Power Outage Fears

[nyuu]

hey there, I have always been terrified of a lasting power outage killing my tank. I had a battery back up but it broke and I cant afford a new one right now. I was wondering if anyone knows how long do i have until fish and corals die or are damages beyond recovery? I assume it varies from size to size, I have a peco reef only 7.9g.

also is there any DIY things I can do in a crisis to give the power more time to come back on?! like water changes...ect

 

[Pistol]

you can get a battery powered air pump pretty cheap at princess auto, put hot water in a water bottle and float it for heat.

 

[SamB]

Depending on the time of year that an outage occurs, your main threat will be keeping the tank at a reasonable temperature.
Smaller tanks like yours will lose (or gain) heat faster due to the small volume of water
I've got a generator that helped me save all of my stock during the ice storm in 2013 but generally 24 hours or less will be the max that you can leave a tank without power
I've never done this but a few reefers have told me that they "stir" the tank with a plastic spoon to break surface tension and keep the oxygen exchange occurring
With a power outage, I'd be willing to try anything !!

 

[derrick orosz]

last year i foaled bottles of hot water and that kept the temp and every hour or so i would take the syphon tube for water changes and spend a couple minutes blowing air into the tank. I also put a couple thick blankets around the tank to help keep the heat in

 

[scubasteve]

i went 14 hours without power but was not home to deal with it and had a total system crash have been told to wrap in blankets and put in a air pump but that only helps if your there to do it a couple air stones is enough to move the water till its back ideally generator but little battery pumps are very cheap

 

[harleymike]

I bought a portable generator, problem solved. I can run everything thats important in my house on it.
The generator was 500 bucks. I think thats pretty cheap insurance.