Power Outage options

[Scottybgood]

Fairly new to reefing, and have had my tank up almost 6 months and had my first "significant" power outage after a storm overnight. Total power out time was only about 14 hours, but I was starting to get concerned when the power company kept moving out the estimate for the fix. Fish and corals were no worse for wear and they don't seem phased a bit, but it was less than a day and temps stayed pretty close to normal.

I have a 75g DT with a 20g sump, skimmer, ATO, GAC reactor, UV, T5/LED Hybrid lighting, and a ReefKeeper Elite Controller. Current livestock : 2 Frostbite Clowns, 3 BG Chromis, Lawnmower Blenny, Tomini Tang and a few snails and hermits. Corals include a couple Acans, Duncan, Hammer and some SPS including an Acro, a Stylo, a milli and a pocillipora.

My questions are, what do you folks do for power loss mitigation? Generator? UPS Battery backup? What are the minimum systems that you would try to keep running to sustain livestock? How long before you get worried (I realize that is probably dependent on bio-load). I was thinking about looking at a UPS and only have like return pump, heater and maybe a skimmer on it but still don't think it would last long enough in a major type of outage. I am adding solar panels this summer, so hopefully I won't have to worry about it soon, but still like to contingency plan.

Would love to what others do in cases of power loss. Thanks in advance!

 

[vector824]

I went out and bought a gas generator. I do live in Florida though so it's not for just the tank. My wife does not like sleeping without AC.

 

[chinw76]

This is my battery backup for my tank that is in the basement. I run conduit to every room to keep all electronics going and now the fish tank. It can run the fish tank, 2 tvs, 2 desktop computers, 3 laptops, led lights in the house for about 12 hours. If power is out for awhile, I will then startup my generator. I converted my generator to natual gas years ago. I just plug the gas hose to the house and plug the generator to a receptacle on the outside of my house. I turn off the main breaker and power the whole house including central air off it.

 

[leepink23]

The ups won’t last long, I get about 100 minutes on just a return pump, I have a battery backup on my mp40 which gets about 36 hours. I have a generator for extended outages.

 

[fish farmer]

I have a generator now, but I would have to be home to fire it up and plug things into it. Since I've gotten it, the power has only gone out for about 4 to 6 hours and I've been away for most of that time.

I have lost power for several days, once when I did have a 65 gal running but not much for livestock, it was in April so temps weren't too bad. I've had temps dip into the upper 60's without losing anything.

 

[ZoWhat]

3000 watt power inverters that they sell at Harbor Freight that hooks to your CAR BATTERY.

Turns your car into a gas powered generator that holds 18gals of gas

3000w power inverter + running car + extension cords = running your tank heaters/water flow & your refrigerator

https://www.harborfreight.com/3000-watt-continuous6000-watt-peak-modified-sine-wave-power-inverter-63430.html?utm_referrer=direct/not provided

 

[Dennis McGrath]

I've got each of mine on 750 watt UPS's, then if needed, a 4000 watt gas generator.

 

[cancun]

Fairly new to reefing, and have had my tank up almost 6 months and had my first "significant" power outage after a storm overnight. Total power out time was only about 14 hours, but I was starting to get concerned when the power company kept moving out the estimate for the fix. Fish and corals were no worse for wear and they don't seem phased a bit, but it was less than a day and temps stayed pretty close to normal.

I have a 75g DT with a 20g sump, skimmer, ATO, GAC reactor, UV, T5/LED Hybrid lighting, and a ReefKeeper Elite Controller. Current livestock : 2 Frostbite Clowns, 3 BG Chromis, Lawnmower Blenny, Tomini Tang and a few snails and hermits. Corals include a couple Acans, Duncan, Hammer and some SPS including an Acro, a Stylo, a milli and a pocillipora.

My questions are, what do you folks do for power loss mitigation? Generator? UPS Battery backup? What are the minimum systems that you would try to keep running to sustain livestock? How long before you get worried (I realize that is probably dependent on bio-load). I was thinking about looking at a UPS and only have like return pump, heater and maybe a skimmer on it but still don't think it would last long enough in a major type of outage. I am adding solar panels this summer, so hopefully I won't have to worry about it soon, but still like to contingency plan.

Would love to what others do in cases of power loss. Thanks in advance!

Hi! I have power inverter that I hook up to a car battery, it is enough to power my whole tank and the TV....I also have a EchoTech MP40 with the battery backup in case I am not at home when the outage happens.

 

[leepink23]

Hi! I have power inverter that I hook up to a car battery, it is enough to power my whole tank and the TV....I also have a EchoTech MP40 with the battery backup in case I am not at home when the outage happens.

How long does the car battery last?

 

[Dom]

Would love to what others do in cases of power loss. Thanks in advance!

I have a bank of deep cycle marine batteries connected to an inverter with 110v auto transfer switch. Without heaters I can get 18 hours... 12 with. If it goes longer than that, I have a Honda 3000is gas generator for long term outages.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

3000 watt power inverters that they sell at Harbor Freight that hooks to your CAR BATTERY.

Turns your car into a gas powered generator that holds 18gals of gas

3000w power inverter + running car + extension cords = running your tank heaters/water flow & your refrigerator

https://www.harborfreight.com/3000-watt-continuous6000-watt-peak-modified-sine-wave-power-inverter-63430.html?utm_referrer=direct/not provided

3000W is overkill for an inverter. While most inverters have efficiency ratings of 90% or more, you only get near that efficiency when you're essentially running the inverter near its maximum. I've done some preliminary testing on my 1,100W inverter. For a 7W load, the inverter draws more than double the necessary power. I'm in the process to see how this scales as the load increases, but I need to buy a new multimeter first. My point, however, is that the best inverter to get is the smallest one that gets the job done.

It's also worth noting that you'd have to have a pretty robust alternator in your to handle the loads you're suggesting. If your car has a 100A alternator, at the very most, it will supply 1,200W of power at 120VAC. The actual number will be less, because if you take all the alternator's power, the car will draw from the battery to keep running, which will drain and potentially damage the battery.

It's also worth mentioning that the car > inverter > aquarium load topography is a good solution for long term outages, but it is not good for short term outages, nor does it work if you need to drive your car to work. It's also not automatic, so if you're away from your tank for several hours, such as the standard work day, your aquarium could be without power for up to 8 hours before you get home and start running things with your car.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Would love to what others do in cases of power loss. Thanks in advance!

I did a DIY battery backup. For me, the battery backup has to meet several criteria. It has to be automatic, meaning it fails over and runs my tank's critical life support (return pump and flow pumps) on battery if the power fails. It also must be able to last the length of the standard outage. In my area, it's rare to have an outage of more than 8 hours or so. I personally bought enough capacity to last me about 3 full days (150Ah of AGM batteries). If an outage lasts more than this long, I have two batteries, so I can recharge one with my car while the other runs the aquarium.

A battery backup system won't catch everything, but it will keep the pumps flowing, which is the biggest problem in most outages.

 

[ca1ore]

I have a generator now, but I would have to be home to fire it up and plug things into it. Since I've gotten it, the power has only gone out for about 4 to 6 hours and I've been away for most of that time.

That's the rub, isn't it! Portable genny works well IF you're home ..... not so well if you're not. I watched from Vegas this past March as nor'easters churned up the East coast hoping my house wouldn't lose power. Not doing that again. I figure the replacement cost of my tank livestock is $15K. Rather makes a standby a no brainer.

 

[o2manyfish]

I'm in Los Angeles. After the 94 Northridge quake (which I had no losses) I bought a generator.

Last year our power was going out monthly. And things were good till we were away on vacation and the house sitter was at work.

8.5 hours in 100 degree weather. Fish loss was over $23k . Corals about another $5k.

I bought a Generac 22kw whole house with auto transfer switch. I built a gas manifold to switch between Propane or Natural Gas. We bought a pair of 150lb Propane tanks.

I bought the Generac used for $2k off craigslist. I got someone to install it for $600. I spent about $500 on the fuel manifold (includes running a new 2" gas line about 85' . Generator has 12 hours of run time on it.

Having a generator is a great start. However, you have to be prepared. For me that meant planning for the generator to be used when I wasn't at home. I had extension cords on the generator labelled with where they are supposed to be plugged in. I had a laminated map of where the right cords were to plug into the generator. I had 30g of gas on hand. I had spare spark plugs. I had a case of oil.

It's easy for us to know what needs to be plugged in. But given Murphy's laws there is a better chance of you not being home when the power goes out. So make a plan so that your wife, child, or house sitter can get things running without you.

If you have a 29g or larger reef tank, and you have some nice corals, chances are you have a lot more invested in your reef than the cost of a portable generator (Under $500 at Costco).

So don't be an idiot. Instead of buying another frag pack of over priced, uber named, super blue saturated sticks --- Be prepared for when the feces hits the fans.

And it's not always about the money. While our $$ loss was huge, the emotional cost is more. We lost fish we had for over a decade.

I had a trio of Golden Angels that were the first recorded spawning in captivity, and a week after the power failure there was an article published in a French reefing magazine about my reef and my Golden Angels. Regardless of how big your wallet, or how good your connections are in the industry, there are some things that can't ever be replaced.

Dave B

 

[Bigfish of La.]

I live on south Louisiana and we must be prepared for hurricanes. I had a 20KW Generac installed 5 years ago as I got tired of my small portable 5 KW generator. You must have plenty of gasoline on hand, lots of extension cords to run to fans, fridge, freezer, and a small window unit.
I had the generac installed for piece of mind and less hassle. I have had my reef tank for 3 years and is truly a blessing. Power goes out and 15 seconds later house is up and running again.

 

[fish farmer]

I'll throw some doom and gloom to keep this going.

Hopefully everthing switches over and your system runs smoothly, hopefully no critical breaker trips, mouse nest shorts something, trees, mud, lava fall on your road making accessing your house impossible even for the sitter.

I've worked in state run trout hatcheries since 1992. My current hatchery has roughly 40,000 lbs of trout broodstock, future eggs for Vermont and some Federal and northeast programs.

We have two wells, both with one pump each(Variable Frequency Drive controlled). They are on the same aquifer. One well pump goes down we can ramp up the other quickly to gain back the water. We have a pump motor on the shelf for install by professionals(not us, ha ha).

We have two backup generators for these wells, both wired to start if one doesn't start.

We have several alarms on these wells and generators to notify us by control panel as well as text or call back from an alarm monitoring system. We also have liquid level float switches in a few strategic positions to alert us to a drop in water level. Sometimes things can clog pipes....a NH hatchery lost some fish due to a clogged pipe from a visitor's stuffed teddy bear.

We also have back up water pumps/hoses we can lug around if needed. We are also designing a recirculation system in one set of raceways, mostly for saving money on pumping cost, but would help in reusing water during crisis.

We also have a big liquid oxygen tower with pure oxygen going in each rearing area. We can always tap into this line if needed.

We also have two managers required to live on station, carry beepers and respond within 30 minutes of an alarm. We have someone working every single day.

I've seen it all, once a generator didn't start during it's weekly exercise(mouse nest/wire chewed).

We had a finicky breaker on one well. It would sometimes have to be manually switched when it was on emergency power.

We had an electrical company, who got the contract, but were a little over their head when they were adding a new transfer switch for our new generator. I got called in to the fire department pumping water all over the place.

I've seen straight line winds tossing trees and other stuff around, blocking roads and making it unsafe to even be outside. Luckily the generator ran, we were out of power for 40 hours. I was working at the time, but one boss had a hard time getting back to the hatchery.

The only time we actually lost anything significant was when one of the well pumps went down at night. It was a submersible, the shaft broke. The motor spun fine, didn't have a lost power alarm....it just didn't have the impeller part to do the work. We lost everthing in our upper raceways, several thousand fish. This was before we had float switches throughout.

 

[ca1ore]

No mitigation plan is ever perfect. My neighbor installed a standby generator a few years ago and during the first major storm after it was installed a tree took out the generator. Go figure! So, my plan is built around redundancy:

1. 20K standby Kohler is the fist line of defense. Main pump delays restart so it doesn't burn out from back spinning. Apex brain (2016 model is a bit twitchy) is on a UPS so it maintains power for the 30 seconds it takes for the kohler to take over. Propane tanks are remote monitored by the gas company so they can proactively top them off if a doozie is forecasted.
2. I've kept my portable generator and manual transfer switch as backup for the kohler.
3. I run a pair of ETM battery backups in the event circulation is required for a few hours
4. Fellow reefer is 'on call' in the event of an emergency (I do the same for him).

 

[siniang]

We currently have a potential Cat 4 hurricane approaching and that for the first time made me worry about prolonged power outages and consequences for my tank. Since I moved into my current place, we only had one major power outage (12+ hrs), once, and that was before I had my tank up. Since then, no power outages (*knock on wood*), but shorter outages (a few hours) are common in the general area. Hence, we did not yet feel the need to buy a generator (hurricanes are very very rare - so are blizzards )

How long can a 40 gal FOWLR tank go without power? It's not cold, so I'm not too worried about heating. But what about the filter? I have a normal stack on filter, no elaborate setup. But, I thought, beside filtering of course, it's needed for keeping the water oxygenated?

 

[Punchanello]

I have a pretty easy solution. I connect my DC powerheads and return pump to a rechargeable battery via a Tunze safety connector. The safety connector automatically switches over to battery when the power goes out.

I worry most about temperature though and haven't come up with a workable solution. Generally heating and cooling are the killers and draw way more power than other life support. Where I live we have summers over 40 degrees Celsius down to -7 in the winter.

 

[ca1ore]

(hurricanes are very very rare - so are blizzards )

Severe weather seems clearly on the rise, which was why I decided to go with a better generator. Blizzards are common here in the US North East and I think it's just a matter of time before we get a hurricane. You don't say where you are ..... But generally oxygen is the most immediate problem. Good idea to have battery powered airstones on hand.