Load shedding has pretty much become synonymous with South African culture, whether we like that fact or not, it is here to stay. And unfortunately, as fish keepers, this means having to make sure our aquariums and fish survive the 2+ hours without power. And that also includes unplanned power outages and cable theft, which also seem to happen more often these days. But fear not! I am here to help without breaking the bank or your wallet. There are two big killers in hour hobby when there is no power. Heat loss and lack of filtration. While heat loss is less of an issue with bigger aquariums due to larger volumes of water, for smaller aquariums, it can become an issue, so we will go over this part first.
The first and easiest way to retain heat and stop heat loss is by insulating your aquarium. There are several ways you can do it, you could cover your aquarium with a blanket, but that is not very efficient. If you are willing to spend a few rands there are far more efficient ways to stop heat loss. The first is getting a few sheets of polystyrene and cutting them to size and attaching them to the sides of your aquarium. Polystyrene contains millions of air pockets trapped within the foam. Because the polystyrene itself is also highly resistant to heat, the result is a great thermal insulator. You can buy these sheets at places like Builders Warehouse, Chamberlains, or any hardware store in your area. Some will even cut it to size for you.
The second option would be either using a Reusable Survival Blanket, Rescue Blanket, or Geobubble Thermal Heat Blanket (used for covering your geyser). These sheets are made of polyethylene terephthalate coated with a thin aluminum layer. You can purchase these at places like Dischem and Decathlon. They are used to prevent things like hypothermia in emergency situations, which makes them the perfect tool to prevent heat loss in your aquarium. And if you are in a pinch or on a tight budget, you can even go as far as to use bubble wrap as a way to stop any heat loss from your aquariums. Just take a sheet and wrap it around your aquarium, and you are good to go!
If you are unable to insulate your tank or the temperature is dropping quickly, you may need to add hot water bottles to keep your tank temperature elevated. It is pretty self-explanatory, you take either a 500mill, 1 liter, or 2-liter bottle and fill it with boiling or hot water. Just keep in mind that this method is trickier and can lead to wider temperature swings, which in turn can cause an Ich (Whitespot) outbreak. Use containers that are fish safe and always condition your water just in case some leaks out of the bottle. Never use bottles that contained harmful chemicals, as they might leech into your aquarium and kill your fish in the process.
Now that we covered heat loss the next important part is filtering and oxygenation of your aquarium which is in fact the most important part. The most cost-effective method of getting oxygen into your aquarium would be a battery-operated pump. My Tanklife has various makes and models available you can choose from. Depending on the make and model they can easily run an entire day without needing to charge it. Also, some even allow you to attach a cellphone battery bank to them extending your run time for even longer. Starting prices for the most basic of battery-operated air pumps are as cheap as R 100 making it an extremely cheap and good solution to keep your fish alive.
Using a computer UPS has to be my personal favorite when it comes to a power solution. While it is not a cheap method is still cheaper than buying either a generator, inverter, or solar setup which can cost more than the average aquarist can actually afford. In fact, you can make it cheaper by looking at second-hand units, some companies even throw them away. And all they need is a new set of batteries, which start at around R180 depending on where you buy them. And replacing them is easy as can be, and won’t take even 15 minutes of your time, and while you have it open you can remove the little speaker that makes the beeping sound if it is going to annoy you.
While the above setup isn’t powerful enough to run my heater, it will run all my filters for up to 13 hours on a single charge. This of course is dependent on the size of the UPS and batteries and the amount of load placed on them. You can easily calculate the perfect sized UPS by using the above calculator, just enter the number of watts being used, the UPS efficiency, the Ah (Amp per hour) how many batteries are connected in parallel. And it will spit out a number in hours of how long your filters will run, the above image is my filters running off a 2000Va UPS each. As I have 3 filters running in my aquarium, 2 HOB (Hang on Back) filters, and a Canister filter.
Of course, I have to mention the other more expensive alternatives, with the price of petrol being at an all-time high of R21 per liter a generator is a very expensive alternative. Not to mention it is noisy and you cannot run it at all hours of the day. The other two solutions are Solar and Inverters the initial layout and cost for these can be very expensive but having said that they do pay themselves off after a year or two. But with the current economic climate, being as bad as it is not everyone can afford these solutions. But hopefully, this article helps you choose the best solution that works for you and helps you pull through during load shedding or power outages. Good luck! And God speed!
