power outages

[JGoslee]

Does anyone have any kind of generator setup or any other kind of setup to save your tank in case of a power outage? Last week my power went out for 2-1/2 days due to a thunderstorm. I ended up losing half of my tank. Today we had anouther storm and my power went out for 6 hours. I honestly thought everything else in my tank was going to die. Luckly the power came back on. I think in the future I am definatly going to invest in some way to keep my tank from crashing in the event of anouther power outage.

 

[Shultz]

I have a 1500va UPS powering my return pump & 2 seio's in the tank, it "should" keep those going for quite a few hours & most importantly would keep water flowing gas exchange.....

I also have a battery powered air pump in the cupboard so if I'm here I can put that in the tank.....

Did think about buying a cheap portable genny when I was setting up to cover longer blackouts, but touch wood in 12yrs I've only seen 1 powercut of 4hrs...

P.S... Sorry about your losses, not nice at all

Cheers Shelton.

 

[JGoslee]

The first thing I did was go to LFS to see if they had a battery powered air pump. I had no luck. If I had one I probably wouldnt have lost as much. To top it off there was also a heat wave while my power was out. The temp in my tanks was 88degrees.

 

[jessiesgrrl]

That's awful! I have relatives in Kansas City who were without power also for a long time.

There's actually an oxygen disassociation curve that happens with increased temperature. I.e., the lower the temperature of the water, the easier it is for it to hold onto the amount of oxygen in it. In medicine we use the curve to determine the oxygen carrying capacity of blood per temp, etc but I suppose it works the same for water also. You fight how much oxygen is in the water not only by using an air pump, but also by using frozen clean pop bottles floated in the tank. In summer months, I keep 10 or so in our deep freezer in the basement, and use them as needed even when the power isn't out. Also, they are filled with frozen clean change water so I have that also on hand if needed.

The major (longer) outages I have here in winter, I control with as many water changes as I can, mostly. I keep several buckets of change water in the basement at all times. KNock on wood, haven't lost anything that way yet... the major thing is water temp, but heateding change water on camp stoves seems to do the trick there.

So sorry for your losses,
Laurie

 

[MarvinsReef]

I'm sorry for your losses also.. I plan on getting either a small generator used for CPU's.. I'll invest a decent amount of money for it coz the corals in my tank are far more expensive than the generator..

the bottles in the fridge is a great idea.. too bad I live in an apartment.. maybe I can store some at my parents for back up..

 

[Azurel]

I don't have anything for back up power actully....I plan on getting a battery powered air pump....At least I would be able to keep air going through....I don't think the current is such a big deal, but O2 is the big issue....

 

[MarvinsReef]

I just decided to save up for a gas powered generator for longer than 8 hours power outages and a battery powered air pump for short power outages.. I will be having a local frag sale to fund this by sept or oct.. hope there's a local frag swap then...

 

[Azurel]

The Meijers(ons stop shop) here in Kalamazoo or the west side of Michigan have a 1000w gas powered gen for $109. Normally its like $200....I wish I had the cash on me......

 

[JGoslee]

you can modify UPC's for computers with Deep Cell marine batteries and they can run a pretty large tank for a several hours.. Those are nice becuase if you aren't home when the power goes out it will kick on by itself... a gas one is preferrable as it can be used for multiple days

My brother actually has two of these and said he would hook it up for me. Do you have one hooked up to your system?

 

[jessiesgrrl]

nope.. I have a better option... My house is on the same circuit as a big water pump and basicallly when the power goes out at my house it will go off for like 2 seconds and then this massive generator down the block starts up... appearently it was too much work to rewire so there are three houses setup on this thing, mine being one of them But if I ever move I'll be setting one like that up...

Lucky dog!!!
:LOL:
Laurie

 

[MarvinsReef]

nope.. I have a better option... My house is on the same circuit as a big water pump and basicallly when the power goes out at my house it will go off for like 2 seconds and then this massive generator down the block starts up... appearently it was too much work to rewire so there are three houses setup on this thing, mine being one of them But if I ever move I'll be setting one like that up...

wow.. must be nice...