What do you do when your power goes out?

[shlovell16]

During a power outage from a thunder storm what doed everybody do with their tank?
Does anyone have batteries they run their equiptment on? Or do you all just wait, haha.
Just curious.

 

[dogstar]

battery air pump....

 

[gsd]

We don't do nothing at all..........the gen set / controller does it all. Its on an auto start /auto shut off controller, so if power goes out for more than 10 minutes the gen set starts and puts the entire house on gen power. When power comes back online, the gen set shuts off power to house, idles down for a cool down stabilization period and then shuts off, ready for the next outage to come along.

 

[shlovell16]

Wow GSD, sounds really cool...and complicated. I wish we had a generator.
Hey Dogstar, how much does a battery like that cost?

 

[dogstar]

You can get them online for around $15, LFS is a bit more..
Just google that name
2 D batteries last 24 hrs +

 

[alyssia]

I have a couple of battery operated pumps. Other than that I plan on panicking.

 

[nygel]

i just waited it out when we had one for a few hours, i took pics of my corals shrunk and stuff too.

 

[reefermadn]

"What do you do when your power goes out?"
Clean out my drawers!

 

[mrdc]

I have 2 battery UPS backups, a power inverter and a generator (new addition). I am about to lose pwer soon because I severe storm is on it's way. I lose power here very often! It sucks!

 

[rara12]

i rotated a single battery opperated air pump in i think 7 tanks, the biggest of which is 90 gallons. No sleep for 5 days 12 d batteries, a panic attack every few hours...the norm

 

[dmitry]

I have a UPS battery; I got it at Staples. I have my pump plugged into it so if the power goes out it automatically switches to battery. This way I have some water movement and no flood. The fear is that the outage can last a long time. I'm in NYC and parts of my borough (though fortunately not me) were without power for a week - for mysterious reasons. My tank would have been gone for that long! But the UPS battery should keep water pumping for a few hours. A battery operated pump can also keep water moving, but in the summer heat will become an issue as well.

 

[seannmelly]

After the first poweroutage that killed most of our fish, for right now we have a 4000watt gas generator that runs, cold water, sump pump, and our return pump on our tank and actinic lights. Now we have a 16000 watt propane generator that will be programmed to turn on when the power goes out and run the entire house and fish tank

 

[gasman4433]

I told my wife that i had to much money in my tank.For a power outage to mess up my tank and maby lose fish or coral.She bought me a genarator.She said that was cheaper than replaceing livestock.How did i get so lucky.

 

[miamireefr]

I purchased a battery backup from best buy for 150 dollars that will keep my return pump going for 4-5 hours....after that if needed generator will take over.

 

[gsd]

I owul dlook at the lengths of times you can usually expect powewr outages in yur local area to last. Your power company can give you a rough estimate as they track allthat kind of stuff. So if the law of averages has it the power is usually off no more than an hour or two or so, go with a UPS deal or a couple of packs of batteries and a battery operated pump.........if power is known to be off for 24 or more hours, best bet is a generator set, as its not gonna take long before batteries run out or become scarce or are needed for human use as well. There is a limit on powering things up with battery power.......One thing that is easy to use and works equally well is a solar panel of correct volts in conjunction with a battery to recharge the batterys. Of course they only work during sunny days, but even in winter sun is a viable option in lots of places, even in hurricane prone areas, and its a cheap and easy way to recharge batteries instead of having to buy boxes of batteries.

 

[travis89]

When the power goes out I just wait for it to come back on.

 

[bojik]

You could also get a solar battery set up. At least in some areas (like arizona for instance save during rainy season) where you have reliable good sun. You could run it off a battery back up that recharges during the day. Kinda like what you would have for a house save a smaller set up and fish tank dedicated like for a air pump and return pump only. Then again you could just run a whole tank on a large system full time .

 

[kym]

Hi! Dogstar, I'd like to say thank you. I was just browsing the different threads when I came across this one. I've had the same thought and plenty of panic attacks every time we have a storm (fortunately, no power outages). However, we are expecting some in the next day or so in my neck of the woods, so I went out and purchased a couple of the air pumps you showed and batteries. I feel like my fish have a fighting chance now if something does happen. :happyfish

 

[dogstar]

Originally Posted by kym
we are expecting some in the next day or so in my neck of the woods,
Y. W.
Looks I can expect some myself, hurricans..aaarrrg
Thank SHLovell16 for the question....
That pump kept my 150g reef alive for 10 days without power after H. Wilma with little loss.

 

[cjml]

Originally Posted by GSD
We don't do nothing at all..........the gen set / controller does it all. Its on an auto start /auto shut off controller, so if power goes out for more than 10 minutes the gen set starts and puts the entire house on gen power. When power comes back online, the gen set shuts off power to house, idles down for a cool down stabilization period and then shuts off, ready for the next outage to come along.
How well does the whole house generator work?We really want to get one-expensive though- We are in Nw Florida- hurricane central lately- we have 2 generators and we are able to close ourselves off in our "fishroom" with a small a/c unit- because increased temp will kill fast-and live there until power back on-power was off for 2 weeks with Ivan-and we maintained our tank-(didn't eat much!LOL)I think if you live somewhere with frequent outages the house generator is the best! We are saving up for next year!!
ML