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Innovative Marine Aquariums

power out :(


nano_izzy

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as you can see from the title. my power has been out for 10 hours now due to a squirrel chewing through a line around a transformer. i went and bought a battery operated air stone so my critters have oxygen. 

 

my main question is how can i keep my temp stable?? right now i have no battery backup of any sort. i normally keep it at 78 degree with a 75 watt heater in a nuvo10

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mitten_reef

You have a way to access hot water?  Either heating up a pot on gas stove or hot water from the tap? You don’t need it to be real hot, just hot shower temp should be enough. 

 

put the hot water in a tight plastic container, leave some room at the top. Then let it float in the tank to help add a little heat in to the tank. 

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Insulation. Styrofoam, if you can find it, like coolers have. Put it around all the sides of the tank, and partially over the top, but be sure the whole surface of the water can touch the air. Don't worry too much about the temperature, just be sure to warm it up slowly when things get back on. Cold is bad for ectotherms, but not as bad as you'd think. Hell- my tank ran at 68 degrees for a couple days during a huge cold front that froze my whole house, and the snails and corals in it didn't even seem to notice. I couldn't see how my pistol shrimp felt about it, but he was clicking at the regular rate, so I think he was okay. High temps are, IMO, more dangerous, since the water can't hold as much oxygen. 

 

Do you happen to have any of those one-use heat packs that activate when you open the bag, or can you safely get some? One of those, in a ziploc bag, in a bucket of aquarium water. NOT in the main aquarium. Warm the water up in the bucket, swap that into the aquarium, and you can keep the temp up a little. 

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thanks for the help. unfortunately, i dont have any of those packs. what about a ups battery backup for a computer? i would assume id have to configure it someway or charge the battery first. which i cant do, as the power is already out hah. 

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Did you mean USB? 

If the battery backup has a plug on it that looks like a wall plug, then you can probably plug the heater into it. A lot of those backups are pretty versatile. If it's already charged, you're good. If the battery's out, maybe you could get it to a neighbor and have them charge it, then wipe it down and take it back? 

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Towels or blankets will work to insulate too. 

 

I was able to keep a tank warm enough overnight in the middle of winter that way when my heater went out. 

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Fill plastic soda bottles with hot water and place them along the outside of your tank then wrap it all in towels, the top too. 

 

If you have a gas hot water tank it should continue to work even with no power.  If you do not you can either heat a pan of water on a BBQ grill or carefully heat water in a small pot over candles.   

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thanks for all the help everyone!! quick little morning update if any of y’all were curious. the power has just now come back on so it was out almost exactly 24hr. i ended up buying a roll of styrofoam packing material stuff. wrapped it around the tank about 6 times and covered half of the top with it. i also heated up some water with a fire i had going and floated 2 bottles of it before bed. 

 

now that the power is back on i took the wrap off and thankfully everything is still alive at the moment. the temp was at 66 but is now slowly climbing back up. 

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I run a computer backup battery on tank for power outages. What you can do if its not charged is charge it off your car battery. I have 2 powerheads and a heater in mine and with that load it will last 2hrs.

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