Help! Power outage

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

Best of my luck I went and got two new beautiful SPS corals for my aquarium today. Dipped them and Acclimated them and put them in the tank. About 4:40 PM the power went out. Tank had a battery back up system that runs a powerhead and heater for around an hour. I ran to Petsmart and purchased a battery operated air pump. What else do I do!!! My power company will not specify the details of the outage and says they are unsure of when the power will come back on. Worst of all there is no bad weather in the area!

143MPCo · Aug 16, 2016

Can you see if you can rent a generator for a short term fix?

Check home depot or local renting centers, lights you can run without for up to 4 days... water circulation is more important along with gas exchange and heating.

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

I do have family friends and relatives who own a generator but so far no luck contacting them.

ReeferMaddness843 · Aug 16, 2016

Can snag a gel cell auto battery and power inverter (12v to 120v). It may not be cost effective (neither is replacing livestock), but in a pinch, should hold over for a bit depending on ah draw.

ReeferMaddness843 · Aug 16, 2016

But make sure it's a sealed cell battery. You don't wanna leak the gas a battery creates in a closed home environment.

redfishbluefish · Aug 16, 2016

A similar situation like this is what made me run out and purchase a generator from Sams. As I was driving back to my house, on my street, the lights came back on....at first I thought, Doh! That generator sat in the box for a couple months until Sandy hit. If it wasn't for that initial outage, I would not have had a generator when Sandy hit NJ, and my entire tank would have been lost. The best $300 I ever spent. You quickly realize how much you have invested in your tank....not to mention all the food in the refrigerator/freezer. That little generator ran 24/7 for over 7 days after Sandy, running my entire tank, boiler, television, refrigerator/freeze and a couple lights. It now has it's own home. I believe a generator is considered a mandatory piece of equipment if you have a reef tank.

Buy a generator! Even if it's a little one from Harbor Freight.

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

ReeferMaddness843 said:
Can snag a gel cell auto battery and power inverter (12v to 120v). It may not be cost effective (neither is replacing livestock), but in a pinch, should hold over for a bit depending on ah draw.

I have considered inverting a car battery but I'm not sure where to acquire a inverter

143MPCo · Aug 16, 2016

brandon4432 said:
I have considered inverting a car battery but I'm not sure where to acquire a inverter

Do you have a harbor freight near by?

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

redfishbluefish said:
A similar situation like this is what made me run out and purchase a generator from Sams. As I was driving back to my house, on my street, the lights came back on....at first I thought, Doh! That generator sat in the box for a couple months until Sandy hit. If it wasn't for that initial outage, I would not have had a generator when Sandy hit NJ, and my entire tank would have been lost. The best $300 I ever spent. You quickly realize how much you have invested in your tank....not to mention all the food in the refrigerator/freezer. That little generator ran 24/7 for over 7 days after Sandy, running my entire tank, boiler, television, refrigerator/freeze and a couple lights. It now has it's own home. I believe a generator is considered a mandatory piece of equipment if you have a reef tank.

Buy a generator! Even if it's a little one from Harbor Freight.

You would think I would already own a generator based on the fact that my area has had two one hundred year floods in the last 5 years!

redfishbluefish · Aug 16, 2016

I think we've had four or five "100 year floods" in my area of NJ in the past couple years....so bad in one area of the town that the government had a buy-out of all the homes. Luck for me I'm at about 90 feet above mean high tide.

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

redfishbluefish said:
I think we've had four or five "100 year floods" in my area of NJ in the past couple years....so bad in one area of the town that the government had a buy-out of all the homes. Luck for me I'm at about 90 feet above mean high tide.

Yes! Isn't it ironic how these floods happen so often. Luckily my home is also above the areas who usually get flooded. Although we have lost power.

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

143MPCo said:
Do you have a harbor freight near by?

Yes

redfishbluefish · Aug 16, 2016

brandon4432 said:
Yes

Well!!!! I'm giving you 45 minutes to post a picture of an inverter or generator......let's go! We don't need another dead tank.

lion king · Aug 16, 2016

Got a 4000/3200 watt generator delivered from harbor freight yesterday; on sale under $300.
Lost my power for 5 hours last week, manually turned over the water every 1/2 hour, all is well.
I was lucky, the middle of summer in Las Vegas and we were having a cool down, house only got to 85, tanks didn't get that warm.

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

redfishbluefish said:
Well!!!! I'm giving you 45 minutes to post a picture of an inverter or generator......let's go! We don't need another dead tank.

Was on my way to pick up a generator and I get a text saying the power is back on!!!! Everything survived as of now. Temperature wiggled down to 76 and PH dropped a bit but thank god for battery powered airpumps! My battery backup ran out of juice and of it wasn't for the airpumps I have a feeling things would be a lot worse. So relieved! This gives me an excuse to buy a Vortech MP10QW and a eco tech battery back up! Hehe

redfishbluefish · Aug 16, 2016

My comment about battery back up is that they only last so long. I'll still state, a generator (or inverter, if you wish to go that route) is the only way to maintain long term power to your tank......Get one if you wish to save your corals and fish (and food in the freezer/refrigerator), when that long power outage happens. It's called insurance.

Glad to see you're back up and running!

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

redfishbluefish said:
My comment about battery back up is that they only last so long. I'll still state, a generator (or inverter, if you wish to go that route) is the only way to maintain long term power to your tank......Get one if you wish to save your corals and fish (and food in the freezer/refrigerator), when that long power outage happens. It's called insurance.

Glad to see you're back up and running!

It's on the list! My father has one he keeps for his tank and agreed to let me use it if necessary but as we learned today that isn't going to work. Looks to purchase one before winter comes along!

Defiant Arms · Aug 16, 2016

pick up a harbor freight generator they are inexpensive and as long as you do maintenance on them they will be good for years.. if you want to splurge get you a honda inverter generator i have a eu1000 and it'll run a lot think it was around 800$ check local pawn shops and craigslist too

brandon4432 · Aug 16, 2016

Defiant Arms said:
pick up a harbor freight generator they are inexpensive and as long as you do maintenance on them they will be good for years.. if you want to splurge get you a honda inverter generator i have a eu1000 and it'll run a lot think it was around 800$ check local pawn shops and craigslist too

What size/power output would you recommend?

Defiant Arms · Aug 16, 2016

depends if you want to run more than just the tank if you go with the harbor freight id get one bigger than you need but the honda i have will run a fridge several fans and a freezer so i feel it'll power the tank and more https://www.amazon.com/Honda-EU1000i-Inverter-Generator-Eco-Throttle/dp/B00P9ONS74
its real quiet too