Preparing For Power Outages

Hi Guys. We've been our new home for a few weeks now and have already had one storm-related power outage. Thankfully, we haven't had time to set up a new aquarium yet - although that will be coming up in our "to do" list in another month or two.

In the meantime, I'm sorting out how to best prepare for future power outages.  It's been many years since I lived somewhere that had overhead power lines (not buried), and there are a LOT of big trees here. It's inevitable that we're going to lose power at least a few times a year, I bet. So far I have thought I should get:

1) mylar survival blankets - one could be taped around the tank during cold weather (and we are due for some serious cold weather in the winters here), and one draped loosely over the top.

2) a battery-powered air pump, with plenty of batteries.

3) a large battery backup unit - I was looking at one of the 200 watt-hour ones as that's kind of stretching my budget but is still doable. The heater we had in Glasgow used 50 watts of power, but it's not on all the time, so theoretically if I had the tank wrapped well enough and the heater came on for maybe 15 minutes out of every hour (??) the 200 watt backup would last 16 hours in total?  (That's not long enough, I don't think!)

4) a good-sized bottle of Prime or AmQuel.

Not sure what else we can do. The house is "all electric" as far as that goes. Gas heat, but central hot-air heat that has to have electric to run. The hob is electric. I think I'll be buying some solid alcohol canisters (sterno) so that I can at least heat water in the fondue pot, and can switch it out with the tank water (carefully!) every so often if it comes to that.

We have a number of hot water bottles. In a worst-case scenario I guess we could strap them on and warm them up to human body temperature and then float 'em in the tank?

Any other ideas?

The daughter is torn between that and getting more albino corys and a dwarf gourami and some neons, or perhaps just some female bettas. I'm thinking that the corys would have the best chance of survival if the power goes during the winter, as they like their water a little cooler anyway. The other fish are going to require heroic measures in such a situation, although the bettas could handle the lack of water flow a bit better, for a time. Our bigger tank would maintain its temp better than our smaller betta tank (that did not survive the movers) would have.... just musing here. Our power was only out for a short time, but there are parts of the community here that have been dark for going on two days now. It seems best to prepare in advance!

Struggling to think of much else to suggest here - worth bearing in mind that the air pump will drag in air of whatever temperature it is where the unit is placed - worth keeping it away from any draughty spots and also thinking about keeping that warm as well at the tank water itself

I absolutely love the idea of heating the hot water bottles with body heat etc Id never have thought of that! But! I doubt it will make any appreciable difference to the aquarium temperature and would likely stress the fish with the removal of the blanket and dumping of hot water bottles into the aquarium etc... suspect you are best wrapping the tank and leaving it be.

Hi Nan 

Great to hear that you are settling in and looking to set up your tank again.
All your gang here are still doing well here.

I've been lucky not to have to deal with loss of power at home, but should imagine that a tank wrapped in blankets would retain the heat quite well.
On-line retailers often use warming pads in the poly boxes to maintain temperature when transporting fish, so this is similar to the pads that @fcmf suggested
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uniheat-Travel-Warmer-Tropical-Reptiles/dp/B004I46SAU

Depending on the season and temperature of the house you may be fine with just blankets, or you may want to get some extra heating for the room that the tank is in. Even if the room is kept relatively warm (20-22C/around 68-72F), and the tank only drops a few degrees, your fish should be fine.
I've had times where I've forgotten to turn a heater back on after cleaning a tank and didn't notice until that evening (the mudskippers were fine, if a little grumpy).
I'm also thinking about the 7 hour drive south that your gang endured in around 20L water in a stack box in a thermal poly box with just a battery powered air pump and some filter media.
In a full tank of heated water, with some blankets, in a relatively warm room, I'd expect the tank water to drop temperature quite slowly. I'd also expect your fish to be fine for several hours with a slow decrease in temperature of a few degrees.

In the possible even of a power outage lasting more than what I would consider a working day (perhaps around 8 hours), then the extra precautions that have been discussed would probably cover all eventualities.

We are also hoping that none of these ideas will eve need to be necessary