Tank Survival Plan: How prepared are you?

[Neil S.]

This is a really good poll! I'm fairly lucky to be where I am as the absolute longest that the power has ever been off in my lifetime has been about an hour, and in recent memory...never. If the power drops and I'm worried about the tank cooling off too far, I just turn up the interior heat, it runs on a boiler system and keeps going even if the power drops. However, I should invest in a battery back up to keep the pumps running in case of a longer power drop. I have seen some systems that allow for a power head to run for a while, then let the return pump run for a while and then cycle around again, thus reducing drain on the battery. I believe that the battery backups are good for around 3 hours.

 

[Suesea]

Have whole house gen just not hooked up yet luckily I have 3 battery air stone packs and 4 rechargeable led light bars, use 2 lights at a time while other 2 charge in the car. It's better than nothing. My electric has been out since 11:00 am still out now its 6:05 pm. Such a coincidence huh.

 

[butrflynlambie]

a battery powered air pump that turns on when the power goes off attached to my DT with extra batteries for extended outages.

I am interested in finding out what brand/model of the air pump and how this is triggered.

 

[albano]

If the power drops and I'm worried about the tank cooling off too far, I just turn up the interior heat, it runs on a boiler system and keeps going even if the power drops.

Are you sure about that?

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Aquarium? Heck, I’m prepared to run that, the fridge, lights, fans, and an HVAC unit with a generator. A few hurricanes set me straight, though, ironically, once I bought the generator I never lost power. Before I bought it I would lose power when a neighbor sneezed.

 

[725196]

I am prepared with a generator but I would love to have a battery back up system in place too. Therefore “other”

 

[jeffrey750750]

Carburetor has varnished and wont stay running, I need to go out and get one before it's too late

 

[cmaxwell39]

My tank isn't up yet, but one purchase I made has been a generator. I had some Christmas money this year and it helped ease the pain of purchasing this.

Should run most of the house if we are wise about what we use. Not as good as a whole house stand by, but a lot cheaper to purchase as well. Just have to be home to start it and get it plugged in.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Well it's tornado season for a lot of people and some people and I was made well aware last night when we had 7 tornadoes hit in the area I live. Thankfully we were spared! We did lose power last night but it came back on this morning while others in our area are looking at days without it. This really made me think as I have been prepared in the past but I was not prepared last night for what happened! I would have been in a little trouble had our power stayed out for a few days.

Also people are still dealing with snow and ice and hurricane season is coming too! I know we have many threads on this but let's chit chat on how prepared you are today, some tips you have for others and what is your plan for a long outage.

1. How prepared are you, right now, to take care of your aquarium for an extended time without power? (vote in the poll)

2. What is your aquarium survival plan of action?

3. Do you have any tips or tricks to keeping a tank alive if you're not very prepared?

we're dealing with the virus, out here. Today I just finished installing my do it yourself half horsepower chiller. don't look pretty but it gets me from A to B with peace of mind. I remove the existing chiller which works great but is very old . I have a generator for my tank setup and two of each of everything, just in case. For the tank only

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

My tank isn't up yet, but one purchase I made has been a generator. I had some Christmas money this year and it helped ease the pain of purchasing this.

Should run most of the house if we are wise about what we use. Not as good as a whole house stand by, but a lot cheaper to purchase as well. Just have to be home to start it and get it plugged in.

don't forget got to change the oil frequently. When in use

 

[mkwarner77]

learned the hard way, lost everything in the tank 3 yrs ago when an ice storm took out the power for 4 days. sent the fam to stay with relatives while i worked. dept of transportation, we work 16 hr shifts in bad winter weather, came home watched the tank dying, slept 5hrs and back to work, repeat 4days

 

[jelazar]

, and how long does it take for fish to run out of oxygen?

Several years ago we lost power around midnight in a huge windstorm. Pshh, the fish will be fine, I said. I checked around 0600 and they were almost all dead. Four smallish tangs (~4") and a bunch of other small fish (clowns, dottyback, etc.). Tank was a 5' 120gal.

 

[Cristy17]

When we had the house built, I had them install all the outlets in the sump room( all the tank equipment is powered from there) to two breakers and install an outlet for a plug from my Generac portable generator. If and when the power goes out, I manually flip off breakers I don't need and plug in the generator into the outlet. I hope to run the sump room, the fridge, router, light, and a fan! We live in Florida. We have been here 2 1/2 years and so far no power outages except for 10-30 min. If it gets worse, a whole house propane system will be my next step.

 

[WallyB]

My power was off from 5:30am-2:10pm today. Was not prepared. In all the years I’ve lived here it’s never done anything worse than blink! Manually aerated both tanks every few hours, everything was fine. Will definitely be better prepared in the future!

I'm curious.
How do you manually aerate a tank with no power?

 

[Magellan]

I'm curious.
How do you manually aerate a tank with no power?

With a cup...scoop, dump, repeat!

 

[Brian_68]

I have a HF predator 3500 inverter generator, manual transfer switch and enough gas on hand for about 3 days running. Can run all the tanks, refrig, freezer, internet and fce if needed. Saved me a couple times on outages longer than a day. Only think it can't run is the central A/C but I have some fans just in case.

 

[Victor_C3]

Right now, I only have a few air bubblers, but in the next few months I intend to get an inverter/charger, a few batteries, and a small propane generator. All together, I’ll probably spend $1,500-2,000 on a power backup setup, but I believe it’s vitally important. It’s not just the money in lost corals and livestock, but the years worth of growth and work that could be lost with an extended power outage.

 

[somethinq else]

Well it's tornado season for a lot of people and some people and I was made well aware last night when we had 7 tornadoes hit in the area I live. Thankfully we were spared! We did lose power last night but it came back on this morning while others in our area are looking at days without it. This really made me think as I have been prepared in the past but I was not prepared last night for what happened! I would have been in a little trouble had our power stayed out for a few days.

Also people are still dealing with snow and ice and hurricane season is coming too! I know we have many threads on this but let's chit chat on how prepared you are today, some tips you have for others and what is your plan for a long outage.

1. How prepared are you, right now, to take care of your aquarium for an extended time without power? (vote in the poll)

2. What is your aquarium survival plan of action?

3. Do you have any tips or tricks to keeping a tank alive if you're not very prepared?

I just installed a 22kw generac back up generator.

Im with you boss. I just installed the same generac with an automatic switch, so the very moment electricity goes out, I'm right back up the next minute. I made the purchase last year after under going hurricane season and several threats of tornados.

 

[Doglips56]

Well it's tornado season for a lot of people and some people and I was made well aware last night when we had 7 tornadoes hit in the area I live. Thankfully we were spared! We did lose power last night but it came back on this morning while others in our area are looking at days without it. This really made me think as I have been prepared in the past but I was not prepared last night for what happened! I would have been in a little trouble had our power stayed out for a few days.

Also people are still dealing with snow and ice and hurricane season is coming too! I know we have many threads on this but let's chit chat on how prepared you are today, some tips you have for others and what is your plan for a long outage.

1. How prepared are you, right now, to take care of your aquarium for an extended time without power? (vote in the poll)

2. What is your aquarium survival plan of action?

3. Do you have any tips or tricks to keeping a tank alive if you're not very prepared?

We are new to reefing but we have a generator, a water station and plenty of food for them so I think we would be ok as long as we could keep gas in it.

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

I have an automatic battery backup for one of the icecap gyres. I also picked up a really cheap 2000 watt generator on sale for $159. It's far from a whole house generator, but it will run the tank, a 5k btu window unit, and either the fridge or freezer. Being a small unit, it runs ~5-8 hours on a tank of gas. Hurricane Harvey left us without power for several days and that generator was sooo worth it. Even though it wouldn't run both the fridge and freezer, we just swapped the cord to power one every couple of hours. That alone saved us more than $150 in food. Not to mention the reef tank. Anyone on the fence about a generator, I recommend picking one up now. Around here it was almost impossible to find one once the power did go down.