Thoughts on keeping bacteria alive during an outage

[gregzz4]

My DT is covered (although my sump is not)
But the the topic of this thread is my QT

I have a battery backup air pump that turns on automatically in the event of an outage

My problem is, I tend to over-think things sometimes (most times ) and now am wondering if, besides an air stone in the tank, should I put one in the HOB filter ?
I know it'll fill the space with air bubbles, but I want to keep the bacteria in the sponges alive

What are your thoughts or knowledge ?

[monocus]

if i remember right,bacteria thrive in low o2 areas

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by monocus

if i remember right,bacteria thrive in low o2 areas

I'm worried about the nitrifying bacteria in my HOB during an outage
I know that, as some die and create more NH3, the rest will feed, but there comes a point where things stall as O is depleted

[mike31154]

Not sure about the HOB filter issue on your QT, but my guess is a little water movement in there is probably not a bad thing if an outage is longer than a few hours. On the other hand, I've had a pail of old salt water with ball of chaeto sitting for weeks & when I finally got around to emptying it & grabbed the ball of chaeto, there were still pods wiggling around in there. This is with the water stagnant & unheated in a pail in a cool basement. Pods aren't bacteria, but I suspect there was still plenty of that alive in there as well. Who knows what really goes on at a microscopic level?

I have 2 of the automatic battery backup air pumps in my display, but instead of the flexible tubing with air stone, I use rigid air tubes with air output near the substrate at the bottom of the tank - no air stone. This way larger bubbles are produced, which creates a tad more water movement than would the fine bubbles coming out of an air stone. Of course without the air stone you need an attachment near the end of the tube to keep it from rising up once the air pump kicks in. I have a couple of magnetic clips for that purpose, suction cups don't last long term.

Another item that's not specifically meant as a power outage backup but could be used as such is an 'air lift'. You could hook one of these to the battery powered air pump as well, more for water movement & less for aeration. Here's a description I copied from the net in order to build one:

A simple device to generate water circulation where you don't want to use a powerhead because of the fragile life forms there which might be harmed by a powerhead or pump impeller.
I used six of them on an acrylic sheet to create a race track circulation in a brine shrimp tank.
I got the plans from The Plankton Culture Manual by Frank H. Hoff & Terry W. Snell. This is a very good book if you are interested in raising any type of plankton.
All that is required to make an air lift is a piece of PVC pipe with one end cut at a 45 degree angle and a PVC elbow on the other end with a 3/16" hole drilled in the top corner of it.
Insert a piece of rigid airline in this hole and push it down almost to the high side of the 45 degree opening.
Set the length of the tube so that the elbow is half out of the water.
Hook an air pump to the top of the rigid airline and adjust it so that you get a slow stream of large bubbles.
This is a nice addition to a refugia.

And one of two I built. This is a shorter one, but they can be made to whatever length suits your purpose/height of tank/fuge. You won't get a any bubbles in the water column with this since they stay in the tube until they surface, where they pretty much pop straight away.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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. =)