Powers knocked out!

[burrows14]

So I've been sittin here in the dark for 30 minutes now and just wondering if I should do anything to prevent any damage to my reef? I have a battery powered air pump running but is there anything else I can do?

Thank god for my iPhone
Ray

[Leah]

Oh no, reefer's nightmare hope it comes back on soon

[leducreef]

if it stays off to long i would find a way to keep the temp up and get some water movment

[burrows14]

How long is to long? Can I just stir it up with my feeding stick? As for temp what would be the best way to keep it up?

Cheers
Ray

[TheMikey]

How long is to long? Can I just stir it up with my feeding stick? As for temp what would be the best way to keep it up?

Cheers
Ray

Not sure the best way to keep it up... maybe get some clean bottles and fill them up with hot water if your temp starts to drop, maybe?

[leducreef]

do you have a car booster pack some of them have a plug in on them .
you can plug in a powerhead to it
to keep it warm you could fill bags with hot water and sit them in the tank

[christyf5]

I would think you'd be okay for a couple of hours. After that, you'll need to get creative. Definitely get some water movement in there, even if its scooping a cupful and dumping it back in just to generate some air.

In the future you might want to invest a battery powered air pump:

http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/ap-hbat/Hagen+Battery+Operated+Air+Pump.html

They work like a hot damn and are a lifesaver :biggrin:

[icecool217]

1) battery-powered air pump
2) hot water bottles placed in tank
3) wrap blanket + other insulating materials if possible
4) battery booster w/ ac outlets
5) place a straw halfway in and blow for 1 min per every 5 min

[freddy]

Battery backup,from canadian tire,ran my heater ,skimmer, aquaclear 500 and a powerhead for 6 hours last winter,tank saver

[burrows14]

I have the battery powered air pump running and your right it does do a dahm good job! I have an electric hot water tank so in a couple hours I might be hooped lol dam new homes! Lol I have an electric hot water tank but I have a gas range!! Should have thought about this when I bought the place lol worst case I'll boil some water and float it in a couple glass milk bottles.

Cheers
Ray

[burrows14]

Battery backup,from canadian tire,ran my heater ,skimmer, aquaclear 500 and a powerhead for 6 hours last winter,tank saver

I think I'm gonna invest in one of these this weekend. It would be a great idea for both my car and most importanly my tank lol

cheers
Ray

[whatcaneyedo]

I recall a person in Burns Lake keeping their tank alive without power for several days during the winter of 2007. They apparently wrapped it in sleeping bags to insulate it and heated tank water on the BBQ.

[megs_clark]

My power went out the other night, and after a few hours in the middle of the night my battery back up power thingy went out to. My tank had no power from about 4 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon. My temp dropped to 72. When it hit 75 my anemone started creeping around, i dont know if he was looking for warmth or for some water circulation, but he looked good still. Everything held up fine. Thankfully i dont have to much in my tanks, but what i do have didnt seem to notice. I have monti caps, a birds nest, some zoas and a handfull of lps and my anemone, and clowns. I think our tanks are more resiliant then we think, and i wouldnt stress to much, especialy a tank your size, it will probably take alot longer for your temp to start dropping then mine.

[howdy20012002]

Corals and fish are quite often are in bags without anything but the water for up to 48 hours at a time without many problems.
As far as I am concerned, a few hours without power should not be a big problem as long as the temperature doesn't drop a lot.
just my opinion
Neal

[Mrfish55]

My power went out just before 6 last night, came back on just before 4 this morning, my back up back up gen (yes I have 2) died an hour in (first one broke the pull cord 2 pulls in!)and the battery back up died shortly there after, basically everything that could go wrong did. Temps dropped to 72, things are looking seriously stressed this morning, have to wait it out and see over the next few days. Anybody out there that works for Hydro, THANK-YOU for working so hard to get power restored, that was some nasty wind and rain here!

[cprowler]

Our power was out for about 45 min last night and 3 or so hours on Monday night.

I have a generator I got from Costco a few years ago for $300 and it works great, I can run the tank and half the house.

[danny zubot]

Lol I have an electric hot water tank but I have a gas range!!
At least you can still heat up the water on the stove.

We have power outages here in the Koots from time to time. I don't worry about my tank too much, until the power comes back on. Then it's go time to make sure my overflow is going to work properly.

[icecool217]

For those that uses battery backups, what unit do you use?I am looking to get a decent one without having to pay an arm and a leg for it. Heard good things about the Motomaster 600A power booster but want to see what other ones are available out there, esp a unit that can kick in instantly when I am not at home.

[marie]

My power went out just before 6 last night, came back on just before 4 this morning, my back up back up gen (yes I have 2) died an hour in (first one broke the pull cord 2 pulls in!)and the battery back up died shortly there after, basically everything that could go wrong did. Temps dropped to 72, things are looking seriously stressed this morning, have to wait it out and see over the next few days. Anybody out there that works for Hydro, THANK-YOU for working so hard to get power restored, that was some nasty wind and rain here!


My power was back on by 10:00.... living in the middle of town does have its perks

[Black Phantom]

Picked this one up from Canadian Tire. A little more expensive but it will run my big pump for over 6 hours. Thats plenty of time to get the generator going if I need it.
I don't worry about heat loss as I made some panels out of rigid pink styrofoam that I can strap to the tank to keep it warm. A pretty cheap insurance policy.
The nice part about these is the switch is instant so nothing has to restart.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/4/Auto/SolarPortablePower/BackupPower/PRD~0111818P/NOMA%2BBack-up%2BPower%2BSystem%252C%2B1%252C800W.jsp

[mike31154]

Haven't had a lengthy outage here in some time, but when it did happen I used one of my truck batteries and a small inverter to run a powerhead and my skimmer. I also have the PennPlax battery powered air pump that senses power loss and kicks in automatically. The car/truck battery & inverter is not a long term solution but it's relatively cheap and works well to run a powerhead or two for quite a while. Downside is, it's not automatic, you need to be home to set it up. Also wouldn't try to run a heater too long unless you have a very large battery. I'm able to run my skimmer since it's old tech air driven (limewood air diffusers), the small powerhead and air pump only use around 11 watts.

[naesco]

The temperature is not the problem unless it goes below 70K The tank if large enough will cool down slowly. You can help it slow down even more by floating containers with boiling water if you have someway to boil the water. (your neighbours gas range or your BQ).

The problem is the lack of oxygen which will kill the inhabitants. Whether it is a battery driven air pump or a egg beater, anything that either injects oxygen into the tank or stirs the water is needed.

As well as the welfare of your inhabitants, you have a lot of money invested in the tank. Nothing if worse than a tank wipe out.
Go to Canadian Tire and get what you need.

[Lance]

My power was back on by 10:00.... living in the middle of town does have its perks


Mine never went out at all, but flickered a few times. I went out to the garage to get the generator set up, just in case and the bugger wouldn't start. Took me 20 minutes of farting around to get it going.

[Lance]

My power went out just before 6 last night, came back on just before 4 this morning, my back up back up gen (yes I have 2) died an hour in (first one broke the pull cord 2 pulls in!)and the battery back up died shortly there after, basically everything that could go wrong did. Temps dropped to 72, things are looking seriously stressed this morning, have to wait it out and see over the next few days. Anybody out there that works for Hydro, THANK-YOU for working so hard to get power restored, that was some nasty wind and rain here!


How's things looking now Dave?

[Mrfish55]

How's things looking now Dave?

Not good, see the post on the 750 thread :frusty: if I lose any of the big angels there will be a 750 for sale real cheap next week.

[marie]

Not good, see the post on the 750 thread :frusty: if I lose any of the big angels there will be a 750 for sale real cheap next week.

Ok I offered my 60g cube for fish if you need it in your other thread but I have a sneaking suspicion your angels wouldn't be very comfortable in there

[Tom R]

Sorry to here of your misfortune. I hope all works out for you. Having local support from other REEFERS in the area (Marie & Lance) is important.

A couple of years ago when we had that major wind storm that took out all those trees in Stanley Park, a number of the local REEF NETWORK members goto together and discussed Disaster Planning. Many of us partnered off with 1 or 2 others who lived close together, who could support each other and share thew plan. There were a number of different plans discussed as the size of the systems required different plans.

My system being 525G required me to buy a generator capable of running my Amp Master main pump and 2 X 250W heaters. I set it up in September and test it for about 2 hours and then leave it in the ready mode hopping never to use it.

Your Generator should run your main circulation pump and at least a couple of heaters to be of any use.

A DISASTER PLAN is only good if you actually test it and it works. We have so much invested in our systems that running without a well tested DISASTER PLAN is very risky.

In a jam my Toyota Tacoma has a 400W inverter included in the box that I could use with the truck idling and an extension cord to the main circulation pump. Another good pump to use is a Tunze as they move a lot of water with very little wattage.

Tom R