Colorado's Blizzard

["Ellen O'Connell" <oconnel4 at ix_netcom.com>]

Actually, it wasn't.  Although the news are all calling it a blizzard, I 
don't think the wind velocity ever reached the 35 mph required for a real 
blizzard, at least in the metro area and southeast where I am, but it was a 
humdinger of a snowstorm.  I have drifts well over my head, one that has to 
go for me to get my horse out of the barn, and so far I haven't progressed 
past looking at it and laughing.

However, the aquariums were a worry.  My power went out 9:30 Tuesday night 
and didn't come back on till about 9 Wednesday night.  I have a kerosene 
heater that kept the house at 60 degrees through it all, but what to do 
about aquariums?  I simply wrapped the 28-gallon upstairs and prayed.  As 
of now all the fish seem okay, but it's the tank with a dozen cardinal 
tetras, and I hope they don't start giving up the ghost in the next days 
because of the stress.  That tank got as low as 68 degrees, and I added 
warm water at that point.  It never went lower.  I have 2 small tanks in 
the kitchen - closer to that single heat source, but less mass that would 
cool faster.  I ended up putting two small oil lamps next to the glass when 
I realized how much heat they put out.  Surrounded them with the heaviest 
canned goods I could find in case the cats went over there (no kids or I'd 
never take the chance).  Without the lamps the temp in those tanks fell to 
70 quickly, so I never experimented past that point.  With the lamps they 
stayed at 73 degrees.  Two tanks with no fish went to the low 60's so I'll 
find out how bad that was for the plants in the coming days.

I didn't worry much about toxins because of the plants, temperature seemed 
to be the big problem.  Now that it's all over I still can't think of how 
to be better prepared to handle this kind of situation for the 
aquariums.  Does anyone know of battery devices, etc.?  Are there efficient 
and non-harmful ways to add warm water?  I worried that to add water warm 
enough to help there was a danger of burning anything that was in the 
stream as I poured it in.



Ellen O'Connell
Parker, CO
mailto:oconnel4 at ix_netcom.com
http://www.rottrescue.com/