Disaster Plan

[ca2or]

So I was reviewing an older thread discussing how one of our fellow reefers experienced and dealt with a disaster and it made me rethink my disaster plan. So as I gather my thoughts and prepare my own plan here it made me curious...what is yours? What disasters have you planned for and how to do you plan to deal with it?

I think it would be helpful to have a thread that others, or yourself in time of need, can refer to in order to get ideas on how to plan for and recover from disasters. As a network administrator for the past 20 years I have found Disaster Recovery Plans are a must. Often times I have referred to others for points of reference on mine. Kind of thought the same logic would apply for us in our hobby since we are prone to disasters as well.

Here is the thread I am referring to.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-perfectly-successful-failure.210798/

I would like to get things covered like emergency overflows, GFI outlets, Apex alarms, and so on.

Currently I have my tank running on a series of APC backup batteries that are set to notify me of power outages. My sump is large enough to sustain the tank drain, this has been tested over and over to verify, and I have an emergency overflow that is quite loud just in case nobody notices the power is out. APC's have an audible alarm that sounds as well so trust me....we know. I have a couple of my power heads that continue to run off the APC's should the power go out, one in sump and 2 in display. Not much of a plan right now, but it is a work in progress.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

All I've got is a battery backup for my vortech mp10 (since it's just the one, it's not much of a drain on the battery in the event of an outage, I think it can run a single mp10 for up to 72 hours). I invested in the battery for this tank because the last place I lived, we had an outage that lasted about 5 days... had I had a tank there at the time I would have been in trouble. And my sump is also large enough to sustain tank drain for sure. So in the case of most outages, I'd be fine.

But, this still leaves me SOL in the event of:
-power outage in the winter (no backup for heater),
-extended power outage (more than 3 days)

But, it's better than nothing.

 

[Harold Green]

I'm fortunate to have my own well since I live out in the country. I keep a generator and enough fuel to run it for three or four days straight. So I have power and water if needed for the tanks. Only thing I still want is a backup power supply that will run off of a boat battery to keep my return pump going if the power fails while I'm out. Has anyone run across that particular critter? I can always hook up an inverter to a battery but that doesn't kick in automatically.

 

[ca2or]

I'm fortunate to have my own well since I live out in the country. I keep a generator and enough fuel to run it for three or four days straight. So I have power and water if needed for the tanks. Only thing I still want is a backup power supply that will run off of a boat battery to keep my return pump going if the power fails while I'm out. Has anyone run across that particular critter? I can always hook up an inverter to a battery but that doesn't kick in automatically.

that is what my APC's do. Well one of them anyway is dedicated purely to flow

 

[Paul B]

If my power goes out and the tank starts to get cold, I throw a handful of firefish in there with maybe one or two flame scallops to warm it up.

 

[ca2or]

If my power goes out and the tank starts to get cold, I throw a handful of firefish in there with maybe one or two flame scallops to warm it up.

for the win

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

If my power goes out and the tank starts to get cold, I throw a handful of firefish in there with maybe one or two flame scallops to warm it up.

lol... I'm actually interested to know though, since your reef tank is like 45 years old right? Do you have a backup plan in place or are you just INCREDIBLY lucky?

 

[JBNY]

running out of power is probably the easiest to make a plan for. The biggest issues IMO is when things go wrong that you are not there for and someone else has to fix the problem. example, ATO has stopped filling the tank and tank sitter or wife needs to fix. Heaters fail to come on in the middle of the night, CA reactor is not working and alk drops or tank pH drops too low. Water is on the floor, light has stuck in the ON position.

Also anything that you fix, or fiddle with on a daily basis will fail when you go away. How to you get someone not familiar with your system to fix it.

I find you should have labels attached to everything, main pump, Ca reactor, pH monitor etc, so that way if you are talking to someone on the phone they can know they are looking at the right thing because it is labeled.

 

[Harold Green]

If my power goes out and the tank starts to get cold, I throw a handful of firefish in there with maybe one or two flame scallops to warm it up.

Common Paul, a couple of retired electricians should be able to find an electrical solution.

 

[booth2010]

Well I have no disaster plan at all and there is a big ole storm headin my way, should be here early next week. Guess Ill cross my fingers and hope for the best. Ill grab a few battery powered air pump next week...

 

[Paul B]

lol... I'm actually interested to know though, since your reef tank is like 45 years old right? Do you have a backup plan in place or are you just INCREDIBLY lucky?

I am incredibly lucky. I am also "lucky" that I bought a generator but in those 44 years we have gone through 4 or 5 hurricanes and my power has been out for 5 days in a row. But I have a reverse UG filter that just doesn't crash no matter what happens. I was in Europe a few years ago and my Supermodel tank sitter didn't notice that the water level dropped about 7" and the pumps were splashing water on my walls. That is also why none of my SPS are very old or large. They have no sense of humor when they are in the air above the water and the salinity is almost double what it is supposed to be. I have their dead skeletons as decoration on my shelf. Those things don't bother me as I realize this is just a hobby and nothing more and no one really "needs" a hobby. We love it, it is expensive and time consuming but there are far more important things in the world to worry about.