A club for owners of Parrot Cichlids

Planning for Power Outages

[edit]What to do when the power goes out
I just thought I'd mention this again, since it's that time of year again!
During the summer, especially when it's over 90F, there are a lot of power outages. It's good to be prepared, especially if you are going on vacation. In my experience the fish can survive overnight but just barely, if there is no oxygenation. It is very risky.
We put 2 battery powered bubblers on each tank. One would probably be enough for a small tank, but two provides a backup. The ones we use only turn on when the power cuts out. They take 2 D batteries each, but they last for at least 12-18 hours.
SIlent Air B11 Air Pump (Penn Plax
You will need 1 check valve for each pump
Tetra Tec Check Valve CV-1 1 pk (Tetra) to keep all the water from siphoning out of the tank when the bubbler is off.
You will also need plenty of airline
25' Flexible Airline Tubing ST-25 (Penn Plax)
and an airstone for each pump.
Aqua-Mist Airstone - 7/16" - 4 pk. (Penn Plax)
To keep the airline and airstone down at the bottom, we thread the tubing through the hole of the tiniest sized terracotta flower pot.
So a single setup will look like this:
1. battery powered airpump - taped to the top or side of the aquarium. plug it into a power outlet.
2. One piece of airline attached to air pump on one end, with checkvalve on other end (pointing in the correct direction! Be sure to consult packaging)
A second piece of airline attached to other side of checkvalve, threaded through tiny flowerpot, with airstone on end. This is the end that goes in the tank!

Air pump--air line-- checkvalve -- air line -- flowerpot -- airstone