ilah Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 Anyone out there lose fish through not having power due to that wicked storm last night? I know people that lost roofs and serious things like that so I'm pretty lucky really but... Had no power here for around 27 hours, tried my best but ended up losing my ornate bichir (which i had for a whopping 3 days). Makes me so damn angry :evil: but anyway... Just wanted to know if anyone else out there had trouble with their tanks or lost any fish due to that thumper of a storm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 Man, that sucks Ilah Shame each fish club cant have a few generators to loan out to members or something in times like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilah Posted July 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 Ha yeah by the time i got round to ringing all the rental places they had none left. Sourced a battery converter but was still a bit late Still, glad my other fish are still moving Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.qian Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 Really sorry about that, had a power cut in central auckland yesterday for about 30 minutes, lucky it came back quick though it did scare me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplecatfish Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 So sorry to hear that dude . We were talking about that at work today and I think I might go and invest in a small generator. Someone was saying that a .5 kW one from the Warehose was only a hundred bucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockerpeller Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 sorry to hear of your loss . i know of 1 person that lost a yellow tang and an anemone in their marine tank. having a gennie on hand will definitely help but what if you're not at home when it happens? having a back-up UPS will help ten-fold. something that'll kick over when the power goes out. or at least give you a bit more time to sort out a better solution. there are a few sites that have DIY automatic back-up systems which involve car batteries to run the bare necessaties of a tank ie. heater/s, filter, or powerhead/s etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 I'd say we had about 20 000 calls into our contact centre today, we were forecast to receive 5000 but by 9:45am we were only 9 calls away from that! Must say most people have been great to deal and with and very understanding given the conditions. I did hear of someone else who had fish without power. Sorry to hear you lost that fish ilah that sucks man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookie Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 our power went back on around 5 this morning so power off for around 36 hrs ,luckily no casualties (yet ) , but puffers are looking a bit annoyed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candy Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 ya we lost our power for 19 hours. Dad was on his way with a genny when it flicked back on. I spent the night bolling water on a gass hob and putting it in to bottles to float in the tank. Had to do this every half hour or so for the smaller tank and every few for the big one. I just lately got discus so you can imagen how i was feeling not know if they would be ok. Im just now worried about the lasting effect it has had on my fitler ect. will my bactera be ok? or how long till it dies? should i expect a re cycle.. i have no clue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 Im just now worried about the lasting effect it has had on my fitler ect. will my bactera be ok? or how long till it dies? should i expect a re cycle.. i have no clue The bacteria in the filter may have taken a bit of a knock, but they shouldn't have been wiped out totally. There are also bacteria living in the gravel / rocks etc and they shouldn't have been affected. I would just feed the fish lightly for the next couple of days to avoid any big load on the filter untill things stabilise again. Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lickindip Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 i had power out from 6pm - 1am (stupid lights and bubbles blasted on and woke me up) both tanks seemed fine and no losses ... im not sure if its true but if u have a lot of losses you MITE be covered under home and contents insurance ... could be worth checking out on your pollicy if you want replacements cherri O Lewis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 When the power goes off on a filter like that, when it restarts, the cycle has been broken and in fact, you could have your tank wiped out as the filter, literally becomes a cess-pit. Hope you do get away with it, but keep an eye open for any problems that may occur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stimpy29 Posted July 11, 2007 Report Share Posted July 11, 2007 last week , when we had the tornados we lost power for 14 hours , didnt effect my big tank 250L but i lost 4 breeding rummy nose tetras in my small breeding tanks which has only got 12L when i went out in the morning the temp was 6 degrees in the tank i tried the insurance trick but ami dont cover livestock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 Damn, sucks you had to lose such a cool fish!!! My parents in whangaqrei still haven't got power, luck they don't have fish. I'm going to invest in a gas heater to keep the house/fish warm in cases like this. I've heated water on the fire in the past during long power cuts, but I wouldn't want to stay up for 36 hours straight doing it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaat Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 Ours was off for just on 24 hours. The bigger tank coped fine, but my small 30L didn't fare so well. I only lost two fish, but .. as fate would have it they were my two favourites. A beautiful Blue Ram .. his colouring was perfection and he was such a friendly little guy, and a white/ red female fighter. I was gutted. Had to do the floating bottle trick , but it was while I was sleeping that those two died. Came out in the morning to the surviving fish doing headstands on the bottom of the tank. I'm thinking generator myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 How effective would covering the tanks with blankets be? I guess polystrene and then blankets would be best? Maybe you should all keep sheets of poly tucked away for emergencies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 Yes, some blankets, bubble wrap, foam etc will slow down the cooling of the tank. Make the floating hot water bottles more effective etc. But it doesn't help with the filters / airpumps. That then depends on how heavily stocked the tank is and how tough your fish are. Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilah Posted July 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 Man sounds like quite a few have had the same problem. I had a gas heater on full all day trying to keep the heat up but i guess coz the filters wernt goin the heat didnt circulate very well. heated water on the bbq and drained buckets from the tank which i poured back in trying to get oxygen back in there. ddnt do much Tank waters gone all cloudy on one tank but the fish seem happy enough at the mo. Just freakin out mainly because the fish i have wouldnt be the easiest to replace. Diddnt have the ornate that long but man they are rad fish, the oddballs are definatley starting to take over in my tanks Lost my male pantadon aswell...crud. Tried the whole contents thing but they dont cover livestock as stated before....double crud! Sorry to hear of others losing there pets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 sorry to hear about your losses ilah, a butterfly and a ornate? bummer dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilknieval69 Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 Damn, sucks you had to lose such a cool fish!!! My parents in whangaqrei still haven't got power, luck they don't have fish. I'm going to invest in a gas heater to keep the house/fish warm in cases like this. I've heated water on the fire in the past during long power cuts, but I wouldn't want to stay up for 36 hours straight doing it!! Only thing with having a gas heater to keep the room warm would be the amount of Co2 it would put into the air, making your tanks drop in pH and losing o2..... just a thought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 True. Wouldn't help with the filters either. *goes off to trademe to look for a generator* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilknieval69 Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 Aparently you can get 850 w gennies for like $150 or something from bunnings? may pay to have a looksey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 A couple of thoughts about having a generator as a backup. Many generators will have a minimum load level to maintain a steady output. If you are just running an air pump and flouro light and the heater is cycled off there is very little load on the genny. The output voltage may not be steady. You can fix that by plugging in a couple of normal light bulbs to provide some steady load, just a hundred watts is probably OK, depending on teh size of the genni. Other thing is to start the genny occasionally and keep fresh gas for it. Especially a problem for those little 2 stroke gennys like the Warehouse is selling. They would probably do the job fine, but not if they have been sitting in the shed for 18 months. Best would be to run it every 3 months, then drain the gas tank, start it again and run untill it's dry. If a 2 stroke is left sitting for months with gas in the carby, the petrol evaporates and leaves an oily varnish in the carb. No way you are going to get it going easy. Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 Heh, that's a point. I should pull my generator out and give it a run this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candy Posted July 12, 2007 Report Share Posted July 12, 2007 So far my tank seems ok. Im very luck i lost no fish but then i did what i could with the resources i had. If you ever need to cover the tank i sugest covering the top in newzparer then heep blankets over. My dad used to cycle and would stuf newzpaper up his shirt on cold mornings untill he warmed up so i stole the idea from him. I am testing my water twice daily and this fish are on rashions aswell so fingers crossed we do ok. Might help that the filter was relitivly clean as it got cleaned the week before. Thankfully dad does have a genny for work and next time he is going pick it up earlyer for me so i can get some sleep. But then agen i will probaly end up at another fish keepers house helping them I would hate for anyone to go through what we all went through and I feel so bad for the people still with out power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.