Louisiana officially started hurricane season June 1st, which meant I had to plan for any kind of storm related emergencies such as power outages or potential flooding. Luckily for me, flooding isn’t as much of a concern since I’m on the second floor; but I was very much concerned about power outages. And, unfortunately, a lot of generators can’t be used in an apartment due to size, noise, and safety concerns.

So, I had to settle for the next best option. I went with a battery operated bubbler instead.

I did some research and settled on the Cobalt Aquatics Rescue Air air pump. It’s definitely more expensive than your standard battery operated bubbler at $39.99 (I purchased mine through BRS, there are multiple retailers) but there’s a good reason for the pricing. The CA Rescue Air is designed to be plugged directly to an outlet and turn on automatically when it detects a power outage. Coupled with a 24 hour long runtime battery built into the unit itself and a USB chargeable battery stick designed to provide 72 hours of runtime, it’s designed to provide up to several days worth of power should you need (hopefully you don’t!).

I felt that it was the perfect interim solution for someone such as myself who currently doesn’t have a controller system to monitor for power outages and unable to come home immediately during emergencies like storms. Since both my husband and I work in the hospital, it’s not really possible for us to just drop what we’re doing and immediately run home even if there is an outage or equipment failure. So, the best thing I can do is plan for safeties and redundancies.

I didn’t take photos of what came in the box (I’m sorry I forgot), but it comes with the actual bubble pump, approximately 2 feet of soft air tubing, power cable, USB battery, and a bubble stone.

There is also a blue version of the Rescue Air that comes with 2 pump outputs for people who have more than one tank or an extremely large tank. I believe it costs a little more but has the same approximate battery life.

I was able to test mine out and confirmed that it was working as intended. Obviously an air bubbler is not the most amazing addition to a salt water tank, but I felt that it was worth sharing because for 40 dollars, I can have a little more peace of mind that my tank may be ok in an power outage if I can’t make it home right away.

What’s your backup for power outages and storm season? Definitely comment and share below!