Vincerama2
Supporting Member
Luckilyl;
1) The kids were just about to get into bed
2) I bought 18 solar path lights last week, and with the charge in the nicads that came with them, they made nice "torches" in the house. They even look like torches if you hold them!
3) I had also just bought batteries for all my little LED flashlights
but more importantly;
4) I found my Pen Plax B10 (or B11) battery driven air pump and also a NIB Azoo battery powered air pump, which didn't work until I took it apart and gave the little DC motor a spin, with fresh batteries.
So, having a way to pump air through an air-line (thought not through air STONES, as I think Gresham mentioned years ago when the topic of backup-air pumps came up, so that the bubbles were big and not a fine mist of bubbles) was great but when I found out that power might not be restored until the next morning I had to figure out a way to keep the water warm.
Well, I put REALLY HOT water into a milk jug and stuck it into the tank, but after that, the tank was on it's own. I think the 58g of water volume (actually less I suppose) was able to keep from dropping to VERY COLD temps, but really, there was no way to keep the water warm short of HEATING TANK WATER ON THE STOVE (which is gas).
The power kicked in at about 3 or 3:30 AM, I had to get out of bed to turn off all the lights that were still on, and also to shut off the Azoo battery pump (the penn plax shuts off when power is restored). The MHs fired up as well so I had to turn their timers, whcih are now screwed up.
All in all, I THINK that the tank mostly escaped, but it had me thinking about how to heat the tank. Again, luckily I have a gas stove (and matches!) and a gas water heater (not sure if the water heater's thermostat would keep the water hot in an extended blackout though), but aside from that, what options are there? I doubt (but don't KNOW) if a computer UPS would run an aquarium heater for very long, and I DO have a gas generator ... but no gas
Vince
1) The kids were just about to get into bed
2) I bought 18 solar path lights last week, and with the charge in the nicads that came with them, they made nice "torches" in the house. They even look like torches if you hold them!
3) I had also just bought batteries for all my little LED flashlights
but more importantly;
4) I found my Pen Plax B10 (or B11) battery driven air pump and also a NIB Azoo battery powered air pump, which didn't work until I took it apart and gave the little DC motor a spin, with fresh batteries.
So, having a way to pump air through an air-line (thought not through air STONES, as I think Gresham mentioned years ago when the topic of backup-air pumps came up, so that the bubbles were big and not a fine mist of bubbles) was great but when I found out that power might not be restored until the next morning I had to figure out a way to keep the water warm.
Well, I put REALLY HOT water into a milk jug and stuck it into the tank, but after that, the tank was on it's own. I think the 58g of water volume (actually less I suppose) was able to keep from dropping to VERY COLD temps, but really, there was no way to keep the water warm short of HEATING TANK WATER ON THE STOVE (which is gas).
The power kicked in at about 3 or 3:30 AM, I had to get out of bed to turn off all the lights that were still on, and also to shut off the Azoo battery pump (the penn plax shuts off when power is restored). The MHs fired up as well so I had to turn their timers, whcih are now screwed up.
All in all, I THINK that the tank mostly escaped, but it had me thinking about how to heat the tank. Again, luckily I have a gas stove (and matches!) and a gas water heater (not sure if the water heater's thermostat would keep the water hot in an extended blackout though), but aside from that, what options are there? I doubt (but don't KNOW) if a computer UPS would run an aquarium heater for very long, and I DO have a gas generator ... but no gas
Vince
