What To Do For Your Aquarium When the Power Goes Out

This can be a scary thing for anyone, especially if you are housing some expensive fish. Of course the best case scenario is you have a generator and you can run all your equipment with that. If this isn't an option for you here is what you do.

The first thing to address will be oxygenating the water. It is a good idea to invest in a battery operated air pump and keep it in your emergency kit with batteries and an air-stone. If you wait until the power goes out you may find they are all sold out. If your tank has an under gravel filter you can drop the air-stone into one of the filter tubes (you may have a power head attached to it). In a reef aquarium you will want it under a piece of live rock to take advantage of the beneficial bacteria living inside. If nothing else just let it hang in a corner but make sure the air hose goes at least 4 to 6 inches into the water and doesn't float back up to the surface.  For most tanks this will be enough to keep the fish safe until the power comes back on.

The second important thing is going to be controlling temperature. You will need to have a thermometer to monitor if the temperature starts to go up or down. If it starts to go above 82 degrees Fahrenheit, you can float frozen water in plastic bottles, preferably around the bubbles from your air pump. Shrimp and other invertebrates will start to die if gets too hot. More often than not the issues that cause the outage happen in the winter months, so the temperature tends to go down; this is good because most fish will tolerate temperatures as low as 68 degrees for a couple days (some fish that won't: discus and cardinal tetra). If you anticipate the outage to last longer than a couple of days, you can try to insulate the tank from the outside with foil and blankets (be sure to unplug any equipment that could be a fire hazard if the electricity were to come back on). Or if the tank is small enough you can transfer the inhabitants, and some decorations for hiding, into a clean, insulated ice chest to keep them warm; be sure to use the air stone and never close the lid all the way. Fish are more vulnerable to rapid fluctuations than prolonged time outside of the safe zone; for this reason, it is a bad idea to pour hot or cold water into the tank to change the temperature. This might cause a sudden increase then decrease in temperature, which would really stress the fish.

Lastly it is important not to put any undue stress on the system so do not feed your fish while the power is out (2 day max.). Healthy fish can go a couple days without food. If the outage lasts longer than a couple days you can start feeding them every other day, very small amounts and you will need to start testing the water for ammonia and nitrates. Do partial water changes if the test results show any ammonia or nitrates above 40ppm. If the power is going to be off for prolonged periods of time (weeks or more) you will need to invest in an under-gravel filter or a sponge filter that you can run on a battery operated air-pump. If you already have a full tank of fish you will want to seed these new filters with bacteria from an old filter, or you can purchase live bacteria at your local fish store.

Hopefully this doesn't happen to you often and if it does you're prepared and it comes back on within a few hours. Happy fish-keeping!

Do Fish Get Sunburns?

Photo by Mary O'Brien Author

Yes! Fish can get sun burns and for this reason it is important to design your pond in a way to allow them to escape from direct sunlight. Here are a few solutions that are easy and can add beauty to your pond too.

Plants. There are a lot of plants that grow and cover the surface of your pond and they all are great for shade. Here are some examples of surface growing plants:

Lily pads. Photo from Flickr 

• Water lettuce
• This plant grows at a medium pace and is great for summer. It is cold sensitive and will die off when it starts to get cooler in the fall. Because these plants don't last they are inexpensive but they need to be repurchased every year.
• Water hyacinth
• This plant also grows at a medium pace and is nice because it has a purple flower. Hyacinths also die off for winter and need to be repurchased in the spring.
• Water lilies
• These are a rhizome or root based aquatic plant. While the roots grow in soil or rocks at the bottom of the pond the leaves and flowers cover the surface of the pond. These are a good choice because when the leaves and flowers die off for the winter the roots hibernate and bloom again in spring.  Removing the need to repurchase like the two previous plants mentioned.
• Duck weed. 
• This is the fastest growing of the bunch, as a result it can be a nuisance. Some people who end up with duck weed regret getting it and then can never get it out of their pond. Duck weed is a nutritious food source and fish and koi will gobble it up, for this reason some people who want it to take off and provide shade find that their koi eat it before it can become a nuisance. Which one you will end up being depends on fish and pond size. If you have a very large natural pond I would avoid duck weed because it will be harder to control. In smaller ponds that have koi in them you could probably risk it and not have to worry. Take some time to look at pictures either way and be sure its something you would enjoy seeing all over your pond. 

                                      

   Lily flower with water lettuce in background. Photo from Flickr.

Hiding places. This can be done a number of ways and new creative hiding places are being thought up every day. Some tried and true examples are:

• Rock caves.
• Be careful when making these and make sure they are stable so they don't collapse on your fish. Its a good idea to put some weight on it too cause you never know when kids, dogs, or midnight scavengers will use them to stand on in the water. Also don't make them too narrow because fish will try to make it through even if they don't fit and can get injuries from wedging themselves between the rocks. On that same note if you build a cave next to a pond wall be sure your fish have plenty of room to fit between the cave and the wall. 
• PVC Tunnels.
• These are nice but they tend to float so you will need to weigh them down by putting some rocks into or on top of the tubing. You can get tubing with very large diameters and I would recommend it. Just like with the rock caves if the tubing is too narrow or the rocks used to weigh it down narrow the opening too much you run the risk of your fish getting wedged and injuring themselves. Do not use metal tubes because they can rust or leech toxins into the water. 
• Bridges.
• Decorative or functional bridges that cover a part of your pond also make great shade and can be quite pretty too.

Top 10 aquarium questions: 3. What type of filter do I need?

What type of filter do I need?

This depends on the type of system you want to have. Decide whether you want fresh or salt, and then decide whether you want plants or fish only. 

There are three types of filtration to consider: 

Biological, as we discussed in detail earlier is where biological organisms break immediate wastes into less toxic wastes. Identify this component of your filter because you will never want to wash it. If it gets clogged rinse in a cup of tank water, but never wash clean or rinse with tap or you will lose all those beneficial bacteria you waited so patiently to grow during your cycle. This part will usually be plastic balls, or ceramic beads, or rock in a salt system.

Chemical, most commonly carbon, uses a chemical to absorb toxins out of the water. Chemical filtration can also absorb medication out of the water which is why you remove it when treating a tank.

Mechanical, usually a foam pad, physically catches debris out of the water. This you will wash regularly but never need to replace if you buy the aqua clear filters, because their foam pad is tough. Some filters combine the carbon with the pad and don't give you a choice but to replace both, lame. 

For fresh water fish only there are many pre-boxed filters you can use. My personal favorite are Aqua Clear filters because they have all three types of filtration, and the replacement filters are easy to find or make at home. Unlike some other filters where you have to find their brand or it won't fit into the filter. 

For fresh water planted you will want a filter that doesn't disturb the surface of the water. plants need light for photosynthesis, and ripples in the water deflect light. Good filters for this purpose are canister filters, my favorite being the Fluval G series. Which is digital and gives you read outs of temp, flow rate, and many other cool options. 

For salt water in general we have the unique ability to use live rock as biological filtration. You'll need rock and a pump to move water around the tank and through the rock. Many people stopped using carbon in salt tanks back when it leeched phosphates into their tanks, which kills corals, but now you can get reef carbon for a slightly higher price which does not leech phosphates. There are other types of chemical filtration for saltwater tanks, most of which are specific to reefs. These include bio-plastics, like the ones two little fishes makes, Granular ferric oxide or GFOs, and a few random others. These are most commonly used in Reefs so I will discuss them further in the reef section below. 

For salt water fish only, you can run them on live rock alone, however I prefer some sort of mechanical filtration, at least in the beginning to help clarify the water. Any of the filters mentioned thus far will work for this, I personally have used a Fluval and an Aqua Clear on two separate tanks and liked them both. Maintenance for a fish only is similar to a fresh water fish only, the only additional work being monitoring salt content of the water. Which is easy with a hydrometer or refractometer. Also most stores sell pre mixed salt water now, so you don't have to hassle with mixing it at home. If you do decide to mix at home it's a good idea to do this the night before so as not to burn your fish with undissolved salt. 

For saltwater reef, which just means saltwater with plants and or corals of any kind.You will need all the same equipment from fish only plus a protein skimmer. The protein skimmer mimics the wave action of the ocean by producing many small bubbles and catching the protein build up, aka the "skimate", and removing it from the tank. This serves two purposes. One it removes excess nitrogen from the tank which improves water quality, and Two this also improves clarity. Both of these are important for corals. Although fish can tolerate nitrate levels up to 40 ppm with no problems at all, corals need the nitrates to be below 10 ppm and 0 ppm is best. You will also need a phosphate reactor to help keep your phosphates at zero. The reactor is sold empty and you can choose to purchase GFO or bio-plastics. The difference being that GFO targets phosphates specifically, and bio-plastics act as a food source for bacteria that breaks down both nitrates and phosphates. I use the bioplastics but if you ever find yourself with high phosphates and need them down quick GFOs are your best bet.

Why I Like Aquariums

I have always had a love of science fiction and related movies. Leviathan, The Abyss, and Deep Star Six for example.

I also really enjoy gardening and growing things. The aquarium allows me to create a little world with growing things like plants and corals and animal life that can't be found on land.

I once related it to creating a bio-dome for life on mars or another planet, which I would also love to do. The chemistry and attention to detail of tank parameters is very important.

It's also rewarding to be able to look at a tank and see your dedication rewarded, and equally as crushing to see something go wrong. That's one of the reasons I've started this blog: to help others avoid some of the mistakes I have made.