Power outage from storms

[saltyreef7]

OK... so we have invested lots of money on our fish tank. so what do you all do incase of a power outage because of an electrical storm and you lose electiricity???? OK no big deal for maybe a half hour....what about two or three or maybe even up to 8 hours with no power....... any suggestions........ :help:

 

[120reefer]

working in a boating retail store, we have just the thing! go ahead and pick up a salt water wash down pump, or a live well pump. Completely meant for salt water, no corroding parts, works as good as your powerheads, but since its designed for boat use, it works off of 12 volt!!

any car battery will do, or other 12 volt battery. Pumps range from $150-$250 unfortunately but in case of an emergency....

with flow rates ranging from about 180-300gph, that should be more than enough to "hold you over" til power comes back on! Hope this was some help to you, i never really thought about that situation before you mentioned it!
By the way, hook up is easy, uses 3/8 or 1/2 inch hose for input and output, just remember it has to be run externally

 

[reefer75]

A big help would be to invest in a couple of battery operated air pumps. this will help keep the water oxygenated. Second cross your fingers, of buy a generator. Illinois weather sucks.

 

[120reefer]

yeah forgot bout that... we got battery operated ones for 20bucks... single airstone, or runa T-fitting with 2 stones for more O2.

 

[taz_12777]

You could always spend about 5 grand and get a whole house generator from Home Depot and not have to worry about anything in the house.

 

[swlover]

Ok I have a question..what is the single most concern when outage occures...oxygen? If so why not get some plants particularly seaweeds. You could grow them in a seperate tank and then when you need them put them in your tank..will that work??? I used to keep lots of plants in my FW set up..we where out electric for 4 days one time due to snow storm and my fish survived, I think due to the plants.

 

[mrdc]

I was about to start a thread to see who lost power in the southern states last night. I lost it for almost 12 hours. My APS battery backup ran my small power head for several hours and then died. I then started using my power converter but I had to run it to my truck and leave the truck running all night. Since I didn't know if the converter would burn out, I stayed up all night checking on it. Needless to say, I am very tired.
Now that I know the power converter works, I plan to buy a trolly battery and trickle filter so I can run it in the house and not have to worry about the truck.
I will probably buy a generator in the future but right now I don't have anywhere to store it.

 

[emmitt]

Found out the hard way last year that a generator IS a must if you subscribe to Florida Power and Light. Airstones are good for the nighttime but if you are without power for an extended time you need a generator for the tank. Without lights, your corals probably will start to die within days. We were out for 8 days during Wilma, without the generator, everything would have died.

 

[jmick]

last weekend we lost power for about 8 hours. I ran up to Home Depot and rented a generator for the day. I can't really justify buying one for $500-$600 but I don't mind renting it for $40

 

[chipmaker]

Well battery operated stuff may be fine for a short duration I certainly would not rely on them even for that time frame. Since there is absolutely no way anyone can tell how long power will be off, it wold be kind of hard to stock up on batteries, for say 12 hours use, and have power out for 24.........or not worry as yuor power is usually only out for 15 minutes, only to find oout this time its gonna be 2 days before its restored........There really is only one correct answer, and thats a generator.......You can find gen sets that do not cost an arm and a leg and run for 10- 12 hours on a tank of gas that are no bigger than a suitcase and will power everything on an aquarium, and even provide you with some lights as well......and its no more expensive than most aquarium related items...After hurricanes here all generators sets are sold out, and usually it takes a onth or two after the storm until they start reappearing in stores again.....however the first edition of the newspaper usually has tons of them for sale when the first edition of the paper comes out after power is restored, and all for a fraction of what they normally would sell for.....and most were relatively used very little.......Look around for a good small new or used gen set, and you won;t regret it when the need for power occurs.....We had two, now we have 3 gen sets. One will start automatically within 15 minutes of power outage and it runs of LPG/gasoline........but its hooked up for LPG to a 100# LP tank and we also have additonal LP tanks......This set powers the entire house so we can get on with life like nothing has ever happeneded in relation to power outages.........The other gen sets are a 8,000 watt which will power a good portion of the house if need be, incase the main gen set screws up.......may sound like overkill, but when you only paid $425 for a like new Honda powered gen of 8000 continuous rated watts, it was hard to pass up. The other is a 2500 watt honda gen set we picked up back in the 90's after a hurricane came through for 100 bucks that was only used about 10 hours then. Since then its probably gotten tons of hours on it, as its a very handy item. and was a backup for a few years until we got the large 20,000 watt gen set. Batteries just does not cut it, nor does the invertors sold for vehicles that allow you to run 115 VAC items......

 

[moneyman]

Originally Posted by swlover
Ok I have a question..what is the single most concern when outage occures...oxygen? If so why not get some plants particularly seaweeds. You could grow them in a seperate tank and then when you need them put them in your tank..will that work??? I used to keep lots of plants in my FW set up..we where out electric for 4 days one time due to snow storm and my fish survived, I think due to the plants.
Actually, plants and algae take o2 and gives off co2 during non-photo period. They only gives off o2 during photosythesis.
You hit the spot on oxygen. During the power outgage, the best thing is to keep the well oxygenated. This is best done with a powerhead. Also, try to keep the water temperature low but bearable. Here is the oxygen level at 100% saturation for a given temperature:
90F = 7 ppm
80F = 8 ppm
70F = 9 ppm
60F = 10 ppm