Vancouver (GVRD) Power Outage

[KPG007]

Aaargh, big wind storm last night knocked our power out around 11:30pm. It's still out this morning and not expected back until noon.
Fish are pretty stressed and breathing heavy. Corals look fine though (had a few poking branches out the top of the water as the level went down when the return pump stopped).

Don't have a generator. Any other ideas to help oxygenate the water for the fish? I have big tanks 150g and 120g, so a big mixing spoon probably wont work

[Coasting]

I picked up a battery operated air pump from Petsmart awhile back and have that on hand in case of power outage to help provide oxygen for the fish.
Also have one of those mini plug in generator things that you plug into the wall to keep it powered and you can use it to jump your car but it also has outlets on it so if the power goes out you can plug stuff into it. So if the power will be out for awhile we can plug a pump or something into it. But haven't used it yet for that. Have been fine with alternating the battery air pump between the goldfish and the salt tank with no casualties mind you.... power where we are in poco doesn't seem to go out as often as everywhere else lol.

[neoh]

I have an extension cord with a car inverter, and was prepared last night with blankets and cords ready, as it was expected. Running the extension cord out the window and down to the car, plugged into the inverter.

I hope everything worked out for you, Kelly!

For the future:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...step-step.html

[KPG007]

Power doesn't go out here too often, and never for this long. I might end up getting a small generator from Costco to be on the safe side. This time though, it's up to the gods of power (BC Hydro)!

[KPG007]

So the power came on around lunch and I went home to check on the tanks. Corals are fine, but I lost a handful of fish. It sucks, but what can you do.

Some of the fish that died (over 3 tanks):
- Sailfin Tang
- 3 anthalias
- 1 (of 2) purple firefish
- Diana hogfish

and one of my favorites is missing:
- Atlantic Blue tang

Interesting, here are some that survived:
- Purple Tang
- Both Yellow Tangs
- Regal Tang
- hawkfish
- Leopard wrasse

and of course all damsels and clown fish survived!

[neoh]

Really sorry to hear that, Kelly. Check out that link I posted previously, it might help out in the future, because power outages are unfortunately inevitable!

[straightrazorguy]

Bummer, man; I feel for you. It's strange, I never lost power here....

[The Guy]

Originally Posted by KPG007

Aaargh, big wind storm last night knocked our power out around 11:30pm. It's still out this morning and not expected back until noon.
Fish are pretty stressed and breathing heavy. Corals look fine though (had a few poking branches out the top of the water as the level went down when the return pump stopped).

Don't have a generator. Any other ideas to help oxygenate the water for the fish? I have big tanks 150g and 120g, so a big mixing spoon probably wont work

How about a really big spoon in a battery drill LOL!! Sorry you lost fish Kelly.

I have a 3500 watt generator that's kept ready to go after our power was off for a day and a half a couple of years back. Nice to have on hand.

[gregzz4]

Crappy to hear about your losses Kelly

Our power was out from 12:30 'till 5am
Tank temp dropped 2 degrees and I almost turned on the gas fireplace

I have one of the aforementioned battery operated air pumps and keep it on standby for long outages. If my QT is occupied then it's hooked up to it.

I run Vortechs and have a DIY battery backup for those. Trickle charger keeps that battery mostly topped up and the pumps kick in automatically @ 50%

Haven't been overly tempted yet to buy a genny, but I keep looking at the sale prices

[Reef Pilot]

Sorry about your loss, Kelly. Hope the rest of your fish and livestock will be OK.

Usually we get a power outage here in Langley whenever there is a windstorm. But this time we escaped.

In the fall I always bring back our battery inverters and large RV battery from our cabin, so am ready. They are good for at least a day with keeping the water circulating and heating the water in my tanks (230g). Used them a couple times in the past few years, although never had to go more than 12 hours. I also have a large diesel generator that I could fire up if I had to, but it has never come to that.

That all works fine as long as I am home, as nothing is automatic and requires manual intervention. However, we usually go away to warm climes in the fall or winter, and that always has me worried. We are off to Maui for 2 weeks in Nov, and that is often a bad time here for windstorms.

But I can tell remotely from my Apex if we had/have a power outage, and worst case, would have to get my son over and walk him through on the phone with what to do with the battery back-ups.