Survival Stories .. Ice Storms 2007

[eskymick]

It might make for good future reference if those who found ways to save their reefs and fish only tanks in the aftermath of the Midwest ice storms of 2007.

Please recap for everyone the measures you took to keep your aquariums and reefs alive during these times of subfreezing temperatures and power outages.

[dendro982]

Mmmm, no offense, but I'm kind of sensitive to the word survivors - this is a usual winter time, and a plain improper organization from the side of the city emergency work. I already lived without water in winter for a month - the thing, unheard of in other places.

Northern America is not the only place in the world, who has subzero, not even cold, winters and a lot of countries have the problems solved in a matter of 2-3 days, with preventative measures afterward.

Shifting emphasis from necessity of them, organized in other way, ready for a season, to the individual compensation of their malfunction - will do not much good in future. If it will be considered the matter of individual heroism instead of requiring them be prepared, with time the power supply interruptions will last weeks - as a norm.

And, unless one has a separate private independent supply of power, water, should I add - salary (if the company stops working for a weeks without power and water supply, and running independent life support costs a lot), this will be the major factor of reef tank failure.

Not many of us can afford this.

Worse of all - the long power interruption in the middle of the summer heat will be even more deadly. One can't cool water on the stove :(

So far, during 38 hrs of unheated dark life, I heated water on the natural gas stove all the time (had 6 tanks then), with 4 hrs of sleep during all this time. Battery power supply (2 of them, 400W) were dead in less than 24 hrs, with a couple of Seio powerheads (2x8W) on one of them. Not enough for a fish - had to replace them by battery operated air pumps. Much better. Moved water periodically by hand.
Yes, this have to be time off work, luckily the second day was Saturday.

No losses.

And with power generators, it's not only matter of their price - thousands, but also a matter of place for their winter storage in a peaceful times, and a matter of using them in unsuitable city dwellings - like apartments and townhouses with cardboard-quality sound isolation between units, and absence of heated garages for a generator (burning gasoline in a closed room is not a good idea, in my humble opinion).

Sorry for the sour post :rolleye1:

[Rosseau]

Dendro.. did you lose power this week or are you referring to previous storms? (I see the location = Canada and am curious).