# That big power black out a few years back...



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

I wasn't keeping fish during that big black out we had back then but I've been reading about battery packs etc incase the power went out today and it reminded me of that big black out.


Who here was keeping fish back then and how did it turn out for you? How did you deal with the blackout?


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

I had about 20 full grown adult discus back then and a few tanks of juvies.

I sat up all night blowing air into the tank through some airline tubing and sacrificed the juvies and my other tanks.

After I slept when the power came back on, I woke up a few hours later and asked myself why I didn't go to home depot and grab those battery packs. 

Never kept a tank without one since.


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## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

Brian said:


> I sat up all night blowing air into the tank through some airline tubing and sacrificed the juvies and my other tanks


Holy crap! that's intense... The blackout was like 3 days wasn't it?


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

same... I would stir the water up in my tanks a couple of times. I also had some bad heat issues.. 

I remember Superpet lost all of the feeder goldies, and a few of the larger goldies. Everyone else did okay. 

I think it was big als that lost a couple of sharks.. I am unsure of how their other tanks did.


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

The blackout was a big blur to me, can't remember how many days it was exactly.


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## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

Ciddian said:


> I think it was big als that lost a couple of sharks..


Oh man, that's really sad..

My dad had a buch of Discus at the time, I wonder what he did...

I would assume Reef tanks would've been hit the worst. With Discus and all other sensitive fish at a close second...

Did you guys up the water changes?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I remember agitating the surfaces of my tanks every hour or so. surprisingly didn't lose anything...

Which reminds me, I need to get a battery backup for my tank.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I was lucky enough to have a UPS at home...so I kept my filter running pretty much all through the blackout


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

We were only out for 4 hours tops. 

I was going to do a double shift at work, saved my the outage. As I was working with food, I returned to my work and oversaw the shut down. I had the staff fill doubled garbage bags full of ice and had them put the bags over all the food to keep it chilled. 

At home I had my 29 gallon with a couple veyr large goldfish in it. I rigged up my bike air pump to airline and used that to pump in air every now and again.

I had enough water for my pets, but none for myself. Since then I keep a bottle of water in my closet Also walking up 12 flights of stairs was no fun.


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

Thankfully I didn't have any fish... but I had lots of meat on the BBQ.


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## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

I remember the video/ice cream shop on Roncy's was giving away free ice creams! Man their Ice cream is good too.. That was so awesome of them!

There were 2 girls stuck in the elevator at work for 9 hours before the FD came and got them out.. ppl were stuck like all throughout the city.. crazy.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

I can't remember, but apparently most of my fish did OK too. I think all I did was leave the lid open.

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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

All I did was add hydrogen peroxided and agitate the water by filling a milk jug and pour the water back from 1-2' above a bunch of times every few hours. Made a bit of a mess but everything survived.


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

XbrandonX said:


> I wasn't keeping fish during that big black out we had back then but I've been reading about battery packs etc incase the power went out today and it reminded me of that big black out.
> 
> Who here was keeping fish back then and how did it turn out for you? How did you deal with the blackout?


I was lucky to borrow 2 gasoline powered generators from my brother and managed to not lose any fish. I have over 100 tanks so it was a concern. Since then I installed a natural gas generator which comes on any time I am without electricity and powers all my pumps, heaters etc. and most of the rest of my house also.

I still have a small portable generator as a back up.

Here they are:


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## Windowlicka (Mar 5, 2008)

arapaimag said:


> I was lucky to borrow 2 gasoline powered generators from my brother and managed to not lose any fish. I have over 100 tanks so it was a concern. Since then I installed a natural gas generator which comes on any time I am without electricity and powers all my pumps, heaters etc. and most of the rest of my house also.
> 
> I still have a small portable generator as a back up.
> 
> Here they are:


Unfortunately two of the links in your sig file do not appear to work - I (for one) would be very interested to learn more about your setups - 52,000G and 15,000G AND "over 100 tanks"?!? You have more water capacity contained within your environment than many small countries! 

You can't simply post a total of 10 notes without going into some pretty intricate detail about your setups, the complexities associated with managing aquaria of those capacities, things you've learned along the way, your goals/ambitions... 

C'mon! Please set up a thread and share your journey through the planning, setup and day-to-day husbandry on these monsters!


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## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

He's a member at Monsterfishkeepers.com here's the link to his 15000G tank thread, do a search there for his name and you can read all his posts...

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9026


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## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

Darkblade48 said:


> I was lucky enough to have a UPS at home...so I kept my filter running pretty much all through the blackout


That had to be a massive battery backup....from what I have read of most, they generally don't last all that long..and for the price you pay for them, I've simply went without one.

Agitating the water will do but there's also a product out there for fishermen...a battery operated aerator(spelling?) for live wells. I would have one of those on hand and a small propane torch...heat water to add to tank.

These are just my thoughts as I'm setting up two 90g's and plan to stock with nice fish.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

xr8dride said:


> That had to be a massive battery backup....from what I have read of most, they generally don't last all that long..and for the price you pay for them, I've simply went without one.


@Darkblade: That must not be your typical home UPS from Staples!

Over the years I've worked with many UPS/battery units, from little ones under desks to ones that fill rooms in the basement of an office building, and yes, they are _expensive_. Even the best systems that baby batteries and do occasional cycles to work them out will need battery replacements regularly (usu 3-5 years).

Something big enough to power several hundred watts (say 200W) of filters/heaters/equipment for 12 hours will cost over $1000 and eat batteries for about $250 every 3-5 years. If it doesn't supply power for 12+ hours or more, it's almost not worth it for our application IMO since most tanks (ones bigger than say 10-15G) can absorb a few hours power outage without issue.

Unless you have a lot of money wrapped up in livestock, or even if you do, that's a pretty tough pill to swallow.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Mr Fishies said:


> @Darkblade: That must not be your typical home UPS from Staples!
> 
> Something big enough to power several hundred watts (say 200W) of filters/heaters/equipment for 12 hours will cost over $1000 and eat batteries for about $250 every 3-5 years.


Actually, I only powered my filter (25W); nothing else. It was August, so I wasn't that concerned about the heater.

And yes, it was expensive, but I managed to get it while on sale


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

Windowlicka said:


> Unfortunately two of the links in your sig file do not appear to work - I (for one) would be very interested to learn more about your setups - 52,000G and 15,000G AND "over 100 tanks"?!? You have more water capacity contained within your environment than many small countries!
> 
> You can't simply post a total of 10 notes without going into some pretty intricate detail about your setups, the complexities associated with managing aquaria of those capacities, things you've learned along the way, your goals/ambitions...
> 
> C'mon! Please set up a thread and share your journey through the planning, setup and day-to-day husbandry on these monsters!


Thanks

You can get more information by going to Monsterfishkeepers article section I have 4 article/video threads there.

I believe that the 3 links in my sig are all working OK now.


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