Oklahoma/Missouri Ice Storm..Power out for 7-10 days

[curthendrix]

Any tips you might have for those with reef aquariums would be very much appreciated. The scene here is amazing. Huge trees down everywhere...many neighborhoods are impassable...huge portions of the City of Tulsa is without power. Really looks like a warzone.

[smatter]

Buy a generator. Battery operated air pumps help.

[landlord]

Some Florida hurricane tricks might be helpful.

Generator (of course, you wouldn't be here if you had one)
Battery powered air pump from Petco (They were the olny people open when I lived in FL during 2004 hurricanes.)
DC Inverter run from vehicle via extension cord. This is nice because you can turn on the car for about 5 minutes every hour to keep the AC pumps running.

Good Luck Hopefully all goes well. --landlord

[kslick]

Good luck, I lived in Tulsa and know how bad it can get.

[Sk8r]

What I know. 62 degrees on temperature is the bottom limit between life and lethality for a reef critter.

If you can ascertain that one part of your town still has power, pack your computer backup in the car and go to a bar in that area. Beg them to let you plug in while you put back a few...and sober up.

If you run your pump only 5 minutes an hour you can parlay a little backup juice into more time.

Concentrate all your living and sleeping into the room with the tank. Just the body heat of several people and a cocker spaniel can help.

Get some of that thick house insulation and pack it around your tank and your sump. That will slow down heat loss.

Go to Walmart and get those fisherman's hand packs that heat. Use them in ziplocks.

This is the best reason I know for understocking. If you can put some of your fish in the sump fuge, some in the tank you might spread out oxy use.

[Rosseau]

Ah. This is looking a little like the ice storm of '98 here in my part of the world.. some people were without power for around a month.

Total damages near $1.5 billion. I know of at leat one reef that bit the dust.

Best of luck.

[Rosseau]

If you can get your hands on a car battery or two, and an inverter, you will likely be able to rig up enough power to run your pumps and heater.

[RumLad]

If you have a gas stove, heat water and place in ziplock bags, tupperware containers anything that can be sealed and float in the tank to transfer heat. Siphon out some water volume if possible to make it easier to heat the remaining batch. Get that battery powered airstone running asap.

[daven]

Instead of a car battery or two get deep charge marine (boat) batteries and an inverter. But make sure the inverter produces pure sine wave. You'll need to rig a charger between the marine batteries and car to keep them charged. Or maybe one of those solar battery chargers.