Best filtration considering vacation

[Red Nose Rummy]

I just returned from a 7 day trip and have 2 more similar trips scheduled in August.

Weather reports for my home indicated severe thunderstorms every afternoon which often results in power outages. I live n a rural area and as a result we are the last to have power restored - it many cases it is days...

75% of my tanks (7/10) are filtered by Aquaclears HOB's.

Once they lose power they will not restart without priming.

The whole time I was gone, in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about a power outage and then the inability of the filters to restart while I was gone since no one was at home to prime them.

I've never used a canister, do they too require priming after a Power Loss?

I'm thinking more and more that air driven sponge filters, which will not require priming to restart, are a necessity during periods when one is away for extended periods.

I have some money tied up in my overstocked African tank stocking and it took a lot of hunting, pecking and time to get it stocked, the last thing I want is to lose the setup over a HOB that didn't restart.....

 

[jonclark96]

I'd start by replacing the impellers and/or impeller shafts in the AC's. A brand new AC out of the box will definitely restart on a power outage as long as the water level doesn't drop and drain the housing. This is relatively inexpensive (Kensfish has a good price on replacement parts).

As far as canisters go, most will restart automatically. I have experience with FX5's and Eheims, and never had a problem with those. I can't comment on Rena's or the smaller fluvals.

I am a fan of sponge filters in general. All but one or two of my tanks have sponges, many in addition to HOB's and canisters. You can't go wrong with the simplicity of them, and it always gives you a seeded filter if you need to set up a quarantine or hospital tank in a pinch.

 

[hollyfish2000]

My suggestion -- air-driven sponge filters for all tanks. Easy, cheap and nice to have for a variety of reasons. For further protection, you could also hook them to battery back-ups that start automatically in a power outage (I think they're usually made for computers).

now I have several large "power packs" that I use during power outages. They will last a long time with just air stones. You could put them on a timer, I think, and turn them on for 12 hours every day that you're doing and the power pack will probably last.

 

[Ading522]

In my experience, thankfully haven't had a power outage that was tragic..maybe because I have not experienced a power outage since I started to keep fish..but when I change my water, I usually switch off my canisters (fluval 404's and a Penn plax) and they usually hold the siphon and restart automatically without breaking siphon when I flip the switch back k on..I am contemplating whether to make myself a DIY battery source to use for such emergencies, or spending money and buying a power pack..some airpumps can be used in ac/DC power and automatically switch to rechargeable battery when power goes off, but these are expensive.. the deep blue hurricane category 5 for example runs $100+.. it maybe worth the money than buying power packs because you can set it to intermittent mode which will last you around 48 hours.. just my two cents.. hope this helps..

 

[MarkK]

Kens Fish has the Airpod air pump, this pump runs on electricity normally but also takes four D cells and automatically switches to battery when it loses power. Can run a good 48hours on battery only, which should solve all but the most dire power outages. An Airpod running a sponge will really make a difference.

An HOB filter should restart on its own as John says, but if power is off a long time the bio filtration may die back a lot. That is a major problem with a cannister where what little oxygen there is will be depleted very fast.

So running a sponge right through an outage will make a big difference.

 

[neut]

I'm in a rural area with a lot of outages also, was 10 days last year with the derecho. Any filters in my experience restart after an outage,including Eheim or Marineland canisters, Emperor, Whisper, Aqueon power filters and fluidized bed filters running off submersible pumps. The Emperors are slowest to restart/reprime but they do get going. No reason I can think of or have ever experienced that a canister would lose its prime. Haven't had Aquaclears-- and exactly one of the reasons is that some say they don't reliably restart on their own after an outage.

One thing with a canister in hot weather is they can foul/smell bad after days not running (although ime rinsing filter and media in fresh tank water can fix this if it hasn't gone too far). Few hours, fine, or not a problem for a couple of days in cool weather ime. You can easily get around this if you're around by using the siphon action of a filter placed below the tank to flush the filter with tank water once or twice a day (at least that's what I've done with the Eheims I have now) or place the filter media in the tank itself, but if you were gone while there was an outage for several days this might be an issue.

 

[chriscoli]

+1 on the sponge filters. I used to have them in all of my tanks (many still have them). We had so many power outages that my husband finally got fed up and we have a generator that comes on automatically. But still, there's a 5 to 10 second delay between the power going out and the backup coming on so it's enough for a HOB to lose its prime. My Aquaclear used to do it all the time, my Whispers rarely did.

But all of my small tanks (40B and smaller) are now over on Mattenfilters (think, giant wall-of-sponge filter) so as long as the air pump comes back on, I'm fine.

I also really like Mattenfilters because they have an enormous amount of surface area for microbial colonization but don't get as funky as a canister if the power's off for a bit.

 

[Pat Kelly]

I agree with the masses.
Get some sponges in the tanks a couple weeks ahead of time. Build up the good stuff that way. After all of your trips are done, you can always take them out if you don't like the looks.