With hurricane Irene scheduled to hit the mid Atlantic coast this weekend, now is the time to prepare your aquarium for possible power outages. Since most of us do not have back up generators your aquarium could potentially be with out power for an extended period of time. Now is the time to do your water changes and clean your filtration systems. You may also want to invest in a small battery operated air pump to offer some water circulation to the aquarium. Now is the time to cut back on feeding and eliminate feeding during a power failure to reduce nutrient build up while the tank is with out power. Most fish will do just fine with out food for 2 or 3 days. If you are running a “closed†filtration system like a canister filter, remember that toxic anaerobic bacteria can build to deadly levels quickly, so disconnect these filters if you experience a power failure that lasts for more than 2 hours then clean them before restarting to prevent a tank melt down. Keep some extra conditioned water on hand for small water changes during the outage. Lastly, be prepared for the potential of rising tank temperatures during an outage by freezing some baggies of conditioned water now to float in the tank if needed.
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: Thanks Charlie!
Any back up power for the store? a simple battery/inverter system like i got would work for the FW tanks. all you have to do is power the store air pump for the under gravel bubblers. you could also run air stones to the SW tanks. lights would only be optional for the coral tanks.