Thoughts on keeping bacteria alive during an outage

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

My problem is, I tend to over-think things sometimes

ya think??

I wouldn't be concerned unless the power is out a long time (12+ hours). If you're worried about it, pull the media out and float it in the tank. Shake it around every few hours if you're really worried.

[asylumdown]

I've worried the same thing about my biopellet reactor. It's filled with heterotrophic bacteria and is a pretty crucial component of my overall nutrient management strategy. Enmax delivered a notice the other day saying they were going to turn off the power at my house for 4-6 hours to replace a transformer in my neighbourhood so I went and bought a battery backup for my vortices but have no way of keeping the pellet reactor going. They never ended up turning off the power but it's something I've been thinking about as well.

[gqlmao]

I've always feared power outages. I've tried to think of the best method to keep the temperature and water movement flowing through the whole system, (tank and sump). With the controller systems I have found that there isn't any where to plug in a reserve UPS to power certain items. Therefore I made the decision to run without a controller and instead plug the return pump and one of the heaters to the biggest UPS I could find at memory express. I know this is not a viable solution for long outages or bigger tanks. According to my UPS I have only 80 minutes of run time which is not very much, my pump is the smallest DC Speedwave and my heater is only 100watts. I've always thought about running the inverter in my truck if worse comes to worse and we have a long power outage, however I am unsure of how clean the sin waves will be.

[hillegom]

If you are really worried about it, take mike's idea and put that airline into the intake pipe of the HOB. When your power goes out, the air will start and push water up into the HOB. You probably would want to put a one way valve into the air line to prevent the water pump from pushing water into your air pump.

[gregzz4]

Thanks for all the thoughts guys
That tube has me interested, but I think I'll just stick with a couple small stones

Originally Posted by Aquattro

ya think??

I figured one of you would want to poke me, so thought I'd give you something to start with

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I wouldn't be concerned unless the power is out a long time (12+ hours). If you're worried about it, pull the media out and float it in the tank. Shake it around every few hours if you're really worried.

Thanks Brad
That's pretty much what I needed to hear
So it will survive overnight, or all day while I'm at work, and I'll not think about it anymore

[jason604]

When feeding corals I turn off my power heads and my return pump and sometimes forget to turn them back on for 6hrs+ at a time. Temp drops about 5-6 deg and everything still completely normal. =)

[BC564]

If your really really worried about it than buy a generator......but I dont think its an issue.