Hello guys i live in puerto rico and we just passsed hurricane earl. A pole of electricity went down and no electricity so far in 24 hours , i expect more time without electricity... I changed 80 percent of water but i have no filtration whatsoeverrr , what can i do in the meantime to prev ent the tank spikes that are going to be produced soon?.. Thanks a lot

Unfortunately if your filters are turned off for that period of time you're going to lose your bacteria. Definitely carry out water changes to stop the toxins building up, but I'm sorry to say that you will probably have to cycle all over again.

Make sure the media does not dry out and then keep us posted on your cycling process, it will be interesting to see if any bacteria survives for that period of time. If you cycle your tank fairly quickly, then there could be some bacteria remaining alive, but I doubt many would survive, if any.

and please beware that if the filters comes back on again, the dead bacteria may lead to a massive ammonia spike.

The one time i had my canister turned off for a period that long, i resolved to cleaning the whole filter, and recycling completely.

But we had some other members, who's bacteria survived after a casualty like this.

Do not to feed the fish for now and when the filter comes back on, feed only a very small ammount.
Digested food means more ammonia, and your fish can do without food for some time.

One suggestion I have seen was to place all your bio-media in the tank itself. This coupled with a battery powered air pump if you can get hold of one, or even stirring the tank water now and again if you can't might keep some of your bacteria intact and working.

Obviously give them a rinse in tankwater to get the worst of the crap off them. You might want to put them in a mesh bag so you can fish them out when the power is back on.

I think I saw this in a sticky thread, if not here somewhere then maybe MFK.

What about temperature?

Do you have taps on the inlet / outlet pipes on your canister? Is your tank positioned somewhere near a sink where you could have the outlet tube going down a drain at a reduced flow while a hose feeds fresh water in at the top at a trickle to match? Your filter would continue to tick over using gravity and the syphon effect. Can you light a fire and keep water over it and add some warm water if it gets cold?

Good luck and hope all is well soon.
Shaz

OK, I drew a picture...you would have to keep watching the temperature of the water and periodically dose with Prime, but if you can get the hoses set up right I don't see why you couldn't keep a filter moving without electricity. This would work wouldn't it guys?

Ok guys here is the update so far, tank temp is holding at 82 degrees , my 2 hob filter aquaclear 110 went dry i filled them up with water, the other is the canister a fluval fx5 and is full of water inside.

I stopped alll feeeding as per recommendations here and gonna keep my water changes high. I got my testers ready to see if i start getting some ammonia spikes.

Is there a product i can buy to cancel out ammonia while i keep doing water changes or waste of time and just keep doing large water changes?.

Thanks for the quick replies and help will keeo u guys updated.

since you live in tropics, there would be no problem about temp.
in my case, what i did when we had no power for one week, i got 2
jug containers with faucet; fill it up with tank water, and allow it
to drip towards the tank in a controlled flow through the filter....
connect a thin hose that siphon the water from the tank to the other
container at the same rate as the water flows....and cycle the two
containers onward... all my fishes survived for more than 5 days with
out power.... just refill the water loses due to spillage....

rauljimenez wrote:


You could get some ammonia detoxifier in case of emergency, they are readily available, although I would only use them as needed and continue what you're doing.

UPDATE : Electricity came back after 1 FULL day without filters and did the test immediately after running the filters here is how it looks so far for me

Pic!


From left to right Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate!!

IMG_3313 by raulor2000 , on Flickr

rauljimenez wrote:


Wow!,,, Goodnews...but I still liked the idea of my gravity filter...might be a new electricity saving device...good to hearyourlife can get back to normal..regards..Shaz

Thanks SHaryn!! those tests are after 2 back to back 80% water changes in 24 hours !!!!! i think im good to go im gonna test it in 4 more hours and tomorrow and ill play it safe!

thanks to this forum!