With all the power failures, winter and summer, all octo keepers need an emergency plan in case of such a power outage.
If the power goes out, you need to worry about oxygen and heat, but mostly likely the power will be back on before filtration becomes a problem. Light is not a problem.
The easiest solution is to have an auxiliary power supply for your powerhead (and heater, if necessary) There are also battery-operated bubblers, but you'd have the problem of bubbles in the octo tank. Other equiment is also available, such as battery-operated pumps.
Here's what you can do if you don't have this extra equipment:
If you have a bimac, it will tolerate lower temperatures (at least the upper 50's), so it's the summer power failure that's a problem for that species. For our tropical octopuses. heat needs to be retained.
You can insulate the tank with newspaper, using duct tape to hold it around the tank. This will prevent further heat loss.
As I've mentioned before, you can add heat by using plastic bottles or jugs full of very hot water (best to use salt water or buffered RO/DI water, just in case some escapes). Most people have some form of auxiliary heat, such as a gas grill or a propane stove or even a fire in the fireplace, so that the water for the bottles can be heated. Then float the bottles in the tank. You can spoon water over the bottles to facilitate heat transfer and add some oxygen. Remember that you can add oxygen by scooping out a cup of water and pouring it back into the tank - the more distance you pour, the more you oxygenate.
In case of a summer power failure, you can fill the bottles with ice water from your refrigerator. I keep on hand some ice cubes made of distilled water to use for making cold water to float. The newspaper insulation works for retaining cold as well as heat.
AboutSaltwater has a number of articles for handling reef tanks during power failures, including references to where you can buy plain and fancy back up equipment. Sart here with manual oxygenation:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquariumcare/a/aa110603_oxygen.htm
Please feel free to contribute your own solutions to handling a power failure.
Nancy
If the power goes out, you need to worry about oxygen and heat, but mostly likely the power will be back on before filtration becomes a problem. Light is not a problem.
The easiest solution is to have an auxiliary power supply for your powerhead (and heater, if necessary) There are also battery-operated bubblers, but you'd have the problem of bubbles in the octo tank. Other equiment is also available, such as battery-operated pumps.
Here's what you can do if you don't have this extra equipment:
If you have a bimac, it will tolerate lower temperatures (at least the upper 50's), so it's the summer power failure that's a problem for that species. For our tropical octopuses. heat needs to be retained.
You can insulate the tank with newspaper, using duct tape to hold it around the tank. This will prevent further heat loss.
As I've mentioned before, you can add heat by using plastic bottles or jugs full of very hot water (best to use salt water or buffered RO/DI water, just in case some escapes). Most people have some form of auxiliary heat, such as a gas grill or a propane stove or even a fire in the fireplace, so that the water for the bottles can be heated. Then float the bottles in the tank. You can spoon water over the bottles to facilitate heat transfer and add some oxygen. Remember that you can add oxygen by scooping out a cup of water and pouring it back into the tank - the more distance you pour, the more you oxygenate.
In case of a summer power failure, you can fill the bottles with ice water from your refrigerator. I keep on hand some ice cubes made of distilled water to use for making cold water to float. The newspaper insulation works for retaining cold as well as heat.
AboutSaltwater has a number of articles for handling reef tanks during power failures, including references to where you can buy plain and fancy back up equipment. Sart here with manual oxygenation:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquariumcare/a/aa110603_oxygen.htm
Please feel free to contribute your own solutions to handling a power failure.
Nancy