7 Saltwater Tanks, 2 Reptile Tanks, and 32 Hours with no power.

[Diana]

2 X 5 gallon QT Tanks.
20 Gallon Reef Tank w/ 2 fish.
20 Gallon Seahorse Tank w/ 2 seahorses.
33 Gallon Reef Tank w/ 7 fish.
55 Gallon Batfish/Eel tank w/ 2 fish.
110 Gallon FOWLR w/ 12 fish.

1 Veiled chameleon.
2 Leopard geckos.

4:05 am Friday December 15th we loose power... in a groggy sleep Raf insists we can wait until morning to do anything to the tanks, since power-outs over here in North Van tend not to last too long.

8:30 am we wake up... and a little bit of worry sets in. The tanks are cooling off and I notice the fish in my 33 gallon are starting to breathe a little heavy. I get out my most trusty tool... the turkey baster. And I start basting away. I alternate basting the tanks every 5 minutes. Raf heads out into the hell that was Friday morning traffic to pick up our battery powered air pumps from the new house (we are mid-move). After what seemed like an eternity of turkey basting Raf returned in time to prevent my arm from turning into Jello. He only had 3, so he set out to pet-cemetery to pick up a few more. I stayed at home and rotated the pumps between tanks. We luckily have a gas fireplace, so the rooms were staying somewhat warm, but the temp in the tanks was still slowly dropping.

11:30 Raf returns with the extra pumps. Whew. 1 pump for each main tank (we decided to forget about the QT tanks... maybe not such a good idea? ).

5:00 pm we get news that Hydro is swamped and we wont be getting power for another 48 hours. There is no way we can keep these tanks going that long on air pumps. We make the decision to go hunting. For a generator.

7:00 pm. Its getting desperate... as it appears there are no more generators left in Vancouver. Our last try is Home Depot, and we were lucky enough to track down 1 (!!!) left at another store... the display model. We arrive and there she is in all her glory. After $700 for the generator and $200 for some heavy-duty power cords we are almost a grand in the hole. But its worth it when all your livestock is worth much more than that... not to mention sentimental value. The generator we picked up is a Coleman 3750, running approximately 3000 watts (3750 maximum whatever that means).

9:00 pm. We get home to some very unhappy fish. The temp on my seahorse tank and 33 gallon had dipped down to 70F. Raf's 110 was holding its heat a bit better at 74F. It feels like its going to be a long night....

10:00 pm. We finally get the generator up and running. Holy crap this is a LOUD mutha sucka. Forget running it all night since we live in a quiet neighborhood with lots of old people . We power up heaters in all the tanks, powerheads, and some filters. Oh, and the deep freeze too. We shut it down at 12 and switched back to the (not-as-loud-but-seems-like-it) air pumps. A client of ours a few blocks away had lost power as well and her tank was in an arguably worse situation, so we gave her one of our air pumps. Thus we had to get up periodically during the night to rotate the pumps... which turned out not to be a big deal since I couldn't sleep anyways.

4:00 am Saturday. Laying awake I start to get increasingly worried about our reptiles. After all, it is SNOWING outside and the basement is freezing. I pick up my Leopard geckos and they are like little Popsicles . I stuffed them into my shirt and layed down near the gas fireplace... oooo man they were chilly! They went right for the warmest parts... the armpits! It took about 40 minutes to get them warmed up. Then it was our chameleon's turn, who was so cold he couldn't hiss at me or run away. Once I warmed them up I was finally able to sleep...

8:30 am we fired up the generator. This time we put the actinic lights on the reef tanks since our corals were undoubtedly very unhappy. Slowly the temps began to rise and it looked as if everything would be okay.

11:30 am. To our amazement, the power came back on! I am happy to announce we did not loose a single animal in the power-out, which could have been a lot worse. I feel a lot better now that we got the generator, its a huge weight off your mind when you have so much money and heartache invested in your aquarium(s).


I cannot give such a happy ending for our client's tank a couple blocks away. Her house got MUCH colder than ours since she didn't have a gas fireplace. We received a panicked phone call this afternoon, and went over to find her 30 gallon reef tank at a frigid 55 degrees F. The two clowns were rolling around on the sand, the coral banded shrimp was not moving, the clown goby was floating upside down, and the sixline wrasse is nowhere to be seen. I'm not even thinking about the corals at this point. We get the two clowns, goby, and shrimp out and rush back home to slowly bring their temp back up to normal. It took over an hour to warm them up. We had to put them in one of our QT tanks, which made us wish we had kept it warm and filtered throughout the outage. The clowns are virtually recovered and eating, the shrimp looks good, but the goby didnt make it. Her power is still out. She is using pop bottles full of hot water to try and warm the tank up and save the corals....


Moral of the story? BE PREPARED! Have those battery powered air pumps on hand, and if you have a lot of fish/corals/livestock... then get a generator for sure. A backup power supply is better than nothing, but it wont last long and you cant charge it when it runs out.

*whew*. That is our power-out story.

PS- sorry about the novel


-Diana + Raf

[Pan]

Damn....

And I still am moving there in 1.5 years...attending university in victoria...if i don't decide to go to simon fraser that is...

[Raf]

Actually baby,

I turned on the one quarantine tank each time I had the generator up, so luckily, we were able to preserve some temp and bacteria culture in the filters.

Anyways, all I can say from this whole experience is that this can happen anywhere to anyone. We presumed we would never loose power....let alone power out for almost 2 days!

We were lucky enough to find a generator and be able to afford one!. The battery powered air pumps were THE life saver IMO. Oh, and the gas fireplace which kept everything above 70F.

Take it easy, hope everyone else made it out ok.

Raf

[Delphinus]

Wow ... What an amazing ordeal.

Best regards out there.

[marie]

Sounds like you two are going to need a drink and a good nights sleep . Thank goodness everything made it okay

[Diana]

Originally Posted by marie

Sounds like you two are going to need a drink and a good nights sleep . Thank goodness everything made it okay

Drink? CHECK!



-Diana

[woodcarver]

Job well done Diana and Raf !!!
So pleased to hear that generally there was a happy ending
Very generous of you to try and rescue your neighbours livestock as well as your own.
Also thanks for the heads up on being prepared . I am going to get back into the hobby after Christmas and have definitely decided on a back up generator after the number of outages we have had in Mill Bay . By far the worst winter in my 24 years here !( and its only mid December )
I would appreciate any input on experiences with generators and what type of set -up seems to be appropriate for a domestic installation.
Maybe a thread would be the way to go ?
Thanks again and are they the " common armpit gecko's "
...................................Dave

[EmilyB]

Wow. Can't see that happening in Alberta, but you never know.

[andresont]

7 Saltwater Tanks, 2 Reptile Tanks, and 32 Hours with no power.

Do you think this will work?

if you still have gas in the fire plase...
i herd somewhere that if you take a refrigerant coil from old fridge (or any coiled metal pipe, with no copper in it, say from old chiller ) and a small hose connect to a colder water in your tank, put metal coil on the gas or close to it enough to heat up. Then convection heat will create a slight water flow between cold and hot.
This will need more though but theoreticly it should work, i think.

[Ruth]

WOW - sounds like you have had quite an ordeal. I know that being without power can definately be a challenge (how many times can you walk into a room and actually flick the light switch before you remember, yet again, that it doesn't work). In the rural area where I live they are actually quite frequent. I have a generator and would highly recommend the Honda EU3000is model. It is very very quiet and is also electric start (I had pulling on those darn cords). This generator is quiet enough to take camping and I use it on the weekends in the summer when I go to horse competitions for my trailer.
When you really sit down and do the math of how much you have invested in your tank(s), the fact that they have multiple applications, IMO there is just no reason not to invest in a quality generator or at least have a plan to borrow one in the event of an extented power outage.
Very glad you were able to save your livestock!