Re: Colorado's Blizzard -- Maintaining water temps

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Ellen O'Connell suffered a power outage that cooled down
here tanks.

Power outages are a pain, and especially so when it's
really cold.

A couple of thoughts, fwiw:
Heating and cooling are some of the highest consumers of
energy so battery (UPS) devices have be used very
thoughtfully if they are going to last.  Not to mention
that they can be expensive.  Wrapping tanks to conserve
energy is a good technique even if you're going to use a
battery source of power.  And then there's gas powered
generators, but they tend to be very noisy and where are
you going to put the exhaust?  If the generator is outside,
it might end up under a five or six foot snow drift, which
makes refilling the gas tank a bit more arduous.

As for adding warm or hot water, you might consider
draining some tank water (say, 20%-50%), batching it with
some hot water, then using the batch to refill the tank. 
This should prevent or at least substantially temper any
really hot spots or currents.

Also, if you can apply a heat source, lowering the aquarium
water level will mean that you have less mass to heat,
which means less energy required to maintain the water
temp.

Scott H.

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