Power Outages - What do you do?

[govolsguy31]

Hey guys- Woke up to the transformer outside our house blowing up this morning about 6am. Thing caught fire and part of the power poll ended up in the road. I'd never seen anything like that. Anyway, no one hurt, but brings up "what do you do in a power outage?"

No corals in the tank at this point, just fish, but what do each of you do during a power outage in your tanks? Any tips? I'm hoping they get this fixed today, but its not going to be a quick fix I don't think. We're 3 1/2 hours in and wife just texted saying still no power. 90G aquarium. 4 fish in there at the moment. Is ammonia a concern yet at this point?

 

[helen ann]

I don't believe ammonia an issue at this point but keep an eye on it
Might want to agitate the water either manually every once in a while or agitate with a lil' battery pump with airstone (they usually have at walmart pretty cheap).

 

[govolsguy31]

I don't believe ammonia an issue at this point but keep an eye on it
Might want to agitate the water either manually every once in a while or agitate with a lil' battery pump with airstone (they usually have at walmart pretty cheap).

Thanks @helen ann I appreciate it. Temperature is the other thing here that might become a factor if it takes all day to fix this. I'm in northern VA and the high is only in the 40's today...

 

[helen ann]

Thanks @helen ann I appreciate it. Temperature is the other thing here that might become a factor if it takes all day to fix this. I'm in northern VA and the high is only in the 40's today...

Hmmmmm, yeah that might be an issue too.
Sorry, can't help with that one ...
Hopefully someone will chime in with that one.

 

[sinekal]

I think you have the two key issues, keeping the water oxygenated, and the temp of the tank. If you have and reef safe sealed containers you can boil water, fill the container, and set it in your tank like a heater, assuming you have a camp
Stove or some means of bioling water.

 

[azbigjohn]

Hopefully they get you up and running soon. 90 gallons of water takes a little while to drop too far; rocks add an insulating factor as well from holding heat.

If it looks like iot is going too long, a car power inverter and battery can run a heater...

 

[Pugfishluv3]

I use a battery powered air pump like helen ann said but after 12 hours or so we pull out the generator and plug up a few things. Temp will hold depending on volume a bigger tank will hold its temp longer. The only problem I ever had with this is the power went out for a week in the dead of summer. One of my tanks that had sea horses at the time stayed to hot vibro hit and I lost 2 out of 4.

 

[Pugfishluv3]

Also wrap a blanket around the tank to help insulate it.

 

[govolsguy31]

Thanks for the info folks. I'm not nearly as worried about it right now as I will be a year from now if this were to happen. Seems like getting a generator is almost a must once corals and inverts are in there. All it takes is one down power poll to ruin thousands of hours and dollars invested. I may run by Wally World at lunch if there's still no power to get a battery powered pump. Think that makes sense to have on-hand.

 

[govolsguy31]

I use a battery powered air pump like helen ann said but after 12 hours or so we pull out the generator and plug up a few things. Temp will hold depending on volume a bigger tank will hold its temp longer. The only problem I ever had with this is the power went out for a week in the dead of summer. One of my tanks that had sea horses at the time stayed to hot vibro hit and I lost 2 out of 4.

Do you have a generator specifically for your tank? What size did you get and what all are you running with it?

 

[badstorm48]

When hurricane Mathew came in South Carolina. The power went out for 3 days. I bought some battery powered bubblers that are in the fishing section of Walmart for my 40 breeder. I have corals and fish. Do that for the first 4 hours or so and worked really good. I would stir the water up here and there just to make sure the oxygen got all over the tank and all the corals were good. Then we turned the generator on and used that for the rest of the time. I just plugged in the wave makers and heater and everything worked out and nothing happened to my tank. Ammonia won't be an issue. If it did nothing to my tank and it was out for 3 days it shouldn't bother your tank for a day.

 

[govolsguy31]

Thanks @badstorm48. Glad you guys made it threw that without any issues! We have friends in Charleston.

 

[T-Bucket]

I have 2 EcoTech Battery Backups on my Reefer 450. One is for the MP40s and the other is for the M1. I get weird power outages all the time at my house for a few hours and so I felt I needed them. A lot of people use different kinds of battery backups meant for computers and other things that would maybe work for you, I don't have any personal experience with those though. And if you are going to be keeping a reef tank then an emergency generator is a must! I have 2 generators, one 5500 for my tank and one 6500 for my house. My tank generator is overkill, but I couldn't beat the price for it when I found it on Craigslist.

 

[Pugfishluv3]

Do you have a generator specifically for your tank? What size did you get and what all are you running with it?

Not a must there are inverters you can buy to. I just own a generator and an inverter so I plug up other stuff to I think mines a 3000 watt.

 

[michaelgrusell]

I have to reply to this as I travel a lot.. All you have to do is spend 3000 dollars on a back up generator and wire your house to run on it. After that you, like myself will never lose power again.. True story, it's been 5 years since we lost power and it was a regular thing until then

 

[Willz]

Do you have a generator specifically for your tank? What size did you get and what all are you running with it?

My house has a 17kW self starting generator with a cut out box so that it automatically comes online in the event of a power outage, then actively monitors the power situation to switch back to line power once it is restored.

Before this house I had a 6kW generator that I could plug in through the dryer outlet and feed selected circuits in the event of an extended power outage.

IMHO a generator is required for this hobby. Otherwise, it is just a matter of time before the inevitable happens and wipes out your tank.

Good luck getting your power back on. Definitely frustrating!

 

[Swoody]

I have a UPS battery back-ups on all of my tanks (even my 2 freshwater). I have my return pump and 1 (of my 2) heaters on it for these winter months and return pump & 1 wavemaker during summer. It tells me I can get a little over 2 hours (+ - ) of continuous running time and of course if I were home during an outage I would turn it on and off and be able to really extend that....of course I've never had to deal with any long outages due to weather in AZ. (yet!)

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

EcoTech Battery Backup for Vortech Pumps and Vectra Return Pump
UPS Battery Backups
Generator

 

[govolsguy31]

Power came back on around 2pm. 8 hour outage. Fish are good and happy. Ate like champs this evening.

UPS battery is going to happen after this event and I'll look into a generator in the next month or two.

You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the input/ help!

 

[govolsguy31]

Oh, temp dropped 5 degrees in 8 hours. Was 73 when the power came back on. I keep the tank at 78-79.