Power outages can occur at any time without warning, and therefore all aquarium owners should be ready to handle this situation at any given moment. Although the aquarium is safe for some time without filtration, the inhabitants cannot survive for very long without oxygen. Heat is essential when weather conditions are cold, but overheating becomes the problem when it's hot.
To prevent a complete disaster from striking when the power goes out, these emergency power supply items and manual oxygenation and heating methods will help you be prepared to provide the essential life support your aquarium needs to keep it safe.
Emergency Power Generators
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Buying an emergency power generator should be considered an investment rather than an expense. Ranging in price from about $100.00 up to thousands of dollars, such a unit can be a real life saver, not only for an aquarium, but household needs as well. From the wide variety of gasoline, propane and diesel fuel powered 120/240 volt AC and 12 volt DC output compact inverter equipped and lightweight portable, to large home/business automatic standby and commercial mobile units to choose from, consult with a professional to make sure you get the right kind for the job you want it to do.
UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply)
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UPS units are designed to automatically kick in when the power goes out to keep computers from crashing. We have both computers in our office hooked up to one, and once we even took it during a long power outage and used it to run our aquarium's sump pump. Buying a UPS specifically for aquarium use is a good investment, as a few essential pieces of equipment like a pump, powerhead and heater can be connected through it. When investing in a UPS it's wise to consider a powerful enough unit that will keep things running for a substantial period of time, because you may not there to attend to the aquarium. If you are, you can prevent exhausting the UPS to quickly by turning it off, only running it for like five minutes at half hour intervals.
More Battery Operated Equipment
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There all kinds of items that are battery operated that can be used as emergency aquarium equipment to provide the essentials -- oxygen, filtration, and heat. A good place to find such items are sporting goods and marine supply stores that sell fishing and boating supplies.
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