Be prepared

[tangboy]

So this wonderful weather brought ice, ice, and more ice. Lost power about 20 hours ago. Generator lasted 5 minutes before something happened, inverter failed after 10 minutes.

I only have 2 clowns in my 300 gallon system but it ticks me off not being able to help them.

I have warned up water on the camp stove but it's not working.

So long story short, have multiple failsafe set up so your amazing hobby can deal with these issues.

 

[vic67]

This is one of my biggest fears with a reef tank. I have been looking at whole house generators that run off natural gas. The salesman said "You don't need one until you need one" which made me stop thinking of it as a "luxury" item.

 

[cale0721]

I hear ya man.. After 18 hours of no power I took all corals in a bucket and fish in another one and got a hotel room. They are camping in the bathroom with a heater in each bucket with a rotating air stone between the two buckets. I hope to be more prepared next time.

 

[Mike in CT]

Man, I feel for you guys.. that is rough! Hope the juice comes on soon! I have dodged 2 different week long outages up here in the last couple years ( knock on wood) but someday I know my luck will run out.

 

[Mike in CT]

Have you guys gotten your power back?

 

[cale0721]

Yeah finally around 8 am. I lost 8 fish and 4 corals -- it sucks.

 

[TriMax]

My story is not nearly as dramitic as others. Here are my observations:

I have a 375g (96x30x30), 300g (96x30x24), 120g (72x18x23) or thereabouts. 6 foot long for sure), and a frag tank (48x24x8).

I lost power on Monday night around 11:30pm. I did not get power back until about noon on Tuesday.

At around 10am the temp in my house was 57 deg.

At 10am the 375 and 300 were about 70 deg. The 120 was about 73 deg. The 40g frag tank was 65.

Not sure how much more the temp dropped by the time we got the house and tank heaters going at noon.

Not sure if it is only the ratio (surface area/tank volume) that explains the difference.

The 120 has somewhat of a top.

I am thinking about making Styrofoam tops to be put on the tank each night. Maybe even make Styrofoam sides to be put on in emergencies.

I will give everything a few days to make the call, but everything looks ok, except the frag tank.

Buy a generator? Not sure I have the $$ to do it. How much can I afford to lose? Is a generator a luxury? -- Not an extravagance when it is called upon to work.

What do know about generators?

I know one thing without waiting a few days – the fish might survive, but they do not like 70 deg. Or less. Ha! HA!!

 

[CastAway]

Dang guys. So sorry!

My house lost power for about three hours. I was out of town, and just prayed and hoped it would not last too long. Helpless feeling. Thinking about a generator myself now. Spring, and lightning, is coming....

 

[Mike in CT]

Sometimes I think people go crazy with the size of the generator. Mine is small but I can run my tank, furnace, fridge and a few lights.
I have friends that can run their whole house, but they go through 8 gallons of gas a day. Mine is 3000 watt and can run about 5 hours on a gallon or so. That's enough running time a day to keep the house warm and the tank reasonably happy and I don't have to go hunting for gas everyday.

 

[CastAway]

All I need to run is my main, and either the heater or fans, on or the other. If I could run the WP40's as well, that would be icing on the cake.

 

[Mike in CT]

What I do if it's cold when the power goes out I run the gennie till 11pm or so and get the house nice and toasty before it shuts off, then I use a battery powered air stone to get me through the night, and start the gennie back up I'm the morning. Ideally I would have a couple deep cycle battery's to run at night but they are pricey. I love my $15 battery airpump that turns on when the power goes off... Has saved me a bunch of money when the wife calls in the morning when I am at work saying the powers off. It keeps me from having to run home and take care of things.