Emergency supply list for reef tank

[Lavey29]

Just wondering what people stock extra in the event of a tank emergency or equipment Failure?

Extra return pump
Extra heater
Extra flow power head
Back up battery
Various medications and or water additives
Secondary smaller tank
Extra pump for the ATO
RODI water and salt mix

Just some things that come to mind. How about your set up?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have spare:
pump
heater
salt
powerheads
plumbing parts
light

 

[ying yang]

Big buckets to hold water/ rocks/ fish/ corals.
I got 2 large plasterers buckets that will hold about 100 litres each so if worse happened and tank started leaking I could put all essential things in both buckets and keep fish and corals alive and somehow hang my lights over both buckets for the corals.
Plus some of the stuff you and vetteguy said

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Just wondering what people stock extra in the event of a tank emergency or equipment Failure?

Extra return pump
Extra heater
Extra flow power head
Back up battery
Various medications and or water additives
Secondary smaller tank
Extra pump for the ATO
RODI water and salt mix

Just some things that come to mind. How about your set up?

I am going to buy a power inverter soon. In addition to the above, I have dual heaters on separate controllers, an automatic battery air pump, regular thermometer, GFCI outlet, and ground probe.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Hand warmers!

 

[Lavey29]

Hand warmers!

Musical selections and beer for extended marine maintenance?

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Musical selections and beer for extended marine maintenance?

Yes, I feel like that sometimes! My overflow drives me nuts. I have lived thru an ice storm and if it happens here again my tank is done for.

The warmers are supposed to work if you attach them to the glass, I believe. I need to read up on it again.

 

[ariellemermaid]

I think it depends on how far you want to take it. A lot of things you can run out to a store and buy as needed depending on where you live so that’s one way to think about it. Some things are just luxuries like an extra ATO pump; some people don’t even use an ATO.

Heater is a big one. Return pumps, depending on tank size, can be hundreds of dollars and by the time you need it likely years down the line, you might not even want to use that model anymore. I would say to a degree your powerheads are a backup for your return and your return is a backup for the powerheads. Just something to make flow and surface agitation until you can get a replacement (lots of stuff is available on Amazon for quick delivery).

In my case I run 2 QT tanks and a DT so there’s a lot of redundancy just in that equipment. I have an extra heater I use for salt mixing as well. New tank I’m building will run 2 returns both for the tank size and redundancy, and 2 heaters for redundancy.

Beyond that I had a power issue recently that killed a prized coral and I didn’t have enough battery to make it through. So I’ve added or will add:
Small backup generator
Bubblers that turn on when the power is off for vacation (when I can’t hook up the generator).