Power Issue

[aspguru]

Being in central Alabama, things are about to get ugly here with hurricane Ivan. If I lose power, how important is it that I have the filter and everything going? Right now it is a cycling tank with no fish. Do I need to find a small generator or something that is going to keep the filter running or should I worry about it at all?

 

[aresgod]

u should not worry about it majorly lights and water movement are good but not incredibly necessary, my suggestion is that u buy a battery operated air pump for liveaquaria.com there like 6 bucks have it overnighted to you and buy a whole bunch of batteries, judging from what u have said about ur tank it is fairly well established and air pump will significantly lessen the amount of damage done to your tank and will help keep your levels where they are, plus the air pump is just a good thing to have
Brahm

 

[S.Reef]

Yeah...a battery operated pump is a good option. Don't buy any fish until the hurrivane passes.

 

[aspguru]

How important is it to have a hospital tank set up? Do I need to do that before I get fish or is it not necessary?

 

[Lotus]

Some pet stores also sell the battery powered air pumps. I don't have one, but they are probably useful to have around for emergencies.

What size tank is it? I wouldn't really bother with a hospital or quarantine tank if you have a 10g or 20g, although it's always good practice. If you have a larger tank, it's really good, as you can stock more safely and won't have to medicate your whole tank. Even if you get healthy looking fish from a well kept fish store, they can still bring diseases to the tank. Ich is incredibly common, and internal parasites are common with wild caught fish.

 

[wayne]

The battery powered pump will be fine for you. With spare batteries of course.
I would advise quarantining everything for a month that goes into your tank. You only need to get ich or velvet once, and lose all your fish, and then you realise how little bother it is comparatively.

 

[S.Reef]

Quarantine all fish. This is not negotiable. Let me speak from first hand experience. I could of saved about 400 dollars in fish buy simply quaranting them. I know have a fully operational quarantine tank and nothing goes into my displays without first going into this tank. Also don't buy any fish until the storm has passed.

 

[aspguru]

I have a 29 gallon tank that I had a few years back for my fresh tank I could use. What is the suggested set up for these? Do I need to have a filter running on it all the time? Does it always need to be up and running? Do I need to add live sand and/or rock? How does one usually run one of these guys?

 

[1979camaro]

no need to run it all the time, just fill it up with water from the display when it is time to QT...i keep a filter pad in my sump which i then add to the QT tank to provide biological filtration

bare bottom with black paper under, no rock...just some pipe to provide cover

 

[dbacksrat]

so is your tank cycling with live rock, or is it just doing one of those annoying ammonia-added fishless cycles? if it is the latter, and the power goes out for awhile, it won't be that big a deal because you can start over again (except for the time spent wishing you could hurry the process along)....
i am doing my math homework right now (college algebra--ouch) and i just read what i typed--and i am also happy to announce that i have no idea what i'm talking about

 

[1979camaro]

college algebra? didnt know there was such a thing

and whether you are cycling with live rock or ammonia or dead shrimp the power failure wont matter...if you were cycling with fish it will be a problem i suppose

 

[dbacksrat]

i'm a junior in high school and i'm taking a college level algebra class--it is not fun...i had the option to get a college credit for the class, but i barely failed the special test for dual enrollment

if the power goes out with live rock, won't anything alive in and/or on them die?

 

[rayraycanuck]

Don't worry about the tank. You can start cycling again later. Take care and stay safe if you are near the hurricane. All the best.

 

[1979camaro]

not likely that stuff will die on the LR unless the tank gets really cold, most of the stuff on it doesnt need a lot (or any) light so ambient lighting from open blinds or whatever ought to take care of that

 

[dbacksrat]

so according to the news, the big bad part of the storm has passed--how's your neighborhood looking? good luck--i can't imagine what it would be like to be over there right now...

 

[fishdude07]

good luck

 

[1979camaro]

my grandmother is in coffee county (look for Enterprise on the map near the coast) and she has been out of power and water since this AM about 9 their time...no estimates on restoration supposedly AL wasnt hit too terribly hard esp in the north/cetnral area

 

[aspguru]

The neighborhood looks ok but the road getting to it is ugly. I counted 3 trees down on powerlines and countless amounts of trees down. I'm at work now charging my laptop and cell phone. Hopefully I'll have power by today.