The Puffer Forum

I dont know if this topic has been posted yet. Its getting down to 20 degrees in the midwest and I am keeping an eye on temperatures. Do you guys have any advise to keep tank temperatures stable and efficient during the winter months? What about contingency plans for a possible electrical outage or blizzard knocking out power?

Heater??? Battery backup or generator.

Your best bet is submerging a heater in the water. Make sure its one that can safely be submerged. Most should have a temperature regualtor that will keep the water close do the desired degree without overheating and accidently cooking some fugu.. if you are prone to power outages from blizzards you probably do, or should have a power generator.

I've used several 2 liter bottles of hot tap water right against the glass and tanks covered with blankets. Worked once for me for like 12hrs and I only lost a few degrees in the tanks. Of course I'm lucky enough to have a gas hot water tank and not on well water.

http://www.squidoo.com/prepare-your-aqu ... er-outages

I found this article. They recommend getting a UPC back up like the ones for a computer.

How ironic and fitting. There is a cute picture of a Porcupine Puffer featured in that link.

A UPS, specifically the one in the article, would only run a 200w heater for about 9 minutes. http://www.apc.com/resource/include/tec ... =BE550G-GR

It would be good to run filters for extended periods of time.

I use backup generators. Most UPS are just to provide time to save data and shut down the processor.