Hurricane Aquatics
Valuable Member
Hey all,
Something that we often take for granted or takes a backseat to other equipment, is power outage preparation. I'm reminding this because I just built my system 6 months ago and have numerous Acropora colonies and stand to lose a lot of money due to power outages.
Yesterday in the South, we had high, sustained winds of 40 mph that sometimes gusted to 60 mph. It was a sunny day, but very windy. Suddenly around 1:00 pm the power went out and that rarely happens where I live in the city. I suspected that it would come back up within 10 minutes as that is what has happened before. Didn't happen.
I have had many generators in the past and even had one in my Amazon saved cart to buy, but was busy and didn't get around to it. What I did have, was an APC UPS backup that you see people use for computers. I have the larger one, but I can tell you now, they aren't meant for any kind of long term backup as they deplete quickly. After an hour of the power not coming back, I connected one of my MP40s to the backup for some flow while I waited. It said I had 240 minutes. That surprised me as I didn't think it would last that long, but one pump on 50% Tidal Swell mode didn't consume that much power.
After 6 hours, still no power and I went to Harbor Freight and bought one of their Predator 2000 generators. A small one that runs at 1600 watts and has a top of 2000 watts for initial surges when connecting things. I prepared it, put oil and gas in it, started it and let it run for a few minutes, shut it down and started carrying it upstairs to put it out on the back deck with an extension cord. No sooner than getting everything setup on the deck, the power came back on........
Haha, but a reminder to please find something that will sustain your system for a couple of days at least and if you're in the tornado / hurricane zones, but a generator. I had a coupon and that generator came to $610.00 with tax. Not cheap, but better than losing a super expensive system.
If it's in the summer, then running a powerhead that agitates the surface, will suffice for quite a while and you won't have to worry about the water getting too cold. If it's the winter, then you'll definitely need a generator to run a heater. I plugged my heater into the UPS yesterday and my 240 minutes of power dropped to 12 minutes!!! So that was a no go. My temp didn't drop below 74 thankfully as I usually run it at 79.
It can and will happen to you at some point so instead of that new set of cool lighting that you probably don't need right now, buy a backup if you can.
Something that we often take for granted or takes a backseat to other equipment, is power outage preparation. I'm reminding this because I just built my system 6 months ago and have numerous Acropora colonies and stand to lose a lot of money due to power outages.
Yesterday in the South, we had high, sustained winds of 40 mph that sometimes gusted to 60 mph. It was a sunny day, but very windy. Suddenly around 1:00 pm the power went out and that rarely happens where I live in the city. I suspected that it would come back up within 10 minutes as that is what has happened before. Didn't happen.
I have had many generators in the past and even had one in my Amazon saved cart to buy, but was busy and didn't get around to it. What I did have, was an APC UPS backup that you see people use for computers. I have the larger one, but I can tell you now, they aren't meant for any kind of long term backup as they deplete quickly. After an hour of the power not coming back, I connected one of my MP40s to the backup for some flow while I waited. It said I had 240 minutes. That surprised me as I didn't think it would last that long, but one pump on 50% Tidal Swell mode didn't consume that much power.
After 6 hours, still no power and I went to Harbor Freight and bought one of their Predator 2000 generators. A small one that runs at 1600 watts and has a top of 2000 watts for initial surges when connecting things. I prepared it, put oil and gas in it, started it and let it run for a few minutes, shut it down and started carrying it upstairs to put it out on the back deck with an extension cord. No sooner than getting everything setup on the deck, the power came back on........
Haha, but a reminder to please find something that will sustain your system for a couple of days at least and if you're in the tornado / hurricane zones, but a generator. I had a coupon and that generator came to $610.00 with tax. Not cheap, but better than losing a super expensive system.
If it's in the summer, then running a powerhead that agitates the surface, will suffice for quite a while and you won't have to worry about the water getting too cold. If it's the winter, then you'll definitely need a generator to run a heater. I plugged my heater into the UPS yesterday and my 240 minutes of power dropped to 12 minutes!!! So that was a no go. My temp didn't drop below 74 thankfully as I usually run it at 79.
It can and will happen to you at some point so instead of that new set of cool lighting that you probably don't need right now, buy a backup if you can.
