Hurricane survival for you aquarium...

[Gerwin]

Well we should all know that a generator would be the nice thing but what if:

*you dont have one

**you are out of gas

***or several days from getting it going

****or it dont work when you need it most

Having the battery operated air pumps around are a good idea, cheap and use D cell batteries and I know if you run for about 1 hr every 3-4 hours you can keep your fish alive for at least 6 days because that the number of days one battery operated pump kept my fish alive.

Taking a pitcher and scooping up tank water and pouring it back in will also work in a pinch, I would recommend doing it several times every hour and I have used this method as well

Basically you are looking to agitate the surface of the water to allow O2 to penetrate the surface and you do not want it to become stagnate. Your nitrfying filter bed will also need the oxygen to stay alive and prevent deadly ammonia from developing.

Other points,

I would recommend not feeding to eliminate unneeded waste in the tank (most fish have no problem with a week of no food)

Open lids and do not run lights ( you do not want to allow tank temp to get to high and assuming you have no electricity for A/C, keeping the tank cooler will allow for better oxygen levels in the tank).

And now for some shameless self promotion,

We do have these cool battery operated pumps for only 16.99 that you plug in to wall outlet and when the power cuts off they automatically turn on, wether you are home or not.

So there you go my hurricane survival tips for your aquarium, good luck!

[RickD]

Last year the generator saved my tank. I also used a small window AC if you put the AC close to the tank it helps keep it cool and don’t hurt you either.

[Dan(FishMan)]

During Katrina I ran my tank for 2 hours a day using the generator and everybody made it fine...

[Sandy]

I rigged up a bait saver punp for my tank. It really moves the water around. You need a fully charged boat battery (or the likes of one) to hook the bait saver up to. I put the pump into the tank before the storm and when the power went out, as soon as the worst of the storm went through, my neighbor came over and hooked the punp to the battery. It was still running the next day when we came back into town. I also have a power converter that I can hook up to the boat battery and use to plug in an air pump.

We wired our house to a generator and was able to keep my tank up and running. All of my fish and corals are still alive and well.

Heck, I have even run a generator just for my tank.