Hurricane Irma - how do we prepare for next time?

spoonspider · Sep 14, 2017

Sunday, 9/10, I lost power due to Hurricane Irma at around 4:30pm - 5:00pm. Unfortunately, I was unable to get battery air pumps prior to the storm, and couldn't run my generator until it passed.

That storm just day over us for what seemed like forever, but finally on Monday (9/11) I began running the generator during the day from 5:00am - 9:00pm/10:00pm. I did this Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday, it was too miserable to be in the house, and I wouldn't run the generator without being home.

I decided to do what I did throughout the day and night Sunday, and night of Monday - scooping water with a solo cup, and pouring it back in repeatedly to stir the water and produce oxygen. I did this 5 times a day in both of my tanks Wednesday and today.

I finally got power today at 5:00pm, making it exactly 4 days without power, and somehow, the fish survived. The only rough looking coral is my monti. I lost quite a few snails, but all in all, made it out okay...but I have no idea how, and feel so lucky and fortunate.

I realized how unprepared I am for this situation. With that said, what can I do to prepare for times when we may be out of power for days at a time. Battery back ups are great for powerheads, but filtration is still necessary after a day or so. So, what else can we do, aside from running a generator?

PS: FPL and all the power companies out there helping us are amazing. I'm so grateful that we got our power back so quickly, and so thankful that they're out there working so hard!

brett_schn · Sep 14, 2017

Dang lucky. I lost power Saturday and still don’t have power now and are not expecting it any time soon. We are running a generator with a wall ac unit and my fish tank and fridge.

prsnlty · Sep 15, 2017

I intend to get a generator big enough to run my well, refrigerator, and fish tanks. At least the Returns on them cuz I feel that running your return is better than running your powerheads if a choice can be made. The reason being is it keeps your sump alive as well and the flow going throughout the system. I also like the idea of solar powered bubblers to add to the tank. I never saw them before until a fellow member posted them up on a thread. He purchased them from Amazon and they were only about $25. That's quite reasonable in my opinion. The problem with the generator during these situations is that we were also without fuel anywhere in our County. The time to get your fuel stored up is a week before the storm. If you don't do that you're more than likely not going to have enough to last you through it. I was lucky my husband managed to make it home in time before the storm because he had a diesel-powered generator on his truck with 100 gallons of diesel to tap from. However, it doesn't run a whole lot of stuff at a time. And it's not strong enough to power a refrigerator or well. But we were able to make coffee and charge our phones and run the return on the 180 periodically as well as my LEDs periodically. We basically just took turns with everything meanwhile running bubblers continuously. Another thing to know is don't order stuff from Amazon within the week before the hurricane because chances are it's not going to make it in time which is what happened to me. I even paid for next day shipping and it still didn't arrive 4 days later. Matter of fact, I received them just last night! If it's going to come through UPS forget it. They turned tail and ran on Friday even though they had extra trucks to deliver that day. But FedEx was still delivering as of Saturday.... anyway that's just something to keep in mind.

spoonspider · Sep 15, 2017

brett_schn said:
Dang lucky. I lost power Saturday and still don’t have power now and are not expecting it any time soon. We are running a generator with a wall ac unit and my fish tank and fridge.

I hope everything goes well, and you get power back sooner than later!

prsnlty said:
I intend to get a generator big enough to run my well, refrigerator, and fish tanks. At least the Returns on them cuz I feel that running your return is better than running your powerheads if a choice can be made. The reason being is it keeps your sump alive as well and the flow going throughout the system. I also like the idea of solar powered bubblers to add to the tank. I never saw them before until a fellow member posted them up on a thread. He purchased them from Amazon and they were only about $25. That's quite reasonable in my opinion. The problem with the generator during these situations is that we were also without fuel anywhere in our County. The time to get your fuel stored up is a week before the storm. If you don't do that you're more than likely not going to have enough to last you through it. I was lucky my husband managed to make it home in time before the storm because he had a diesel-powered generator on his truck with 100 gallons of diesel to tap from. However, it doesn't run a whole lot of stuff at a time. And it's not strong enough to power a refrigerator or well. But we were able to make coffee and charge our phones and run the return on the 180 periodically as well as my LEDs periodically. We basically just took turns with everything meanwhile running bubblers continuously. Another thing to know is don't order stuff from Amazon within the week before the hurricane because chances are it's not going to make it in time which is what happened to me. I even paid for next day shipping and it still didn't arrive 4 days later. Matter of fact, I received them just last night! If it's going to come through UPS forget it. They turned tail and ran on Friday even though they had extra trucks to deliver that day. But FedEx was still delivering as of Saturday.... anyway that's just something to keep in mind.

The generator I have can run the tanks return pumps and fridge at the same time, but I'm just weary to run it overnight. I also won't run it when I'm not home, and it got to the point where it was just too hot in the house. I'm definitely investing in a portable AC unit, and in my next home will be investing in a standby generator. I've made up my mind, and it's worth the money to protect my possessions!

Those solar powered bubblers sound like a great idea! I also saw something World Wide Corals posted on their Facebook, a water siphon pump.

I saw that with Amazon, I ordered D batteries from there since the shelves were cleaned out, and it was never delivered, and the order was magically "cancelled," even with paying for one day shipping so it'd get to my house by Thursday! I was super disappointed.

AllSignsPointToFish · Sep 15, 2017

I am seriously considering either a whole-house generator or a separate, small dual fuel inverter generator that I will run off of propane for the sole purpose of providing power to the fish tank. I also bought two 114Ah deep cycle batteries and an inverter as a bridge solution so that I can stretch generator fuel by running pumps on batteries at nighttime.

brett_schn · Sep 15, 2017

My family actually doesn’t own a generator. Our friends gave us there whole house generator (10000w) because they didn’t lose power. We are powering my tank our fridge our neighbors fridges and 2 portable ac units (only at night). My dad fixes and looks at and everything for them. 7 days strong now power

seastar · Sep 15, 2017

We only had it down for two days but...

I had (for a 138gal tank) 2 bubblers that run on D batteries, I purchased the ecotech battery backup for my return after swearing I'd have a plan when hurricane Mathew hit us last year, and my generator. I had the tank (including battery) on the generator so that I can keeping that as full as possible for the times when I had to turn the generator off.