Is Your Aquarium Protected Against Wild Weather?

On: 5 March 2025 

 

Is your aquarium prepared for Cyclone Alfred?

In Preparation
What you can be doing now:

  • Prepare a separate drum of treated water ready for a water change. Add an air pump to your drum to aerate the water & treat with Seachem Prime and Seachem Stability.

Up To 2 Hours
If you lose power for up to 2 hours, we recommend:

  • Adding an airstone to your tank to help keep it aerated.
  • You can also add a dose of Easy Life Fluid Filter Medium to boost the resilience of your tank to parameter changes.

2 Hours+
If you lose power for over 2 hours, we recommend:

  • Removing the filter material from your filter (please note, this is the filter material only, not the filter casing). Without water flow, the good bacteria in your filter material will die.
  • Rinse your filter material in used tank water only if it is dirty.
  • Place the filter material into an air tight vessel (e.g. a plastic bag or Tupperware). This will stop the material from drying out & will help the good bacteria to stay alive within your filter material.
  • Do not feed your fish while the filter is not attached to avoid ammonia and water quality issues.

24 Hours+
If you lose power for more than a day, we recommend:

  • Cease feeding your fish for up to 2 days. This will reduce the chance of developing ammonia and water quality issues. 
  • After 2 days, resume light fish feeding and consider a water change - using your pre-prepared drum water OR treating your water with Seachem Prime and Seachem Stability.

Once Power Returns
Once power returns, we recommend:

  • Replacing your filter material & getting your filter running again
  • Depending on how long your power was out for, there's a chance that the bacteria in your filter has been compromised. We recommend running a course of Seachem Stability to rapidly and safely reestablish the aquarium biofilter in freshwater and marine systems.
  • Test your tank for both ammonia and nitrite using something like the API 5 in 1 test kit or visit us in store for a water test.

Other Advanced Tips

  • An alternative to a water change is to keep a bottle or container of treated water continuously dripping into your tank to recirculate your water
  • You can also add Poly-filter to your aquarium which will absorb toxins even without water flow

Call Our Team
Have any concerns with your tank? Call our friendly team on 07 3349 2086 and ask to speak with the aquarium department. Our team will do everything we can to help!