The Puffer Forum

So if any of you live on the East Coast like I do (Jersey) you know that Hurricane Irene is going to be hitting us HARD this weekend. My one and only concern is my puffer. lol. Keeping his tank heated won't be an issue because even if we lose air conditioning my house air temp will still be in the 80's which will cause his tank water temp to stay that high (if I'm not mistaken). I doubt it'll get any hotter than 84 degrees or so and even if it does I can float a bag of ice in his tank or add some cold water (that is if we still have water and all). My biggest concern is his filter. If we lose power for a week or even a day or two HOW AM I GUNNA KEEP THE BACTERIA IN THE FILTER ALIVE AND HIS WATER AERATED?! I mean, can I just pour a few cups of tank water through the filter every half hour or so? I have no idea what I can do. I don't want the bacteria to die and then once we get power back have it be dumped into his tank, causing an ammonia spike. Please help keep my puffer alive!

get a generator or battery backup

Im in your shoes. I live in Wilmington, NC where Irene might hit pretty hard and they are still deciding if we are having a mandatory evacuation... If I have to evacuate I don't know what to do about my fish and puffer because I'm in a college dorm and they are going to kill the power. They are checking our rooms for power sources in the case of an mandatory evacuation in which we will be put on buses to the college 3hrs inland. Any suggestions on what I could do to prolong the tanks if I'm going to be gone for a few days?

Some sort of generator or battery backup is a must! I've lost more than my share of creatures when the power goes off.