Lake Malawi Species • no power

[magic10]

Hello everyone I need help!! I am in Virginia and I have been without power for about 18 hours now..what to do..I unplugged everything that runs to the tank what else do I need to do??

[DJRansome]

No generator, right?

Are your fish breathing OK? How is the temp of their water?

I'd remove the media from your filters and submerge it in the tank so the bacteria can get oxygen.

If the LFS are open and you can get battery operated pumps that can run air stones (like $9 each) that would be great.

Sports stores also sell something similar to keep bait fish alive in buckets during a fishing trip.

Otherwise, not much you can do, but your fish might be fine.

[magic10]

No generator..temp was at 81 last night and now it has dropped to 76..we are expecting temps to be near triple digits!!fish are doing fine right now..should I feed them..yesterday was their fasting day for the week??

[DJRansome]

Don't feed them at all...you can't change the water so pollution is your enemy.

[magic10]

Ok thanks DJ..i have 2 cansiter filters what do I need to do with them?? Just concern because I have 3 females holding right now!!

[DJRansome]

Take the media out of the filter housing and put it inside the tank. You don't want the bacteria growing on the media to be deprived of oxygen without the flow of water.

[magic10]

Ok thanks

[Bd79]

There's an excellent article at the web site for Aquatic Life Farms. I'm near you in DC and have been following his advice since Friday night. So far, no losses.

Search "aquatic life power outage" and you'll find it.

[magic10]

Thanks

[DrTenochtitlan]

Here's a library article on what to do when the power fails:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/power_failure.php

[magic10]

Amen power is back on!!! Fish during good..thanks to everyone with the advice

[DJRansome]

[BNoel21]

Im sure im late on this but when we had tornados and lost power for a few days what i did to help the fish was every couple of hours i got a cup and scooped up some tank water and dumped it back in. This gave them some surface aggitation that they need. Good thing is its warm out right now so you dont reallt have to worry about it getting to cold and dont feed. We were without power for 3 days and i lost no fish.

[deaver]

After reading this thread, i wonder if every tank should have a sponge filter running with a air pump in addition to filters u already have in your tanks? just switch em over to battery operated air pumps if the power fails. also how long would a car battery or even a solar battery ( the big 6 volt, bigger than a car battery) hooked to a converter last if it were to power heaters or even the air pumps too. i'm gonna have to look into that!

[DJRansome]

Generator is the answer if you have frequent outages. For the fish and for the humans!