What best practics during outages should I use

Greenstarfish03 · Jul 1, 2021

100g display
75g basement sump about 15 feet head
Reeflo goby /hammerhead
Manual start generator that I can use during power outages.
Apex controller

What can I do to better protect my tank w
without buying a whole house generator or Tesla panels? Generally I start up the generator hang a heater, air stone and run my ecotech mp40 power head until the power comes back on. Yesterday the power went out came back on in about 24 hours, but it managed to mess up my return pump and I'm not sure how long I can run my tank this way without the return pump and fixing this one will take a couple weeks and ordering a new pump is super expenive and tie consuming.

Any recommendations for keeping things alive during my current issue and future recondmendations to prevent this from happening again would be great.

TheDragonsReef · Jul 1, 2021

A gas generator that can run the whole tank is the best practice imo.

What happened to the return pump?

Greenstarfish03 · Jul 1, 2021

Greenstarfish03 · Jul 1, 2021

Dragonsreef said:
A gas generator that can run the whole tank is the best practice imo.

What happened to the return pump?

@DragonsreeThanks for the quick reply. I have like a 2500w generator so I usualy would run the return pump and all essential system.off the generator but this outage was weird. One I was just comming home from vacation when the outage occurred. Return has been working for about 7 years without issue. I came home and the power was on but it was obvious it had been off but the water dropped in the display bc th return pump.wasnt running. I reset the gfci the apex was running on and it tripped again. I removed things one by one until it was obvious the return pump was causing the issue. Opened it up made sure it was dry, cleaned it the best I could an tried again and it trips the gfci. Tried 3 other gfci in the house with the same issue. Pump.runs fine if I run the pump upstairs on a non gfci plug. Power came back on but I do t know what to do with the return pump. I could run an extention cord from a non gfci plug to the pump.to get it back up short term but I'm worried that could cause bigger issues. This Is a big external pump and it's like 400 plus dollars for a new.one.

Jekyl · Jul 1, 2021

I have a 5500w generator that just runs the whole house.

ZoWhat · Jul 1, 2021

Dragonsreef said:
A gas generator that can run the whole tank is the best practice imo.

Gas powered generators are great for putting you into the Orthopedic Doctors office from a blown out shoulder

Go with your cars battery and an Inverter all the way

.

TheDragonsReef · Jul 1, 2021

Greenstarfish03 said:
@DragonsreeThanks for the quick reply. I have like a 2500w generator so I usualy would run the return pump and all essential system.off the generator but this outage was weird. One I was just comming home from vacation when the outage occurred. Return has been working for about 7 years without issue. I came home and the power was on but it was obvious it had been off but the water dropped in the display bc th return pump.wasnt running. I reset the gfci the apex was running on and it tripped again. I removed things one by one until it was obvious the return pump was causing the issue. Opened it up made sure it was dry, cleaned it the best I could an tried again and it trips the gfci. Tried 3 other gfci in the house with the same issue. Pump.runs fine if I run the pump upstairs on a non gfci plug. Power came back on but I do t know what to do with the return pump. I could run an extention cord from a non gfci plug to the pump.to get it back up short term but I'm worried that could cause bigger issues. This Is a big external pump and it's like 400 plus dollars for a new.one.

That's strange that it runs on a non gfci plug especially after being taken apart. At this point id probably just run it off the regular plug but only when you're home and awake in case something happens and overnight a new one of you can swing it.

TheDragonsReef · Jul 1, 2021

zoa what said:
Gas powered generators are great for putting you into the Orthopedic Doctors office from a blown out shoulder

Go with your car battery and an Inverter all the way

.

Mine is electric start with a pull start back up, i love it.

Greenstarfish03 · Jul 1, 2021

Dragonsreef said:
Mine is electric start with a pull start back up, i love it.

From a generator pov mine is electric start as well and it's easy to use. I think the only thing better would be to drop 10k on a whole house generator that automatically takes over when the power goes out. The cost is crazy though.

Greenstarfish03 · Jul 1, 2021

Dragonsreef said:
That's strange that it runs on a non gfci plug especially after being taken apart. At this point id probably just run it off the regular plug but only when you're home and awake in case something happens and overnight a new one of you can swing it.

I think I'm going to change the gfci this morning and then If that doesn't work I will run it off an extention and normal plug as you stated until I can figure out what is wrong or I can replace it.