Calculating risk mitigation?

[aquaman67]

Risk Mitigation?

Generator

And enough fuel for at least 2 days

Extended power outages kill aquariums every year.

Even if extended power outages are not common in your area they can still happen.

Since outages that are more dangerous due to low temperatures in the winter are more deadly I fill up my gas cans with stabilizer in the fall.

I use the gas all summer to mow grass.

Outages in the summer are still bad but temperature is easier to maintain.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I'm not.. I'm knocking people running city chloramine water with a tds in the 100s. Your solar distilled water is pure.

What about people who have no chloramine in their water and the TDS is 37?

 

[BZOFIQ]

I put enormous efforts to make each system as redundant as possible.

My new 270G is running on 2 separate controllers which are fed via aux P/S port from a battery backup system I put together. Some strips are running of the GRID while others are connected to a UPS with Automotive Batteries.

5 Heaters, 2 on one controller setup as stage 1 (150W) & 2 (300W) and 3 on the other setup as stages 1 (100W), 2 (200W) & Emergency (600W). This has been working very well. Emergency stage came on twice in 18 months due to my action which was expected - I get notified when this happens of course.

I have multiple UPSs and a custom 48/24/12V backup system that I put together. My Apex, One of the return pumps, and my powerheads run off this system. There are no individual power strips on this setup.

System run off 3 different circuits off separate sub-panels. Transfer switch to accept Gen Input in place.

2 Honda generators because one is none and 2 is one.

Closet full of spare items...There is more, way more.

It's been smooth, knock on wood.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Risk Mitigation?

Generator

And enough fuel for at least 2 days

Extended power outages kill aquariums every year.

Even if extended power outages are not common in your area they can still happen.

Since outages that are more dangerous due to low temperatures in the winter are more deadly I fill up my gas cans with stabilizer in the fall.

I use the gas all summer to mow grass.

Outages in the summer are still bad but temperature is easier to maintain.

You're absolutely right.

I store 30 gallons which I rotate every year and we make sure to fill both cars before any expected weather event.

 

[Gman83]

I don't have a controller, although I want to eventually get my system automated (debating on hydros or piecemealing everything I want automated through Reef Factory because I do like their smart reef app).

I have a couple heaters I could use if my heater stopped working, while waiting on a new one to arrive. Same with some DC powerheads. They aren't name brand, and have no resale value, per se, so I've kept them.

I have some backup lights I could use my light died. If the power goes out though, I have nothing to run them and just pray it isn't longer than a couple days.

If the power goes out, I do have two battery operated air stones to keep the water oxygenated. They work great, and can get 24+ hours off two "D" batteries.

So in other words, in the event of a disaster, where the electricity is off for more than a couple days, my tank is doomed (but I would likely have bigger things to be concerned about.)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't have a controller, although I want to eventually get my system automated (debating on hydros or piecemealing everything I want automated through Reef Factory because I do like their smart reef app).

I have a couple heaters I could use if my heater stopped working, while waiting on a new one to arrive. Same with some DC powerheads. They aren't name brand, and have no resale value, per se, so I've kept them.

I have some backup lights I could use my light died. If the power goes out though, I have nothing to run them and just pray it isn't longer than a couple days.

If the power goes out, I do have two battery operated air stones to keep the water oxygenated. They work great, and can get 24+ hours off two "D" batteries.

So in other words, in the event of a disaster, where the electricity is off for more than a couple days, my tank is doomed (but I would likely have bigger things to be concerned about.)

I'd caution that a complicated controller may make many things more convenient, but I'm not convinced they make things less risky.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

Risk=something I can't fix before **** dies

Heater failure= I may or may not catch it in time so its a high risk. So I need 2 heaters for redundancy plus a controller for managing it.

RODI= low risk. Its a known variable. I can go pickup distilled water anytime where I live. Its not time crucial either. (I have an RODI anyways since they are pretty cheap for nano tanks)

Power failure= high risk. During the winter we get 1 or 2 a month. Lately its been only an hour to up to 4hrs. Now I've always had power backups prior to being in this hobby. But since I can't leave work. I needed something to auto switch to backup. Hence power stations with UPS feature. This is the most critical component I believe in any setup.

I also go a step further. Because I like see the status from hydros during power outages. I have a backup LTE with wifi running. So I can still be informed during the outage on my tanks. This way I know the UPS is working or if something stopped working on the hydros.

 

[cody6766]

Most, if not all, of my backup gear came from upgrading and not selling everything that I replaced. I always try to strike a balance between hoarding and dumping old stuff in general. I look at a replaced part, or good parts from broken equipment and think:
- 1. Do I have one stored? Can I quickly or cheaply get another if I need it? Yes? maybe get rid of it. No? Probably keep it.
- 2. Does this take up enough storage space to think about it? No? Keep it. Yes, consider selling/giving away
- 3. Is it worth enough money to justify the effort of selling? Yes? Sell. No? See #2 and if no again, give it away.

This is more or less my model for everything from reef stuff, tools, electronics, and even wood scraps from a woodworking project. It keeps the shelves clear of nonsense that I'll never use and keeps backups or workarounds on hand.

For reef stuff specifically, I don't have much on my tank that covers it as it sits. My heater has an external controller built in (forget the brand, it's a common one) and is tied to an old Reefkeeper Lite that will cut it off if it runs away. I've had a tank cook from a heater that failed on. Cheap redundancy is worth not doing that again. I would have bought a controller for the heater if I didn't already have the RKL.
I have a few spare powerheads, one or two 20 and 10 gal tanks, a heater or two, maybe a return pump, and some old lighting. I have some MH lights that I can't seem to part with based on #1. If I have a project that would benefit from them, they're in the attic. Otherwise, I wouldn't spend the money to track down new ones. I had some old Kessil A350s that came in handy recently. I was getting some shading from coral growth under my XR15 and the A350s were perfect to augment the sides of the tank. They were just sitting in my cabnet 'o crap and did the trick.
I have a generator, but it's not just for the reef. Power losses aren't common, but they really screw things up. We lost power from an ice storm a few years back and I lost my reef and about 120lbs of salmon and halibut I caught in Alaska. I had a generator, but the pull cord broke and I couldn't crank it with a drill based on the design. Now I have a 10KW generator that will cover most everything we really need.

I only have a 60g tank, so keeping backups for things around doesn't take up much space. I can't say I'd store everything needed to cover down on big tank. I'd probably stop at the small tanks I mentioned and maybe a few buckets to house livestock in case of a leak to keep them alive long enough to rehome or buy something useful.

 

[-XENOMORPH-]

2 heaters on a controller. And 1 extra return pump.
And an inverter to plug in car if needed.
My livestock has multiplied on its own except the fish, so I really don't need more than what I got. I didn't spend thousands. If my power goes out for a week up north, I'd have bigger concerns than my nems. But I get it.

 

[Janet Belanger]

For me, the idea is to reduce risk, because it's impossible to eliminate it. I have redundancy built into my plan for most catastrophic failures. The tank can live days without lighting or skimming, but it won't live without air exchange and heat.

The heaters are on an apex to alert of failure, but then I also always have two additional heaters for when I mix up saltwater (two heat the water faster and I hate waiting). Those water mixing heaters will be my backup in the case of a failure in the display tank. This redundancy could save my fish and buys me time to find new heaters in the event of a failure.

I definitely have FAR more money tied up in equipment than fish, but I'm also responsible for their health and the lives that they may have otherwise lived fully in the ocean. To me personally, that's far more valuable than anything I've purchased to date.

 

[taricha]

What level of risk are you willing to accept? How do you value your tank against the risk? How do you prioritize what risk needs to be mitigated? Do you compare the value of your tank against the risk?

I heard Craig Bingman talk somewhere about the risks of automation in a thought-provoking way. We set up our systems with tank-killing amounts of chemicals (think Kalk, or even RODI) in containers pointed at our displays - and we expect auto dosers and controllers to always do it correctly.
Everyone should game out what happens to the system if something fails in the "ON" mode. So many examples of that happening from either device error or (more often) user error.

(My kalk doser is a slow motor that isn't much faster than the demand. If it got stuck on - it would just slowly raise the alk until the bucket emptied a few days later. My heater isn't strong enough to cook the system if it failed "ON".)

Jim Graham on Reef Beef has a very good discussion of ways to prepare for power loss.

 

[drewzaun]

Hello, I just joined tonight, and this topic is something I have spent a lot of time on.

I have all my systems, fresh and salt, on controllers, on UPS systems, redundant pumps, a generator, the whole works. I did not buy the generator for my tanks, but I will rotate them along with the fridge and freezers.

For aquarium specific planning, I use UPS’s to keep life support running until I can get a more long term solution going. I kept my tanks going through Hurricane Sandy and the 12 days of no power with almost no loss.

I am paranoid about heaters. All my major disasters in 40 years in the fish hobby were heater related, specifically Inkbird related. I run Hydros now, and my reef tank, a 210G, has a probe in the display and one in the sump. I have 2 heaters installed, and run one at a time swapping monthly, so if one goes bad I have a backup ready that can be put in service anywhere I have internet.

For returns, I also run 2 at a time. My tank came with 2 sets of drains and returns so I planned for 2 return pumps. I have wavemakers doing most of the flow duty anyway, so 1 return is all i need to keep the sump alive anyway.

For my freshwater systems I am only redundant in temperature probes, but i do have old or spare equipment from decades of fish keeping if needed.

I didn’t set out to be paranoid but in reality things go bad, power goes out, and WiFi drops. Reef tanks are a heck of a lot more complicated and expensive than my Mbuna or “high tech” planted discus tanks, and so i designed my first really large system with as much protection as I could think of, and swapped stuff out as I realized my errors, such as changing wifi power strips out for XP8’s etc. Now I am going to read everyone else’s responses to see what else I could be doing…

Drew

 

[LoneStarReef]

Just the other day, the water in my tank started rising. Had it not been for my controller, I wouldn’t have known to check it. Turns out my heater temp probe had been accidentally pulled out of the water. All I needed to do was to put the temp probe back in the water. Glad I had the redundancy!!

Just thinking about this recently after seeing multiple posts about system redundancy.

I want to preface this by saying I do understand everyone's finances and level of risk acceptance are different.

What level of risk are you willing to accept? How do you value your tank against the risk? How do you prioritize what risk needs to be mitigated? Do you compare the value of your tank against the risk?

Examples...

Heater vs heater w/controller vs spare heater replacement vs multiple heaters vs multiple controllers?

Battery backup vs generator vs standby?

Keeping spare equipment?

Again, not to bash anyone's thought process, but I have seen people buy generators for their tank but refuse to get RODI.

Or have more tied up in spare equipment then the value of livestock.