty icy on our private road. Texas does not own snow plows so the roads were sketchy. Was able to get my neighbor and his cat to the vet for an emergency and get some more gas for the generator. Tank is good this morning as we have had power for 8 hours now. Fish are relieved that they were not treated to the apex rebooting light show for most of the night. Me too. The fish wonder when they will get a (bath) water change. Maybe this weekend when it will get up into the 50's . Calcium reator was a challenge to keep Ph constant and flow going because of the recirculation pump not being on much.
I would recomend anyone with a fish tank get some sort of battery back up or generator. At the very least double the time you think it might have to be in use.
Anyone else have a good story let me know as I am always open to creative survival ideas
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