Copyright© 2016 Aqua Logic, Inc. Effective date of 1/2016
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When Disaster Strikes
You may have a lot of money invested in your aquarium at home or in the office. Or you may have valuable
dollars invested in seafood for your store or restaurant. Unfortunately, equipment or electricity may fail at the
most inopportune time. What can you do to minimize the risk in such an event? Based upon our years of
experience in the aquatic life support industry, we recommend the following:
•Always have ALL of the electrical equipment connected to ground fault interrupt (GFI) circuits.
•Do not overload electrical circuits.
•Add the aquarium system and livestock to your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy if allowable.
•Monitor your system closely during the first few weeks of operation. Make sure that everything is working correctly. Call it a
shakedown cruise.
•Check the condition of your equipment regularly. Keep it clean. You don’t take your car on a long trip without first changing
the oil, checking the tires, etc. Why would you ignore maintaining the equipment on your aquarium?
•Keep blue ice or bags of ice in the freezer. If you use ice to help maintain water temperature, leave the ice in the bag so that
the water from the melting ice doesn’t dilute the water solution in your aquarium.
•Turn off aquarium lights if the Chiller fails. Livestock in the wild have periods of several days when they do not get intense
light. There ARE typhoons that can cover an area for days at a time. Limited use of VHO and halide lamps to avoid heat
build-up in the tank is far less harmful than extremely high water temperatures.
•Put a temperature controller on the lights to shut them off and to sound off an alarm if water temperature rises more than 5°F
above the Chiller set point.
•Keep a spare pump on hand in case your primary pump fails.
•Maintain a supply of ammonia-neutralizing chemicals such as Amquel. You can use them to control ammonia in your system
during a prolonged power outage. Be sure to follow manufacturer’s dosage recommendations and compatibility with
organisms in your tank.
•Stock your aquarium sparingly. Then when disaster strikes (and it usually will sooner or later), you have more time to fix the
problem before you lose livestock.
•Oversize your filtration system. Water quality is the most critical element for maintaining healthy fish. On a reef tank, it is easy
to invest thousands of dollars for livestock (not including how sentimental you may be attached to your livestock). Why not
spend a little more up front for more life support reserve in case of a disaster?
•Have a battery-powered air pump on hand for extended power outages. It will provide aeration and move water in the
absence of power.
•In most areas of the country, our electrical grid is subjected to surges, spikes, brownouts and blackouts caused by high peak
usage, snowstorms, hurricanes, thunderstorms and more. A surge protector can help with the surges and spikes but they are
not effective in brownouts. Furthermore, even the best surge protector can’t protect against direct strikes of lightning. It takes
an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or backup generators to protect against low voltage and blackouts. And it takes a
backup generator to adequately power a Chiller—especially a ½-HP unit needed on a 300-gallon tank.
It is very unfortunate when equipment fails. However, a prudent aquarist should have a disaster plan and follow the motto, “Be
prepared.”
