# The Power Is Out (and the sky is falling)



## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)

Well, the power is out in East Van. Judging by the view from here, it's lights out for everyone from Burnaby center to Fraser, between Broadway and 41st! Guess I'll have to stay up or wake up for the Aquaclears and the 403 Fluval. What else can we without power do for our fish right now?


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

OOHHHHH~~~
One of the members here showed me his back up supply battery pack! Quite insane! I might plan on doing one too!
I did think about buying battery operated air pumps too, but why not invest in a bit more for a battery pack! =)


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## hondas3000 (Apr 22, 2010)

for a big tank I just wait to see how long the power is out, if it is more then 3 hours then I would drain out about 20% of water to give them more oxygen in tank and fill it up again when the power is back on. I will look into a small generator this year since my plywood tank is in garage now.


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## Crazy_NDN (Apr 21, 2010)

oh that sucks!!!! powers on over here in the kingsway and knight area.


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## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)

It came back on around 1am, so no major problems...

It would definitely be handy to have a battery back-up though, might have to look into something...


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

I keep several car jumper battery packs at home for emergency backup. If the power goes out, I plug in a powerhead on each tank (draw around 12-14watts/hr) and I'm good for quite a long time. Most of the packs hold 300w or so.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm looking into this as well. All you need is a powerhead to keep the water flow for oxygen for relatively short outages. If winter, and the fish room isn't well heated, then you may need to look at something to keep the water warm. I was thinking of using a computer UPS of some sort but I've heard that many of those just provide power for a very short time based on actual testing. I haven't tried myself but I'm curious.


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

hondas3000 said:


> for a big tank I just wait to see how long the power is out, if it is more then 3 hours then I would drain out about 20% of water to give them more oxygen in tank and fill it up again when the power is back on. I will look into a small generator this year since my plywood tank is in garage now.


Yamaha has the quietest genny.. a decimal meter will prove that


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## kookus (Apr 23, 2010)

Canadian tire had the motor master battery things for sale. $99. Instead of $150. That's what I bought. Good thing too cause I was in that power outage. Might pick up another.


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

kookus said:


> Canadian tire had the motor master battery things for sale. $99. Instead of $150. That's what I bought. Good thing too cause I was in that power outage. Might pick up another.


U got really really lucky!
You showed me just few days ago! That's good!


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## gwcana (Apr 22, 2010)

Sargasso said:


> Well, the power is out in East Van. Judging by the view from here, it's lights out for everyone from Burnaby center to Fraser, between Broadway and 41st! Guess I'll have to stay up or wake up for the Aquaclears and the 403 Fluval. What else can we without power do for our fish right now?


That is so weird. The power went out yesterday for a spit second. Suddenly everything went out and then immediately came back on again...I guess the power rerouted for south east van, but not east van.


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## hondas3000 (Apr 22, 2010)

Check out this batteries air pump. Silent Air B11 Air Pump If anyone know where to get it please let me know.


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## b/p (Apr 21, 2010)

I use an APC UPS to run just my Eheim 2229 in case of power outtage. According to the UPS it can run the 2229 for 72 minutes.


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

I never really though about setting up a backup power supply for my tanks. When the heater broke in my 10G I just stuck books around it and left the light on to keep as much heat in as possible. I suppose if the power went out I would just do regular water changes to keep the temp up. I've had it go out a few times and I have never run into any casualties so perhaps I'm being a little over confident and should consider a better alternative, lol.


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