It’s winter and you just lost power. How do you take care of your tank?

[revhtree]

It’s winter and you just lost power. How do you take care of your tank?

Let’s hear how prepared you are!

 

[RockRash]

Gas generator time. Although I don't think we have ever had a power outage during winter here in CA. We loose it when its 110 in the middle of the summer lol.

 

[BeanAnimal]

22kW standby generator — wood burning stove. About 45 pounds of freshly smoked bacon. Home made hot cocoa and enough potatoes to make fries every day for a month. Ohh and a shelf full of high end bourbon in case the cocoa runs out.

 

[Johnd651]

Dual fuel propane/gas generator. 9°F right now, on a well, so we need power just for the basics. I have a pellet stove i need to put in the basement, but I am also thinking about setting up an inverter/ charger in line with battery bank for some basic circuits such as heat.

 

[BryanM]

solar with 1/2 home battery backup!

 

[ZoWhat]

3000 power inverter (from harbor freight) hooked / clamped to my cars battery

Car in driveway, battery cables long enough to put inverter just inside my closed garage.

Two 100ft electrical cords running to my tank to run heaters and powerheads.

No need for lighting, skimmer, accessories other than flow and heat.

I'd probably hook up an airstone directly in the tank for O2.

Run the car LOCKED outside in the driveway feeding the power inverter on the garage floor.

Checking the car and inverter every 30mins via security cameras and in-person checks.

Start drinking coffee and calling the Power Company for updates, lol. since not much sleep happening keeping eye on car and inverter and tank.

.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Gas generator, return pump and heater if it's short term power loss. If it's long term my neighbor has a whole house generator he let's me tap into if needed. Knock on wood haven't lost power in the 5 years we've lived here. No tank anymore so doesn't matter as much anymore. I suppose I'd still use it to keep the snake warm and hook up an electric heater to keep the wife and kids warm. They'd likely just go to the mother in laws in that case and leave me home to turn into a crab popsicle

 

[vandy]

First 48 hours I am relying on battery backups and a server sized UPS to keep the water moving in the display, turning on and off heaters as needed. Past 48 hours, I panic and steal the batteries from my wife’s and my car to try to make it last until the power turns back on lol. My city block hasn’t had more than a 48 hour blackout period in more than 8 years but time will tell

 

[Rhetoric]

2 USB Rechargeable air stones.

Gas generator if it gets worse then that.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

24 Jeep Wrangler 4XE. It can run as a generator. Comes with a power cord that plugs into the charging port. Vehicle will will charge the EV battery when it gets low.



Edit: wood burning stove, life time camper so we have everything to cook etc. purchased LED lanterns that are rechargeable by solar. Just stick them in the window during the day, light at light.

 

[Tamberav]

Put in the battery air stone and go to bed. Happens in a blizzard, tank got down to 60, only loss was a bangaii cardinal which makes me think something else was already wrong it it, corals, clams, rest of the tank was fine.

Tank was much worse with coral and fish loss when the ac broke in a heat wave and tank got to 92.

 

[ksliech]

2 USB Rechargeable air stones.

Gas generator if it gets worse then that.

Ooo, where can I find those? I am very unprepared.

 

[Johnd651]

Ooo, where can I find those? I am very unprepared.

Curious too

 

[Sdbuehler1]

I have Solar with whole house battery backup that can go about 8-10 hours without any solar generation. Both of my large tanks also have smaller ups backups with apex configured to run the bare minimum (return pumps and powerhead for aeration) that can go about 2 hours, in case the circuits trip.

 

[Stang67]

When I upgraded to my 180g I had an electrician come out and Runa hard line from outside to my breaker box. Now I just plug in the gas generator outside, start it, flip a switch on the breaker and whala. Best investment so far.

 

[Johnd651]

When I upgraded to my 180g I had an electrician come out and Runa hard line from outside to my breaker box. Now I just plug in the gas generator outside, start it, flip a switch on the breaker and whala. Best investment so far.

I did this with the outside plug so I can run what's needed and move loads around.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I have a large portable inverter generator (8750 peak watts, 7000 running). Also, all of my tanks are in the basement which has a pretty even temperature throughout the year.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

was thinking about that today with this weather. I have a honda inverter which would do the whole tank and a few other things easily. However, I wish I had just splurged for a generac, especially living on the coast where we get some really nasty weathe.r

 

[Rhetoric]

Ooo, where can I find those? I am very unprepared.

 

[Timfish]

I like redundancy. I have 3 KW DIY solar (soon to be 6KW), 2000W gas generator, a 40 amp inverter on my van and a wood camp stove I can boil 2 gallons of water in about 20 minutes (~ 3-4000 BTU) I can put in buckets to heat my fish room as a last resort.