[Bunbuku]

We are fine. But my plants and livestock may not do well after power outage with Ike's landfall early Sat night. Doing partial water changes and feeding lightly only every 2nd day and hoping for the best.

For those with more experience, how do you keep the filters running during a long term outage? I assume lights will be out of question unless you want to run a generator.

Hope everyone else is doing OK.

 

[Bunbuku]

Hey Pedro:

Most of Houston has no power and some have no water also. Gas and food hard to come by for many. We prepared ahead of time and have propane, some gas to run a little generator and food. We are lucky to have running water. RO/DI system came in really handy with the mandatory boil water recommendation from the city.

In my neighborhood, lots of downed trees and fences but no flooding or major damage to houses.

Thank goodness for the cool front.

 

[Bunbuku]

If it were me I would unplug the filters so they can't suddenly come back on again. If you can, save some dirty filter floss or something in a mesh bag in the main tank. That would help recycle the tank when the electricity comes back on, but I wouldn't just let the filters sit there stagnant, growing who knows what-all in them.

Wishing everyone the best. Let us know if we can do anything.

Thanks for the tip!. The Eheim is unplugged. I will give the media a brief rinse before restart.
For the future, I was looking at one of these http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/182/p/1/pt/29/product.asp to run the filters for say 12 hrs a day. The power consumption of the Ehiem 2234 is relatively low so I might be able to get it to last for a week.

 

[Bunbuku]

Well I got power last night finally! I am blessed!

Bad news: My HC carpet melted and all my tigers and Amano's died :crybaby:.

Good news: The embers (I got from Pedro) and the otos are still alive! One ember jumped out of the tank sometime when we were in the dark. Otherwise they look OK also. Bylxa, Anubias are OK, I think.

I did a massive water change, sucked out as much of the dead HC as I could, rinsed out the media and restarted everything back up.

Luis:

Sent you a PM re inverter/battery pack.

 

[Bunbuku]

I had a 99% survival rate of plants and fish in my tanks.

For my big planted tank I took the UPS from my computer, and plugged it in. Every few hours I would plug the filter in for 10-15 min then turn it off, just to keep the filter working well. When my power came back on a few days later, no ammonia, no nitrites, and only a little nitrates.

For my other tanks, I couldn't really run the filters, so I used a whisk to aerate them every few hours. It sounds silly, but it worked...

I thought of using the UPS, but constant noise would have only added to the misery (darkness, hot/humid, loud generators outside, beeping inside). In hindsight, the best solution IMO was to use those lead acid battery packs used to jump start cars + a small power inverter. Even though I had both I used it to run the TV for short periods of time, charge cell phones, etc. - need to get an extra one.

My Ecco 2234 consumes only 5 watts of power according to the specs. There is probably a way to calculate the how long the batter pack of a given capacity will last but it escapes me right now. Hoppy - if you are reading this can you comment??

A generator is probably the best option if you want to keep the tank lights running too.

However, I think running the filters may not have necessarily helped when the plants start to rot/melt. HC just does not do well without light. You probably get a really anaerobic environment resulting in H2S release.

 

[Bunbuku]

So I think y'all have already answered my question - are y'all cleaning out your filters after they have sat for more than a week with all manner of creepiness in them, before they come back on?

Hope we can have another meeting soon!

I would give the filter media in the canister a good rinsing with dechlorinated water before I turn it on. Without circulation is pretty anaerobic inside those canisters with H2S buildup (sulfur or rotten egg smell) that is toxic to aquatic life.

My HC melted away with only 4 days without light.

Good luck man!

 

[Bunbuku]

Does anyone know if HAW has oto's and Amano shrimp is stock?

 

[Bunbuku]

Thanks for the tip Bhushan! I went there yesterday (it was not easy to see from the street) and got the Oto's. Prices were excellent and these guys are healthy and vigorous.

Dan says that he can special order plants from FAN. That beats having to deal with the LFS and you know you are getting them fresh.