Hurricane ready

[jamielynn]

Tips for getting a 90 gallon tank prepared for Hurricane Sandy and a week of living on a generator?

We bought a second heater and put it in the tank since our house will not have heat for a while.... What else do we need to do?? Thanks.


P.S- we are expected to start getting it Sunday night.

 

[Amba]

The most important two things:

O2
Heat

Things you can do for the heat:

Wrap your tank up in blankets/quilts
Float jugs of warm water inside (if you have a gas stove you can boil the water then fill empty jugs and float them)
Heaters use quite a bit of energy keep that in mind

O2
Invest in a battery powered airstone if the generator runs out
Make sure your powerheads are on, I recommend using your return pump over all else
Avoid feeding your fish much, keep everything calm
Leave your lights off, you don't need them and they use way too much energies

Good luck

 

[yote]

Make sure that you have enough supplies for you and your family are the #! priorities.

As far as the tank. Just try to keep the temp stable and something to move the water. Either a powerhead or battery operated airstone. Anything that will cause some current.
Leave the lights off. A few days without light will piss some of the corals off, but they should be fine.

 

[jamielynn]

Make sure that you have enough supplies for you and your family are the #! priorities.
.

Got all that this morning! Haha, we were at walmart last night and all I could think about was a heater- my boyfriend was like we will just cuddle up in warm blankets and be fine! I told him I wasn't thinking about us silly,I was talking about for the fish!! LOL :D

 

[jamielynn]

The most important two things:

O2
Heat

Things you can do for the heat:

Wrap your tank up in blankets/quilts
Float jugs of warm water inside (if you have a gas stove you can boil the water then fill empty jugs and float them)
Heaters use quite a bit of energy keep that in mind

O2
Invest in a battery powered airstone if the generator runs out
Make sure your powerheads are on, I recommend using your return pump over all else
Avoid feeding your fish much, keep everything calm
Leave your lights off, you don't need them and they use way too much energies

Good luck

Didn't think about wrapping the tank in blankets! We don't have a gas stove, but can heat water on the grill...Will check into this idea....
So if we use a powered airstone, we don't need to have to powerheads on?
This might be a stupid question, but what do you mean "using the retun pump"?

Thanks so much!

 

[yote]

Didn't think about wrapping the tank in blankets! We don't have a gas stove, but can heat water on the grill...Will check into this idea....
So if we use a powered airstone, we don't need to have to powerheads on?
This might be a stupid question, but what do you mean "using the retun pump"?

Thanks so much!

The air pumps will keep some water movement. But I'd still try to run at least one powerhead if at all possible. Water flow is the life of the tank.
If you have a sump, then you can keep the return pump running, which will keep the water moving and help with gas exchange. That would actually be better than a powerhead or airstone.

 

[jamielynn]

We have friends who during Hurricane Irene used a generator for the full tank (and other stuff) and only turned it on for about 8 hours...They were out of power for a week and the tank was just fine. Everything survived.


Thoughts..? I think this is what will end up happening here during Hurricane Sandy.

 

[yote]

50/ 50 shot.

 

[jamielynn]

She said that I need to take a pitcher full of water (tank water) and dump it into the tank to keep the water moving every hour.

Thanks for all the advice!! Hoping and praying everything survives :)
(I'm probably worrying for no reason...)

 

[Ted]

If you look in the fishing section of walmart they have battery powered air pumps. Costs like 12 bucks get some extra batteries and a air stone in the pet department. Should be enough movement to keep the tank alive. When fishing i kept shrimp alive for days with one.

 

[jamielynn]

This is off topic to what the original post is about, but my salinity has dropped from 1.025 to 1.023 in about 2 weeks....Is this normal?

What is the range of salinity that is considered 'ok' and when should I start worrying about it being to low? (I am already worrying now...) I guess I need to take a trip to the store and buy salt water? And if I need to add saltwater, should I just do a water change?

Also, my cleaner shrimp has gone MIA...Normally he is perched on the rock however he has been hiding under a conch shell since yesterday morning. I spent an hour trying to find him.. The only time I have seen him is when I feed, but its only his antennas. Is this a normal thing???

 

[yote]

When you top the tank off today, just use saltwater. That'll bring the salinity back up some. Your skimmer will pull some salt. Splashing and salt creep will also work to lower the salinity.

As for your shrimp hiding. It could be the approaching storm. Shrimp, fish, and such will still react to weather and storms just as they would in the wild. The rising and fall of the barometric pressures works the same inside the house as it does outside.

 

[lilmatty5dimes]

Some1 down here during the bad storms in florida when we got 3 back-2-back-2-back where just moving there hand in the tank just to keep the water moving. he didnt losing anything and he was w/o power for like a week. so, water movement i think is the most important thing

 

[cvcdrk]

I too am preparing for the worst.

Anyone care to give me advice? I do not have access to a generator as I live in an apartment.

I bought two battery-powered pumps and airstones at Petco.

They will run constantly if the power goes out and I have extra batteries for them.

I doubt they will produce enough water movement, though, so my plan for that is to stir the tank as often as possible. If the power outage is wide-spread I shouldn't have to go to work I hope so I can be there to stir the tank.

Another question would be feeding the tank....should I feed at all or try to wait it out?

I'm extremely concerned at this point. I am directly in the "ALERT" zone from weather.com and in the "likely" zone for widespread power outages...which is not a common thing around here. I can't even remember the last time we had a power outage was. This is very disconcerting. I do not want to lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth crap in my tank!!!!

I'm stressing hard about this stupid storm. Is there anything else I can do to be prepared?

 

[Amba]

Your battery powered pumps will be fine. Stir up the water by hand once in a while, try your best to keep it warm and it will be fine. Tanks are delicate things but they can handle some abuse and pull through. Just do your best that's all you can do. I wouldn't feed the tank, def do not feed corals. Also remember to turn off your skimmer if you have to prime it, and I would kill your overflow and unplug your return just in case something weird happens with the power. To keep it warm like I said if you have a gas stove boil some water, put it in some jugs and float them in the tank. It will keep your tank nice and toasty. Wrap it up in towels and a quilt if you can too.Just keep that water moving and you will be fine.