Power outage

squintsmom

I have two freshwater tanks, both have hang on filters 1 aqua clear 1 cascade. I have a big problem all of a sudden. We are planning to leave for vacation tomorrow and last night our power went out while we were sleeping. It came back on and all was fine except the cascade will not refill by itself, the aqua clear was running fine. We are supposed to be in for storms the whole week we are gone, what can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again? I would love to replace this filter with a self priming canister eventually, but cannot afford one at the moment. Please, if anyone can give me ideas before tomorrow, I'd greatly appreciate it.

fish_4_all

Well there are a couple things that will help to save the fish as best as you can.

The first is to have an airstone running in the tank with the Cascade just in case the power does go out. This will insaure circulation of the water and ample air for the fish. Another thing you could do is get a small Aqua Clear to put on the tank with the Cascade so just in case at least the Aqua Clear will start back up and keep the tank in somewhat good shape until you get back.

leifthebunny

I would suggest a UPS, it will also help with power spikes and brownouts. I have to do that here in Colorado because of the unstable power.

GW

I have 2 Cascade 150 HOB power filters on my setup.
From reading your predicament it sounds like the "Flow Control Knob" on top of the intake tube may have an air leak that allows it to back drain when the power is off.
Possibly you could place it in the desired flow position and then seal it somehow. Maybe some tape around it tightly is one idea.

squintsmom

First off, thanks for your responses, but let me add a few things I should have included the first time. I do have bubbles going, and belive it or not, the cascade is only about a year old, no cracks but the uptake on the aqua clear is cracked but still works fine. I have come up with two ideas though, one was to shorten my uptake since I had it all the way down, thinking it will lift alot easier, going to kill the power soon to try it. Second idea was to buy a tiny powerhead and locate it next to the hang on filter outside of the tank with a tube up and into the resevior box of the cascade. Oh, and last thing, I do have a huge battery backup for everything on the tank, however the batteries inside of it died and I have'nt bought new ones for it because they are outrageously expensive.
Thanks again for all your thoughts and ideas, I'll let ya know if I find something that works.

leifthebunny

I hate that. I need to be better about faking power outages to run the batteries more often so they don't fail as quickly.