Being prepared for emergencies just might be the difference between averting a complete tank disaster and just a regular day. Power outages can be one of the most devastating emergencies you experience. I was reminded about this early this morning. My power went out sometime in the middle of the night. I wasn’t aware of the outage until I woke up to daylight but my clock showing 4:23 am, much too early for daylight here this time of year.
I got up and checked all of my tanks this morning and, thankfully, every battery powered air pump was running. I have battery powered air pumps on my tanks with larger fish. These pumps are AC powered but have built-in, rechargeable batteries and automatically turn on when the AC power stops.
Anyway, the pumps I use are by Cobalt Aquatics. Yes that aquarium company who produces many popular aquarium components, from submersible heaters to food. I use their Rescue Air DC pumps. For more information about Cobalt, visit their website. You might also learn a bit by seeing the interview I did a few years ago with one of its founders, Les Wilson.
I could swear that I did a blog post about these pumps, but it doesn’t appear I have. I’ll do a post detailing the pumps in a few days, but suffice it to say that I am a fan.
Yes, there are other brands of battery powered pumps, some that incorporate rechargeable batteries and some that only use disposables. I have both types. There are also many types of battery back-ups (e.g, APC) and generators that you can use. The point is, it is a good idea to have some mechanism in place to provide surface agitation in the event of complete power loss. As I’ve stated before, your fish will suffocate (especially your larger ones) long before your biological media will deteriorate to the point of poisoning your fish with foul water.
A few years ago, I posted about some steps you can take to be prepared for several emergencies. I also posted about using battery powered air pumps, before I bought the Cobalt pumps.