Think you don't need a back up plan?

[cedarswamp]

You're wrong! 5 hours without electric and I've got three floaters, and a tank full of real stressed out fish.

Unfortunately the worst of Irene isn't even here yet so I'm not overly optimistic that the power won't go out again. Now the question remains, have I lost my mind enough to blow bubbles into my tank by blowing on a air hose?

[urbanfarmer]

You're wrong! 5 hours without electric and I've got three floaters, and a tank full of real stressed out fish.

Unfortunately the worst of Irene isn't even here yet so I'm not overly optimistic that the power won't go out again. Now the question remains, have I lost my mind enough to blow bubbles into my tank by blowing on a air hose?

Taking your hand and splashing the water as much as you can without throwing it out will create the best aeration with the least effort.

It really depends on so many factors what can eat up more oxygen or if your fish even need oxygen. I have 2x 500 gallons and a 1000 gallon without any electric. My stocking density is 1:10 fish:gallons. The 500 gallons are circular with a bit higher density than that. I keep the water somewhat green. These are hybrid aquaponic systems I'm running experiments on. Sometimes they are hooked to electric and sometimes they're not. It's really one giant experiment, but they go weeks without anything "plugged in"; so, it just depends!

Sorry to hear about the fish buddy.

[cedarswamp]

Pretty sure it was a DO issue as the three fish were among my largest, but fortunatly one of the three(who I left in the tank because he still had some gill movement) was swimming again this morning apparently no worse for the wear. These some tough critters. I guess it would all depend on your water surface area. When my pumps shut off I went from a 120 gallon system to a 55 gallon with less than 4 sq ft of surface area. Apparently too small for 23 5 to 6 inch tilapia.

[badflash]

A small airpump and air stone works wonders. These can run for days, weeks even on a computer UPS costing about $100.

[oceankyle]

It would be really cool in a situation like this to like rig up a stationary bike and you could pump some air in there with your legs! haha. Bet it would be simple too

[badflash]

A saw a bike hooked to a generator, capacitor bank and iverter. This was used to power a TV. 15 minutes of pedaling would buy you an hour of TV. I'm sure it would work for an air pump too. You'd need a wind up alarm clock. Those are getting hard to find...

[urbanfarmer]

A saw a bike hooked to a generator, capacitor bank and iverter. This was used to power a TV. 15 minutes of pedaling would buy you an hour of TV. I'm sure it would work for an air pump too. You'd need a wind up alarm clock. Those are getting hard to find...

Ya, that guy makes awesome videos. It's a great tool for kids. Make them exercise for their TV