30 hour power outage

[Reefer Reboot]

Did anyone else have to deal with the power outage in Newport Beach/Irvine area? I lost a Flame Angel and a Kole Angel. But on the plus side had 13 survivors. Corals looking a bit annoyed. Time to buy a whole house backup generator. 8 hours of battery back up wasn't enough.

 

[Dapperjman]

I'm not in your area, but long power outages are not uncommon where I'm from. Sorry to hear about your losses, but I purchased a Generac 2000W generator that is very quiet and will run what I need on my tank. I just run an extension cord inside and the benefit is I could use it for something else if needed. Much cheaper than a whole house generator...plus I can loan it to family if I'm lucky enough to have power

 

[Aardvark1134]

I have been considering a whole house generac. Right now I have a 9000W peak 6000W running gas portable. It can run with no problem my tank, a window AC, my fridge, and a light in the summer or in the winter my tank, the thermostat for my gas heat, the fridge and a light. Add in gas hot water heater and it gets the job done for me.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

A small one for the tank alone would be nice but I figure I might as well go for the whole house one, if I can get it past our HOA that is.;Meh I took my wife and daughter to the airport that evening and on the way home drove past the substation that was burning. Their flight was cancelled and I ended up driving them to LAX at 3:00 am.;Sour She was kind enough to cook up a bunch of dinners for me in advance, so then I was stuck with a bunch of food that was about to spoil in the refrigerator.;Facepalm Luckily, I'm simultaneously taking care of my parents dogs while they're away for the weekend also. So after waiting for 24 hours for the power to be restored and seeing a news report that it could take days, I pack up all the food (human and dog alike) and the coffee maker (gotta have that!) and head over to the peeps house. I finally get done unloading everything and two hours later the power is restored.;Facepalm;Facepalm;Dead So yeah, whole house it is. ( this is how I feel right now.)

 

[DogsRule]

If you have the funds, go for it.
We went 17 days without power due to a hurricane (Wilma). We had a 6KW jenny (our neighbors didn't). Trying to jiggle power to the reef tank, our house & our neighbors house(s) while trying to find enough fuel was not fun. In the end the reef tank lost, as basic life support for us & both our neighbors took priority. The tank survived (lost all the SPS) but Clams, softies & fish all made it on minimum lighting/ filtration during that 17 day period- took a long time to recover.
The Whole House means you'll also be able to help your neighbors out if the need arises- hopefully that's a good thing

 

[Reefer_Rob]

How did they die? Was it temp or lack of water movement ?

I have my poweheads on battery back up and a Honda generator but my concern if im gone and cant get the Honda fired up and plugged in...

Ive been looking at the Generac too. If you go that route keep us posted!

 

[DogsRule]

How did they die? Was it temp or lack of water movement ?

I have my poweheads on battery back up and a Honda generator but my concern if im gone and cant get the Honda fired up and plugged in...

Ive been looking at the Generac too. If you go that route keep us posted!

I always put the SPS loss down to high temperature & a lack of light (I could only power the lights for about 2hours a day if memory serves me & couldn't run chiller). I was able to power main pump & PHs so wasn't water flow. It could have also been due to a lack of water changes, as City water supply was damaged & then flushed/super saturated, which destroyed my RO/DI unit & took me some time to figure out & replace . It was probably a combination of all the above, but I remember once the first Acro went down, it was a knock-on effect. The Montis held out longer, but still didn't survive.

 

[ZoWhat]

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[jd371]

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I also use the cars inverter. It's so easy to run an extension cord from the driveway to the tank if the power goes out. I'll run the tank off the inverter for a couple of hours. After a couple of hours if the power is still out and looks like it will take longer before it's restored, that's when I'll take the generator out of the shed and use that.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

@Reefer_Rob, I'd have to say it was lack of water movement and oxygen. The temp only dropped down to 76 degrees. Kicking myself now as I have been thinking that I needed to purchase some battery powered air pumps for just this scenario, but procrastination raised it's ugly head. First thing I did was buy three of them.
@skimjim, that's a funny way of saying it but so true. If I didn't have to keep driving back and forth I would have done that. Instead I was using a cordless drill to run a R/C boat prop to foam up the water. Limited success. Of course it didn't help that I only had one good battery left. Again, procrastination.;Eggonface;Dummy