Emergency Protocols - help with article?

[jhemdal1]

All,

I'm working on a magazine article that will help aquarists develop emergency protocols for home aquarium systems - back-up power supplies, methods for chilling, etc. to help during power outages, equipment failures, etc.
With that in mind, I'd like to take a poll to see how pervasive this issues really is. I appreciate any help!

Thanks,

Jay Hemdal

 

[Len]

I had a power outage over night. When I woke, all my tank's inhabitants were looking very lethargic, with most of my fish laying on the bottom gasping for oxygen. I lost a few fish and corals to a simple power outage (not sure how long the power was out since I was sleeping).

 

[Anonymous]

Majority of Seattle was out of power for a week, and most LFS including Petco were out of emergency equipment.

 

[Anonymous]

My ex cranked out neighbors burned their house down. We shared the same power poll so I was out for 15 hours. Lost nothing. The tank with a sand bed I had a battery operated air pump with airlifts and the bare bottom didn't have much in it at the time. I coverred both tanks canopies with a blanket as it was the middle of a California winter (coastal). It only dropped to 68 IIRC. If it where a hot summer I bet I would have lost something.

 

[jhemdal1]

I lucked out - when the four day midwest power grid outage happened in August of 2003, I didn't have any tanks set up at home. The public aquarium where I work was 35 miles away and never lost power (although we have a natural gas generator).

Jay

p.s. - thanks all for responding to the poll so far, and please, keep on responding!

 

[discocarp]

Hurricane Charley wiped me out. 3 weeks with no power. The summer heat was the real killer for me I think.

 

[jhemdal1]

Summer heat is a real problem...you can usually jury-rig something to aerate the water, but there is not much you can do to reduce heat if you don't have electricity. I'm not positive, but I believe that heat is what killed many of the animals at the Aquarium of the Americas after Katrina.

So far, it looks like about a third of the respondants have lost animals due to power outages, but the sample size is so small, and I bet the responses are skewed to people who have had a problem - others may tend to not respond to the poll ("That has never happened to me, and probably never will....")

I think that after diseases / improper quarantine, life support failure is probably the number two killer of aquarium animals, and power outages make up a percentage of those failures. Still, its like life insurance, not a very sexy topic.



Jay

 

[Anonymous]

Jay, I can get a fairly decent response on my local club forum, would you like me to take a poll there? Likewise, MASNA has a listing of all club contacts that could be utilized to that effect as well. Need any help drop me a email or PM and I would be glad to support this

 

[WRASSER]

Yes, Herricane Katrina... ...17 out of 23 died.

 

[jhemdal1]

Well, the poll seems to have petered out a bit, so: BUMP.

Jay