Vancouver (GVRD) Power Outage
 

Aaargh, big wind storm last night knocked our power out around 11:30pm. It's still out this morning and not expected back until noon.
Fish are pretty stressed and breathing heavy. Corals look fine though (had a few poking branches out the top of the water as the level went down when the return pump stopped).

Don't have a generator. Any other ideas to help oxygenate the water for the fish? I have big tanks 150g and 120g, so a big mixing spoon probably wont work :wink:

I picked up a battery operated air pump from Petsmart awhile back and have that on hand in case of power outage to help provide oxygen for the fish.
Also have one of those mini plug in generator things that you plug into the wall to keep it powered and you can use it to jump your car but it also has outlets on it so if the power goes out you can plug stuff into it. So if the power will be out for awhile we can plug a pump or something into it. But haven't used it yet for that. Have been fine with alternating the battery air pump between the goldfish and the salt tank with no casualties mind you.... power where we are in poco doesn't seem to go out as often as everywhere else lol.

I have an extension cord with a car inverter, and was prepared last night with blankets and cords ready, as it was expected. Running the extension cord out the window and down to the car, plugged into the inverter.

I hope everything worked out for you, Kelly!

For the future:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...step-step.html

Power doesn't go out here too often, and never for this long. I might end up getting a small generator from Costco to be on the safe side. This time though, it's up to the gods of power (BC Hydro)!

So the power came on around lunch and I went home to check on the tanks. Corals are fine, but I lost a handful of fish. It sucks, but what can you do.

Some of the fish that died (over 3 tanks):
- Sailfin Tang
- 3 anthalias
- 1 (of 2) purple firefish
- Diana hogfish

and one of my favorites is missing:
- Atlantic Blue tang

Interesting, here are some that survived:
- Purple Tang
- Both Yellow Tangs
- Regal Tang
- hawkfish
- Leopard wrasse

and of course all damsels and clown fish survived!

Really sorry to hear that, Kelly. Check out that link I posted previously, it might help out in the future, because power outages are unfortunately inevitable!

Bummer, man; I feel for you. It's strange, I never lost power here....

How about a really big spoon in a battery drill LOL!! Sorry you lost fish Kelly.

I have a 3500 watt generator that's kept ready to go after our power was off for a day and a half a couple of years back. Nice to have on hand.

Crappy to hear about your losses Kelly

Our power was out from 12:30 'till 5am
Tank temp dropped 2 degrees and I almost turned on the gas fireplace

I have one of the aforementioned battery operated air pumps and keep it on standby for long outages. If my QT is occupied then it's hooked up to it.

I run Vortechs and have a DIY battery backup for those. Trickle charger keeps that battery mostly topped up and the pumps kick in automatically @ 50%

Haven't been overly tempted yet to buy a genny, but I keep looking at the sale prices :rolleyes:

Sorry about your loss, Kelly. Hope the rest of your fish and livestock will be OK.

Usually we get a power outage here in Langley whenever there is a windstorm. But this time we escaped.

In the fall I always bring back our battery inverters and large RV battery from our cabin, so am ready. They are good for at least a day with keeping the water circulating and heating the water in my tanks (230g). Used them a couple times in the past few years, although never had to go more than 12 hours. I also have a large diesel generator that I could fire up if I had to, but it has never come to that.

That all works fine as long as I am home, as nothing is automatic and requires manual intervention. However, we usually go away to warm climes in the fall or winter, and that always has me worried. We are off to Maui for 2 weeks in Nov, and that is often a bad time here for windstorms.

But I can tell remotely from my Apex if we had/have a power outage, and worst case, would have to get my son over and walk him through on the phone with what to do with the battery back-ups.

Hope it's a Honda Laurie hah

I use these battery operated air pumps that turn on automatically when the power goes out. Already came in handy this year when I was out of town during our annual power vault maintenance in my building which shuts down power overnight. I have a heavy bioload and would have lost fish without the pump. Came home without any losses. I use it at least once a year during our electric vault maintenance.

http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Series-.../dp/B000256502

Kelly, next time if you need it, I have a small generator you're welcome to borrow during a blackout (unless we're having one in Burnaby at the same time, of course).

Anthony

Oh sorry to hear your loss Kelly.

I was working at Panorama Ridge this morning when I pass by on some intersection without power and think about your tank.

Thanks for all the kind words guys. All things considered, I'm OK with just loosing a few fish.

My worst story was a warm July about 6 years ago. I was heading out of town for my yearly fishing trip on the island - no internet and only a pay phone to connect me to the rest of the world (when I was on dry land - we fish 12hrs a day, so the calls didn't happen often). Tanks were stable but small - two 33g tanks, so I had my girlfriend stop by and feed the fish. Fishing was great, weather was perfect - about 25c on the water. What I didn't realize was that back home the temperature was more like 33c and the city was in a major heat wave. My girlfriend didn't know what to do, she opened all the windows, had fans going, even slept at my apartment one night to keep everything open. Still the temps in the tanks kept rising, then they started to smell, and get cloudy. I did talk to her a couple times but things hadnt progressed to the bad levels yet. By the time I got home, the house stunk, one tank was complete wiped out and the other was half way there. She was practically in tears and felt horrible. I told her there wasn't much anyone could have done, there was no escaping the heat. In the end, I saved a few corals and a few fish and started over. It wasn't the end of the world (except for the corals and fish I lost).


Thanks Laurie, I'm definitely thing of better emergency backup ideas.
If you every need a backup reefer to your son. Give him my number. I'll be happy to help out if needed.

I like the sound of those air pumps. THat might be the way to go.

Thanks Anthony! Lets hope it doesn't come to that.