Power outage

[rubyduby]

This will be my first year living in Southwest Florida during hurricane season.. I would like to know how best to prepare for a power outage...My pond is 900 gallons, 30" deep and houses 7 shubunkins....How long would they be able to survive without anyone here? (in case I have to evacuate) I have read that a battery powered aerator would help...If pump is off for a few days would the dying bacteria cause the water to become toxic and kill my fish? Would a water change be called for when I turn the pump back on?

 

[brokensword]

This will be my first year living in Southwest Florida during hurricane season.. I would like to know how best to prepare for a power outage...My pond is 900 gallons, 30" deep and houses 7 shubunkins....How long would they be able to survive without anyone here? (in case I have to evacuate) I have read that a battery powered aerator would help...If pump is off for a few days would the dying bacteria cause the water to become toxic and kill my fish? Would a water change be called for when I turn the pump back on?

your bacteria shouldn't die just because you lose power. Might impact their numbers, but you'll still have it. Aeration is very important and yeah, battery backup is going to be your only choice if you're no around. Water movement, whether by aerator or pump, that will help. You won't be feeding, so you don't have to worry as much re water params.

Now, the severity and risk is all up to how much fish load you have, how warm the air+water, how much water movement, how long power is out. Lots of variables. This is the ponder's nightmare, so glad you're thinking ahead. The larger the pond, the more latitude you have when this happens. The larger the herd, the less your chances of no loss. Sort of goes like that but water movement/aeration is the most important, imo.

 

[rubyduby]

your bacteria shouldn't die just because you lose power. Might impact their numbers, but you'll still have it. Aeration is very important and yeah, battery backup is going to be your only choice if you're no around. Water movement, whether by aerator or pump, that will help. You won't be feeding, so you don't have to worry as much re water params.

Now, the severity and risk is all up to how much fish load you have, how warm the air+water, how much water movement, how long power is out. Lots of variables. This is the ponder's nightmare, so glad you're thinking ahead. The larger the pond, the more latitude you have when this happens. The larger the herd, the less your chances of no loss. Sort of goes like that but water movement/aeration is the most important, imo.

Great advice, thank you brokensword...

 

[Mmathis]

Agree that fish load, temperature, and length of time will likely be your biggest obstacles. I have goldfish in a little over 1000 gallons, and while I’ve never lost power for DAYS at a time, we do have periodic outages, and I have had times where the circuit breaker flipped and I wasn’t aware of how long power was off to the pond. My pond gets a good amount of shade which is helpful in summer (temps can range from hi 90’s to triple digits). I have never lost fish. My pond is in transition, so still using the Skippy — I just make sure that the Skippy is plumbed so that the water level in the stock tank stays full, even when the pump is off. Nothing worse than dried out biomedia.

 

[rubyduby]

Agree that fish load, temperature, and length of time will likely be your biggest obstacles. I have goldfish in a little over 1000 gallons, and while I’ve never lost power for DAYS at a time, we do have periodic outages, and I have had times where the circuit breaker flipped and I wasn’t aware of how long power was off to the pond. My pond gets a good amount of shade which is helpful in summer (temps can range from hi 90’s to triple digits). I have never lost fish. My pond is in transition, so still using the Skippy — I just make sure that the Skippy is plumbed so that the water level in the stock tank stays full, even when the pump is off. Nothing worse than dried out biomedia.

Thank you Mmathis...encouraging

 

[Dimelius]

This will be my first year living in Southwest Florida during hurricane season.. I would like to know how best to prepare for a power outage...My pond is 900 gallons, 30" deep and houses 7 shubunkins....How long would they be able to survive without anyone here? (in case I have to evacuate) I have read that a battery powered aerator would help...If pump is off for a few days would the dying bacteria cause the water to become toxic and kill my fish? Would a water change be called for when I turn the pump back on?

ill be worried about fishes before bacteria about die...coz bacterias need more less oxigen then a fish...if is a balanced pond, can run alone for a bit, if the bioloads isn't too much.

Bad that is a hurricane problem, coz that can take away everything or a solution was a low solar pump(if you are away and no power, it will keep running), but can't resist to hurricane's strengh i suppose

Battery powered aerator or Pump will be a good idea.

 

[rubyduby]

ill be worried about fishes before bacteria about die...coz bacterias need more less oxigen then a fish...if is a balanced pond, can run alone for a bit, if the bioloads isn't too much.

Bad that is a hurricane problem, coz that can take away everything or a solution was a low solar pump(if you are away and no power, it will keep running), but can't resist to hurricane's strengh i suppose

Battery powered aerator or Pump will be a good idea.

Thanks Dimelius...I will definitely look for a good battery powered aerator...

 

[j.w]

We've got a big generator here for our whole house that takes care of the pond too. When we first moved out here to the sticks we used to have power outages all the time and once for over a week! Now that we spent the money for the generator we hardly ever get any outages that last for over an hour or so usually. Oh well ya can't take the money w/ya when ya go to the great beyond

 

[rubyduby]

We've got a big generator here for our whole house that takes care of the pond too. When we first moved out here to the sticks we used to have power outages all the time and once for over a week! Now that we spent the money for the generator we hardly ever get any outages that last for over an hour or so usually. Oh well ya can't take the money w/ya when ya go to the great beyond

Same happened to me when I lived in Charlottesville j.w. ..I bought a whole house Briggs and Stratton generator (everyone told me that I needed one because the power went out a lot), had a HUGE in ground propane tank installed, ect.. and I NEVER had any power outages after installing it...Over 10K spent and not recovered when I sold my house

 

[j.w]

Same happened to me when I lived in Charlottesville j.w. ..I bought a whole house Briggs and Stratton generator (everyone told me that I needed one because the power went out a lot), had a HUGE in ground propane tank installed, ect.. and I NEVER had any power outages after installing it...Over 10K spent and not recovered when I sold my house

Fortunately we didn't buy one that expensive. It is on wheels and hooked up in the garage w/a cord to our outlet so we can roll it outside. It does do our whole house tho, except we wouldn't try to use the dryer or oven, any huge gas eaters as that wouldn't work very well. It does what we need tho and ours does get some usage as once in awhile we do have the outages. Think we bought it at Costco several yrs ago.

 

[rubyduby]

Fortunately we didn't buy one that expensive. It is on wheels and hooked up in the garage w/a cord to our outlet so we can roll it outside. It does do our whole house tho, except we wouldn't try to use the dryer or oven, any huge gas eaters as that wouldn't work very well. It does what we need tho and ours does get some usage as once in awhile we do have the outages. Think we bought it at Costco several yrs ago.

Good move

 

[brokensword]

We've got a big generator here for our whole house that takes care of the pond too. When we first moved out here to the sticks we used to have power outages all the time and once for over a week! Now that we spent the money for the generator we hardly ever get any outages that last for over an hour or so usually. Oh well ya can't take the money w/ya when ya go to the great beyond

what's your generator running on? On wheels makes me think 'gasoline'...I'm looking to get a whole house gen too, but probably one running on natural gas, though it's expensive. Taken 3 years to save up for it, still pontificationg though...

 

[j.w]

what's your generator running on? On wheels makes me think 'gasoline'...I'm looking to get a whole house gen too, but probably one running on natural gas, though it's expensive. Taken 3 years to save up for it, still pontificationg though...

Yep regular old @GBBUDD sniffin type gasoline. We don't have access to natural gas here but we have propane. Just decided back then that this one would be fine. Not many power outages so even if gas goes up to $7 a gallon we'll be ok. At least for using it in the generator..............the cars are different horror story tho! If ya don't think you will be using it that much I wouldn't spend the big bucks on it IMHO but hey it's your money or at least half your money. Your wifey might rather have a Ferrari

 

[SarahT]

When I lived in Chicago and lost power for nearly a week in the summer during 90 degree weather, with a pond size and fish load similar to yours, the fish did fine, despite no extra aeration (I was surprised).
Before I moved down here, H-Irma in 2017 took out power for almost a week, though the evacuation duration was 48 hours. I have a small battery aerator, but I know I'm running the risk of looking like a bad pond-fish-owner ...

 

[addy1]

what's your generator running on? On wheels makes me think 'gasoline'...I'm looking to get a whole house gen too, but probably one running on natural gas, though it's expensive. Taken 3 years to save up for it, still pontificationg though...

Sigh...................electrician hubby decided we needed a generator (did bring a whole house one from AZ, other hubby never hooked up, hook the sucker up comes on auto, gas or propane) new hubby never hooked up, then he has bought 3 other smaller ones, never have started hooked up............

But in the last 10ish years we loss power once, car accident took down the wires.

We do have heat no matter what, propane ventless heater.