Power outage

[ineke]

Well after all the heat we had a storm last night and early morning and many districts without power. Ours went out around 5 am and wasn't meant to come back on until 2100 tonight but luckily it came back on around 11 am . We didn't know it had gone off until I went into the shrimp room at 8 am and saw everything was off. Almost panic stations but that never helps so I disconnected my canister and the over head trickle filter on another tank. Luckily none of my tanks are heavily stocked and as it had cooled down drastically from yesterday's 40 degree heat so oxygen wasn't a huge problem for the tanks.

First thing I did was a water change for all the tanks . The bacteria would have died in the canister and trickle filter so they were rinsed and cleaned in RO water and put back ready to go - I didn't connect the canister because I wanted to flush it again when the power came on as it had plain RO water in it.

Anyway no shrimp losses yet so I'm hoping it will all be OK. will do a water test a bit later to see if I get any ammonia spikes and have enough RO made up to do more water changes if need be.

[BlueBolts]

Oh dear….hopefully the tanks are matured, and will see the canisters quickly. Besides O2, nitrates needs to be continually tested….I'd throw in some macropore/purigen or nitrazorb as an insurance policy if you have them. No harm doing another WC if time permits today.

[ineke]

Will test for ammonia and nitrates shortly and can do another water change after dinner. Luckily the tanks have been setup for quite some time and also had sponge filters in them so the canister and trickle filters weren't the only filter in the tanks. everything looks good at the moment and fingers crossed they will be OK.

[neosin]

I'm confused...

why did you have to disconnect the canister filter?

Even if I turn my eheim off the water is still in there?

also there would still be heaps of bacteria in sponge filters/soil/plants etc

shrimps produce hardly any waste compared to fish as well so no need to panic lol!

ive kept shrimp in a bucket for a weeks with nothing but an air pump and recently I've had cherry fry in cup of water for 3-4 days with nothing but moss and a piece of ial

:)

[Squiggle]

If you're worried about power outages you might want to look at a UPS(uninterrupted power supply) they use them for servers & mainframes, & seeing as you have solar it would be perfect. The batteries kick in in a split second(quick enough that even computers don't notice) & then when the power comes back on the solar charges the batteries back up for next time. There's a few fish guys up here that have them. :encouragement:

[ineke]

The bacteria in the canister would have died after sitting in a non circulating water. When the power comes back on all that dead bacteria would go into the tank and cause an ammonia spike . The power was off for over 6 hours - not good- believe me I lost a whole tank of beautiful Chocolate shrimp when my over head trickle filter stopped working- even with other filters in the tank , unfortunately I switched the filter back on once i unblocked it and didn't know about the dead bacteria and since I didn't initially clean the trickle filter all the bacteria went back into the tank . I managed to save some of the shrimp but it was pretty devastating. The tank smelt awful quite an acrid smell you can't forget it once you smell it.

[ineke]

If you're worried about power outages you might want to look at a UPS(uninterrupted power supply) they use them for servers & mainframes' date=' & seeing as you have solar it would be perfect. The batteries kick in in a split second(quick enough that even computers don't notice) & then when the power comes back on the solar charges the batteries back up for next time. There's a few fish guys up here that have them. :encouragement:[/quote']

We have an inverter for our caravan battery system so Alan is going to set me up with the 2 batteries and the inverter so if we lose power again I will have a back up- but of course we would need to be aware of the power failure and switch it over.

if there is a power failure as today the solar system cuts off as a safety precaution so we can't rely on solar for that.

[CNgo2006]

I dont think a UPS would be much help if power is out for hours though, UPS are meant to give the user enough time to save all their work before losing hours of work on their computer. I would look in investing in a portable power generator (petrol run) at the prices they go for these days (few hundred) it is worth it.

[ineke]

I dont think a UPS would be much help if power is out for hours though' date=' I would look in investing in a portable power generator (petrol run) at the prices they go for these days (few hundred) it is worth it.[/quote']

The battery system with an inverter should run my pumps for 8-10 hours . We have camped with no other power than the batteries for over a week using the inverter to supply lighting and run our hard drive and TV so we had something to watch at night. The two batteries work extremely well.

[Squiggle]

All depends on the size, & number, of batteries in the system. One of my mates power went out for over twelve hours & he was fine. :encouragement:

Also, with solar the batteries start charging as soon as it's daytime again. :victorious:

[keego]

The battery system with an inverter should run my pumps for 8-10 hours . We have camped with no other power than the batteries for over a week using the inverter to supply lighting and run our hard drive and TV so we had something to watch at night. The two batteries work extremely well.

.

Hi Ineke' date=' glad to hear all gone well, as they say, it don't rain it pours, from 40 degree to power lost. Didn't relies about canisters filters, thanks. Can I ask what size are your 2 batteries are & type of inverter you have.

[ineke]

The batteries are 100 amp hours each and inverter is a 2000 watt pure sine wave . When we aren't using them after our travelling we use a smart charger on them. It automatically charges them as the charge drops so they never get flat and never get over charged. We got them because of bush camping with no power and the 4WD also has an extra battery system so we can have lights and a fridge if we don't take the caravan. We have travelled in many outback deserts with just the car and a tent it's been great. Now I have the added benefit of a reserve power for my tanks pumps- the system probably won't run my heaters but the water will cool slowly so that's not so important

[keego]

Thanks, your outback adventures sound great & know very handly for your shrimps