(EMERGENCY) 2 Hurricanes heading my way

[90G Mark]

OK yes i know i should have planed for this long time ago. so before you all say it it was real irresponsible of me to wait till now. ( your right, and i know) I live in Biloxi Mississippi two count them two Hurricanes are heading my way first one due to start early Monday morning. what i need is any tips and tricks on supporting my tank if the power is out for many hours up to days. i have 12 16oz bottles of water frozen. i have a battery operated air pump with a nice size air stone. so far my plan is to remove the sponge filter from my planted tank and add it to my reef. take all my media from my filtration areas and place them into my tank letting it all to pile op on to my sponge fillter to keep water and oxygen flowing over my media. im going to remove my lids to let heat escape. place what few coral frags i have close to my sponge filter. (i dont even know if that will help but i thought what the heck give it a try) and the frozen bottles ill use to controll the temp. so what i am asking from you fine people of any other tips or tricks? i have no grnerator called around yesterday and none around. one question i think i need to know is what is max temp my tank can get to till all things go to down hill? and i know there are more questions i should be asking but i cant think of them so any advice would be much appreciated. thank you

 

[BackToTheReef]

Not sure I have answers but how big is the tank and what kind of live stock do you have? Might help get some more answers from the group.

Do you have an invertor for your car you can plug stuff into? If all you have is the air stone do you have one of those portable phone battery pack/charger deals to maybe help keep it going? Battery powered fan for evaporative cooling?

Might not be the best options but might be the best options you have left.

(not sure how much, if any time these might buy you though)

 

[Raege]

First I hope you and your family stay safe second your reef. Other than temp and aeration water motion not sure let's call done heavy hitters #reefsquad for any more tips best of luck stay safe thought either everyone e in the osth

 

[Ippyroy]

Good luck and be safe first off. Get a power converter to hook up to your car. Hopefully you can still find one. Just hook it up to your car, and turn it on.

 

[HuduVudu]

Fill your car's tank with gas, get an inverter now. Get a UPS from Best Buy or something. Now you have a battery that can run a fan and gas to charge it. The frozen bottles won't even last a half a day, but better than nothing.

Try to run a small pump and fan from your UPS try to use mirrors for lighting. Hopefully these two will only be at max Cat 1 so we won't really lose power.

Also run water into buckets better to top off with tap than nothing. It isn't likely you can get distilled water now. After the storm buy an RO/DI and a large container. Fill it when storms come in. I am filling mine today.

Then after the storms past make it a priority to have a power back up in storms. I chose the gas generator route and I have 50 gallons of stored gas. Hurricane Ike got my attention and I won't lose my tank to a 2 week power outage. You are in hurricane alley and storms are the rule not the exception be prepared.

 

[90G Mark]

Not sure I have answers but how big is the tank and what kind of live stock do you have? Might help get some more answers from the group.

Do you have an invertor for your car you can plug stuff into? If all you have is the air stone do you have one of those portable phone battery pack/charger deals to maybe help keep it going? Battery powered fan for evaporative cooling?

Might not be the best options but might be the best options you have left.

(not sure how much, if any time these might buy you though)

No converter, i have a 90 gallon tank 10 fish 4 coral frags

 

[90G Mark]

Good luck and be safe first off. Get a power converter to hook up to your car. Hopefully you can still find one. Just hook it up to your car, and turn it on.

Thank You

 

[90G Mark]

Fill your car's tank with gas, get an inverter now. Get a UPS from Best Buy or something. Now you have a battery that can run a fan and gas to charge it. The frozen bottles won't even last a half a day, but better than nothing.

Try to run a small pump and fan from your UPS try to use mirrors for lighting. Hopefully these two will only be at max Cat 1 so we won't really lose power.

Also run water into buckets better to top off with tap than nothing. It isn't likely you can get distilled water now. After the storm buy an RO/DI and a large container. Fill it when storms come in. I am filling mine today.

Then after the storms past make it a priority to have a power back up in storms. I chose the gas generator route and I have 50 gallons of stored gas. Hurricane Ike got my attention and I won't lose my tank to a 2 week power outage. You are in hurricane alley and storms are the rule not the exception be prepared.

Thank you, will head to Best Buy now, id have have a RODI converter but only 4 5 gallon buckets they are filling now did a water change yesterday to try to get as much out of my water column as i could.. thank you so much so inverter that is a ac to dc thing? well im out the door thnks to all you alls quick responce

 

[HuduVudu]

so inverter that is a ac to dc thing?

dc to ac ... it's so you can charge the UPS from your car's battery.

 

[GlassMunky]

Thank you, will head to Best Buy now, id have have a RODI converter but only 4 5 gallon buckets they are filling now did a water change yesterday to try to get as much out of my water column as i could.. thank you so much so inverter that is a ac to dc thing? well im out the door thnks to all you alls quick responce

An inverter converts the power from your car battery to the proper voltage to run your electronics.
I got this one from Home Depot during our last storm and used it to keep my 210 Reef alive for a couple days

DEWALT DXAEPI1000 Power Inverter 1000W Car Converter with LCD Display: Dual 120V AC Outlets, 3.1A USB Ports, Battery Clamps

 

[Fishnut]

I would stop feeding fish a couple days ahead of the storm so they will put out less waste. Clean filters, sponges and tank. Prepare some extra water for top off if needed. I used my hand in the tank to circulate tank water and used a cup to pour tank water in from a height to add oxygen. Don’t feed fish. I just went a week without power due to the last hurricane. My tank temps dropped to 70 with no problems, but you have to opposite issue. Frozen water bottles should help. Good luck

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

If you have a dc return pump or power head, you can power it directly from a lead acid battery like the one in your car. That will provide all the water movement you need for a long time. I made my own battery backup in the thread linked below.

For the last 3 hurricanes I was in, the storm dropped the temperature for a couple of days after making land. If the power is out for more than 2 days, keeping the water temp down it's not really practical to run any kind of a cooling system on battery's. Air conditioning takes too much power. If a generator and portable window unit is out of the question, then a fan on the tank is going to be best you can do. I think you'll be surprised how fast the ice melts, and how little it lowers the tanks temp. It's definitely better than nothing though so you might try to freeze a few more.

DIY battery backup

I made my own battery backup. It uses a 110v power relay to automatically switch between wall power and the battery backup. I used a couple of 7 amp hour batteries sealed lead acid batteries. My icecap 3k gyre pump comes with a 24v DC power supply, so I was going to run two 12v batteries in...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[90G Mark]

If you have a dc return pump or power head, you can power it directly from a lead acid battery like the one in your car. That will provide all the water movement you need for a long time. I made my own battery backup in the thread linked below.

For the last 3 hurricanes I was in, the storm dropped the temperature for a couple of days after making land. If the power is out for more than 2 days, keeping the water temp down it's not really practical to run any kind of a cooling system on battery's. Air conditioning takes too much power. If a generator and portable window unit is out of the question, then a fan on the tank is going to be best you can do. I think you'll be surprised how fast the ice melts, and how little it lowers the tanks temp. It's definitely better than nothing though so you might try to freeze a few more.

DIY battery backup

I made my own battery backup. It uses a 110v power relay to automatically switch between wall power and the battery backup. I used a couple of 7 amp hour batteries sealed lead acid batteries. My icecap 3k gyre pump comes with a 24v DC power supply, so I was going to run two 12v batteries in...

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks so far looks like I will be fine