Power Cuts

I don't know if anyone caught the news article a week or so ago about power cuts this winter. In summary, the UK normally generates more than 10% electricity than it uses. This year that margin of 'safety' is down to 4%. This means that the likelihood of a power cut happening is greater than normal (due to insufficient supply. The likelihood of a cut due to faults / weather is completely unrelated). As the only thing I worry about during a power cut is my fish tank, I thought I'd ask if people have thought about what they can do to protect their fish. I have a 240l planted tank in my lounge, where I also have a woodburner, so my main concern is the bacteria in the filter. Although I don't have a plan as such, if it looks like there might be an issue, I know what I can do to help. I will be trying to be particularly careful not to use excessive electricity, especially at 'peak' times. Think about the times when you normally turn lots of things on and try to reduce what you turn on. Eg boil the kettle first, then turn the TV on, instead of the other way round. Hopefully the warning will be a self defeating prophecy, and it'll not happen because enough people make an effort to help.

I hope I haven't scared you, that is not my intention.
Helen

Well iv'e only been up and running for less than four weeks, and last week i woke up at 5.20am to reduced power, not quite a "cut" but unusable, i had to go out to work so had to just leave the tank to it's own devices, luckily i only have platy's at the mo, but two had just been put in day before, so talk about no sudden temperature fluctuations, the tank went down about 10 degrees c from 24 -23c but i think Platy can stand a lot lower than that (don't want to have to find out really though) Someone did mention the bottle filled with hot water, a great idea, but as for pump and filter i hadn't thought about that, so battery powered sounds good idea : )

Short power cuts are not a real problem. I presume any non-weather related power cuts will be similar to those we had in the 1970s - the electricity was turned off in 4 hour blocks on a rota system.
For longer cuts, the dangers are cooling of the water and lack of oxygen to the bacteria. Unless you have battery powered pumps, float the filter media in the water, especially with externals, to increase the oxygen availability to the bacteria.

If we have warning of cuts, you can feed the fish lightly in the run up to the cut - though in the 1970s we had 4 hours off almost every day so it wouldn't be practical to reduce feeding with that arrangement.

Any political decisions that could affect this winter's supply were made by the previous government. Mr C will just be blamed for something he couldn't have done anything about.

Sue, I would have thought it would be similar to the power cuts in the 70s, but part of the problem is that the way electricity is generated now is very different to how it was in the 70s. The demand is also very different. So there's quite a bit of uncertainty.

Biffster, that's interesting how you kept your tanks going, but I was thinking more along the lines of Richard's suggestion of using blankets.

The article on this website is a good guide.

I don't think generators are necessary, but tweaking habits will make a big difference.

The freezer will stay cold for a surprisingly long time, especially if it is full and not opened during the power cut.

i dont have any now i sold them all

Thanks, good to know, just in case 

I had no idea we were all at risk of power cuts this Winter. I guess I missed that on the news!?

I've had a few powercuts since living in my flat - they've always been planned though and I got a letter through the post telling me when they were happening. Which is good as my little tank has an external filter which spews out most of the water when off meaning my media would have dried up and my bacteria probably would have died. So I just floated my filter before the cut and reduced feeding around those times. The heat issue is less problematic for me as I live in a new-build flat which is always warm so I don't think the temperature of the tank would ever lower enough to cause problems. At the coldest it got last year we had the heating on for about an hour in the morning and that was it.

However unplanned cuts for my tank could be seriously worrying.... especially since I work shifts and am often not there in the evenings / nights which I guess would be the most likely time for cuts to happen? My partner knows what to do now after I put him in charge of the last planned power cut.

There would be nothing I could do about the filter if I'm at work though =/ I'd probably be non the wiser either...

Ours tend to be from cable thefts, being out in the middle of nowhere, they get away with it time and time again 

That and a lot of other things, don't temp me 

Bless aren't you tolerant, i'm just hoping they get electrocuted, they target wires and sub stations apparently, (have been held up on train for hours due to cut cables too)