During a power outage...

[Larry Grenier]

Total loss of power.

 

What kills them first?

 

Lack of oxygen?

 

Assume house is not freezing and tank size between 50 and 100 gals.

[dhoch]

Lack of O2 would be my guess.

 

Without flow no air exchange.

 

Then Temp...

 

Dave

[Guest Larry-T]

My guess is that most reef tanks have a tremendous bioload and are inherently unstable without all of the filters, skimmers, etc... that are used to keep them running. When power goes out, toxins quickly build up and the more sensitive animals start dieing immediately. One of the big problems is that most of the animals in a reef tank can't be easily seen, so it's easy for a lot of dead tissue to build up in a very short time.

 

What's the answer? Short of severely restriciting the amount of livestock in our aquaria, I would say that for every reef tank, you should have AT A MINIMUM an air-powered skimmer, enough battery powered pumps to run the skimmer, another battery powered air pump and a box filter, and a stock of polyfilter to help remove dissolved organics.

[rocko918]

I have a jumpstart battery for boats and cars that i hook a inverter to. Then i run as many power heads and a airpump off it. Not sure how long it could last but it has worked for over 2 hrs before.

 

If i have to i will turn it off every hour for 30 mins and then put it back on for 30 mins. Just as backup. better than nothing!

[Grav]

No question: Lack of O2

 

A reef tanks is a house of a billion mouths. All of that bacteria covering every surface will use up your O2 supply very quickly and start the chain reaction. Coral starts to slime up, and everything starts to die.

 

Without O2 it is like asking everything in the tank to hold their breath... You could take your skimmer and filters off line for a day or two easy without problem, sure the alge would quickly spread, but you wouldn't crash.

[pez]

Reef tanks are not unstable without filters, skimmers, etc. The killer is lack of oxygen due to a lack of circulation. The same can be said about real reefs - fortunately, a power outtage doesn't affec them .

 

LR and LS go anoxic very quickly without circulation. That, in turn, can start releasing noxious gases, which kills fish and corals. Once something dies, it's a downhill spiral that is very difficult to recover from.

 

Assuming the temperature doesn't drop dramatically, your tank should be able to withstand a couple of hours with little or no circulation. More than that, and you're facing a serious problem.

 

You can run any pump from a UPS *if* the UPS outputs a true sine wave verses a chopped sine wave. Some pumps will not work without a true sine wave (e.g., most powerheads), but some pumps will.

 

Unless you buy a UPS specifically designed to output a true sine wave, you're not going to get one. A number of years ago a company was selling UPSs designed for reef tanks. I don't know if their still in business. Their prices were a bit higher than APC and the like, but they could run just about anything your tank has to offer.

 

Any time the power goes out, I connect 1 close-loop pump to the UPS on my computer. It lasts for about 30 minutes, which is better than nothing. (gen-x pumps run from "normal" computer UPSs)

 

Oh, one last thing, during a power outtage, disable your CO2 system if you have one. You don't need to drive the pH down any more than it will already be once the power comes back on.

 

-Tom

[Guest Larry-T]

As far as I am concerned, any system that has major losses if it loses artificial circulation for a short period of time (4-5 hours) is definitely unstable. Almost all aquariums are unstable to some extent, but a reef tank is more dependent upon artificial mechanisms than most.

 

It's not denigrating either the hobby or any individual to state that we maintain reef systems in a state of dynamic instability and that a power failure is more problematical to reef tanks than to almost any other kind of aquarium.

 

As far as toxins vs. O2 reduction, it's a race between the two on what kills any individual organism. Waste products are both toxic and, in many cases, Oxygen-depleting, so it's a toss-up. Aeration is probably the best thing you can do, but combining aeration with some sort of detoxification is probably the best combination possible.

 

Also, as xygen goes down, and CO2 goes up, the pH goes down. That makes ammonia somewhat less toxic, but also releases more toxic metals into solution.

 

So there's a lot of factors in play and they're all bad!

[Sugar Magnolia]

I have a couple of battery operated air pumps and a spare car battery with an inverter in case we lose power for any extended period of time.

[Larry Grenier]

Thanks folks... so for a person on a very limited budget, battery operated air pumps is a good start. Maybe have a few moving water from the bottom to the surface using lift tubes and another powering a skimmer. And lots of batteries.