urgent- power outtage right now ,not home

[zeebo]

please can someone tell me what to do ,not to do . Bad storms tonight , power out so hooked both tanks up to 2 Black and Decker batteries.. prob last 5 or 6 hrs... but the filters would then be off as I had to plug filters and air into the batts. How many hours after batteries die off before filters begin fouling . Should I clean them before plugging in again ? clean how? dip in bucket of tank water ? got 4 hydra sponges and 4 HOB's on 2 tanks.... any advice appreciated.... power should be back on by 9 am ...yikes.. help advise please.. thanks .
Georgie

 

[Brengun]

Pop the tops of the canisters and drop an airstone in there for a while. Replentishes the oxygen so the bacteria doesnt die.
If you think the powers going to be off all night, maybe save the battery pumps for while you sleep and do the old fashioned airation of taking a dipper of water and pouring it at height into the tank.
Oh and no feeding tonight, unless its babies.

 

[macvsog23]

Couple the filters up to a bucket run them, test the water if test is OK just couple up to tank. Just turning them back on can cause problems if they have started to develop any negative bacteria.
If Readings are high then strip and clean and replace sponges with old ones and run on bucket.
Sadly once a filter is down for a few hours it will start to go an-aerobic.
I have had filters of over night and found they were ok to run.
A lot depends on the fish stocking levels, the type of fish and the condition of the water.

 

[zeebo]

:wb::wb: ugh hate this... I will take advice to put the filters in bucket , run , test water, see and hope ...I have clay biomatrix and sponge in the HOB's ... thanks for answering...I assume there are older threads about this but I am overloaded with work , don't have the time to go looking as I usually would... so I appreciate the responses... can't wait to get home and see what is up :fr:

keep thinking positive, right...
thanks
Georgie

 

[Doodles]

keep thinking positive, right...

Yup and don't panic. Plenty of monitoring and changing water afterwards

 

[L777]

Yup and don't panic. Plenty of monitoring and changing water afterwards

That's the best advice, treat it like your cycling from scratch. Test for ammonia and nitrite daily for a while, feed less and plenty of water changes. Good advice about running filters in buckets to check.

Personally I'd clean the filters out in tank water so there isn't any excess waste left in the filter for the reduced bacteria colony to deal with. As long as the media is kept wet then you should save some of the bacteria but your filters will take a hit that's for sure.

Knowing that though is more than half the battle already won. Dealing with it is the other half.

If given only a small amount of battery power I'd use it solely to run air pumps and keep the water as oxygen rich as possible. Forget about running the filters altogether and just keep the media wet in well oxygenated water.

Chris.

 

[bigbird]

hope all ok any news ? How long was the power out for....good luck cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[zeebo]

hi all, thanks for the advice, power was out for 6hrs, the batts ran less than that ,but must have been good enough cuz tested a filter in bucket as suggested and all fine ! whew:thumbup: and now I know how to check filters if happens again, as I was very concerned about turning um on and releasing toxins .Glad to get this important advice :thumbup: thanks.
Georgie