Like most aquarists, the team here at iQuatics live in perpetual fear of the rolling blackout; they play on our minds at work, they linger in our subconscious during family days out, and they reduce us to nervous wrecks until our plane touches down at the end of our summer holidays. Capable of causing catastrophic damage to our carefully maintained aquariums in a matter of hours, blackouts are an eventuality that we can’t avoid, but we can prepare for.

Failing to Plan…
Maintaining a healthy aquarium is a bit like looking after a teenager, it requires time, effort, lots of food and a wealth of technology (we’re talking aquarium lighting and air pumps here, not games consoles and smart phones). Air pumps, for example, carefully measure the amount of C02 in the water, whilst aquarium lighting systems help to maintain a steady temperature alongside your heater and make sure your corals or plants are getting the integral light they need.  The issue is that the majority of these electronic devices require, well, electricity, which means your aquarium is very much subject to the whims of your local provider (and the British weather of course). Whilst the following tips might not save you from a nasty shock when you get back from holiday, they can help to maintain your tank’s equilibrium if you’re able to act fast enough.
Covering All Bases
Given how long it takes to develop a thriving aquarium, and how quickly that same aquarium can be decimated by a power cut, we advise that incorporating the following things into your system and aquarium maintenance schedule should be made a priority. First of all, we’d heavily recommend investing in a battery powered air pump. Responsible for the controlled release of carbon dioxide into your tank, air pumps provide your vegetation with an integral ingredient for the process of photosynthesis. In the event of a black out, battery operated pumps (as their name implies) simply switch to battery power, ensuring that your tank receives a steady supply of C02, even in the event of a power cut.
Makeshift Measures
Apart from investing heavily in a range of remotely operated devices, there are also a number of homemade measures you can implement that might potentially protect your tank in the short term. If, for example, your aquarium lighting should fail (in the event of a power cut or otherwise), maintaining your tank’s temperature should be one of your first priorities. In the absence of a lighting system & heater, we’d recommend filling a number of bottles with warm water and depositing them into your tank; this should increase the ambient temperature of the water, and help to maintain the delicate equilibrium of the aquarium.
Panic Prevention
Now, whilst the tips covered in this article probably won’t stop you losing sleep in an already noisy, crowded hotel in Benidorm this year, they’ll hopefully give you some peace of mind when it comes to what happens to your tank should a power cut strike. We shouldn’t have to stress that the key phrase when it comes to aquarium maintenance is “balance”, and thus all of your methods, (both make shift and professional) should aim to preserve your tank’s equilibrium. Should you require any further advice, or in case you want to offer us any home remedies you’d swear by, please get in touch with us today over at our website.