Lasers 1000+ Inwall Starfire

[made2rock]

Have you ever noticed that when you turn something on with a big motor the lights go dim for a second. That is this huge load gtbarsi is talking about and if that demand by the motor is not met by the generator it will take longer to start up and is harder on everything.

The other thing you need to decide on is what do you want to run if you are on the generator. The big users of electric are the oven (if electric), Do you want to be able to use the oven or will you just use the grill. Do you want to use the A/C (this puppy has one LARGE motor and surge). You need to look around the house and decide what you want and what you can live without. Anything that produces heat takes a lot of power (coffee pot, heat in house). NOTE: You can always plan to share power example - You can turn the A/C up when you cook dinner.

Trust me I lived 7 days in north Alabama without any power a couple of years ago when several tornados came thru the area. My generator was small and I had to play the management game but I keep the tank alive and food OK in the frig. It was the end of April so not much was needed for heat and we lived without A/C.

We are moving to Florida and yes a whole house generator is on my list (I don't want to do that again). I suggest looking around and thinking about what do you want an what can you live without. Then add up the wattage, on you have that think about how/when you want to use these devices and you'll have your requirements for the generator.

Also in some cases you may not be able to find the wattage on something so here is a formula for you

Wattage = voltage * current (in amps)

The voltage is 120 so if you have an A/C unit that pulls 30 amps you have 30 * 120 or 3600 watts.

Hope this helps

Joe

 

[gtbarsi]

Do not forget to double that for anything running 220v.

In the end bringing in an electrical contractor to speck the job and install is best. Besides being able to identify the best options for generators to meet your needs there is the need for a transfer switch of some type. These are expensive and involve re-wiring individual circuits or your mains coming in from the street. The entire system can be setup with manual start-up and cut-over or automatic.

Personally I have much smaller needs, my generator output is 7500 / 9000 watt, wired in to a 30 amp 220 circuit, with a generator interlock kit for the mains. The interlock kit insures the mains breakers are off before the generator breakers can be moved to the on position as well as the reverse. I can't run my central air, but I can keep my house going no problem. If I loose power in the summer I will have to cool my tank with frozen water bottles floating in the sump, and I will have to run dark, or only with some lighting. But the rest of it will be fine.

 

[Laser]

Thanks so much for your insight. I will take your advice and get an electrician out here to take a look. I was looking at a whole house backup system so it will be quite large and a big project as you have said already..I have spoiled the wife so much over the years that to ask her "what can you do without in a power outage" the answer I get is nothing. That being said my philosophy in life is to keep the wife happy and all are happy.
Love the input from all!!

Do not forget to double that for anything running 220v.

In the end bringing in an electrical contractor to speck the job and install is best. Besides being able to identify the best options for generators to meet your needs there is the need for a transfer switch of some type. These are expensive and involve re-wiring individual circuits or your mains coming in from the street. The entire system can be setup with manual start-up and cut-over or automatic.

Personally I have much smaller needs, my generator output is 7500 / 9000 watt, wired in to a 30 amp 220 circuit, with a generator interlock kit for the mains. The interlock kit insures the mains breakers are off before the generator breakers can be moved to the on position as well as the reverse. I can't run my central air, but I can keep my house going no problem. If I loose power in the summer I will have to cool my tank with frozen water bottles floating in the sump, and I will have to run dark, or only with some lighting. But the rest of it will be fine.

 

[Laser]

shot from distance of the tank tonight. What is that I can see from distance? Is it colors? YES!! Starting to see the corals from distance as they grow. Looking more like a reef.

 

[Av8Bluewater]

Cool tank. Let me know when that Walt Disney grows out. Might have some trade sticks.

 

[Laser]

had a little time to finish up some projects. The tank was shadowed a bit on the ends so I added another Ai 52 on each end. Now all corals are getting plenty of light and growing nicely.

 

[duke4130]

I need to do something like this in my house...LOL

 

[Laser]

picked up a new frag cutting table and installed a diy led lighting fixture to be able to see the corals better defined when cutting..

 

[skinz78]

Looking good Lazer!

 

[TriggerThis]

I need a frag bench like that

 

[Jp978]

Nice YouTube videos!!

 

[Laser]

Nice YouTube videos!!

LOL! Cmon man! I just set it up last night!! I will have videos ASAP. :tongue:

 

[Laser]

Update:
Next week electricians will come out and begin install on a 80KW whole house backup generator. This will give us great peace of mind!

Well I did not ever think it would happen but we are already out of room in the frag tank section of the sump. So in an effort to keep full force ahead, we are having AGE make a 200 gallon, 8' x 3' x 16 1/4". The tank will be connected to our 1000 display and sump. We will also be moving our 100g horse vat that is currently curing more rock, and it will serve as emergency sump for frag tank but normally will just be a QT.
Lighting for the new frag tank will consist of 8 bulb 60" ATI fixture, reef brite leds custom mounted on the ATI fixture, and 2 AI Hydra 52's that will be on the ends of the frag tank. Plumbing will be set up with valves to use with main display and sump or closed to stand alone with emergency sump put into action. All that will need to be done is turn on a return pump from the sump once valve is closed.

Unfortunately the tank we wanted for frags was too large for the wall space we had left in the fish room so we had to do a little remodeling. Both 300 gallon holding reservoirs were disconnected and moved to the other side of the room leaving the 10' opening by the window. As you can see from the shots all plumbing was rerun and had to be rerouted on the ceiling to get back to the sump and top off tanks respectively.
We painted the wall behind the frag tanks new location with sealer paint (made for bathrooms and can handle splashing on drywall) and rerouted all the RO tubing on the baseboard that will not be seen when tank arrives.

 

[Laser]

shot of plumbing running along the ceiling back to holding RO topoff tank and the second to the sump for water changes.

 

[Laser]

and finally a shot of what it will somewhat look like when we get the tank in. we actually have a tank now the same size that we got used but it was so beat up we decided to give it away and justget a new AGE to match the display so it will be starfire glass front as well.
The back of the frag tank will be painted black glass so we matched it up to make it look like it belongs.

 

[Laser]

in the last pic above very bottom left you can see the new collection cup for the BK400. They originally sent me a 300 cup but later explained to me that it was because so many customers were complaining about not be able to handle the larger cup. Well after a long conversation, brushing up on my German a bit, we came to an agreement and they sent me a new cup. I also have the spray bar neck cleaner that will all be installed when the frag tank arrives as some of the plumbing will need to be redone slightly to allow the larger cup to fit with the neck cleaner extension. Tank should be done in next 2 weeks.

 

[kidtango]

One of the best setup I have seen in a while. The light setup is awesome.

 

[gettaReef]

How's the stingray and unicorn tang doing? Post some updated pics if you get the chance pls. Awesome upgrades! Sounds like a lot of work to redo all your plumbing, but the new frag tank will definitely be worth it

 

[Laser]

How's the stingray and unicorn tang doing? Post some updated pics if you get the chance pls. Awesome upgrades! Sounds like a lot of work to redo all your plumbing, but the new frag tank will definitely be worth it

We had to have a funeral and burial in our back yard about 2 months ago or so for Ray Ray. He hit one of the acros,broke it, punctured his belly, developed an infection and then died the next morning. Was a very sad day for the little ones like the dog had died!!!
Unicorn is doing great and eats like a pig. Already getting his trunk. I will try and get a pic of him. He is a fast mover.

 

[gettaReef]

Sorry to hear about the loss