Lost Everything To Ida - How to Protect Your Reef Investment?

[lynaea75]

Sorry for your losses.
After Matthew left me without power for a week and nuked my tank I invested in an Icecap battery backup and 2 of the battery powered air pumps. Both these options can be left plugged in and will come on when the power goes out. There’s not much any of us can do in instances of severe flooding/destruction where you aren’t able to return for days/weeks but these have helped my tank through the last few hurricanes and numerous shorter power outs from thunder storms etc.
Also, even just one pump running will save a tank, so don’t worry about backing up everything, plus the battery backup will last longer if it’s only powering one pump at 10%.

 

[BZOFIQ]

The larger UE3000 has a much bigger tank that will run "forever" but that pretty much requires and wheel kit and is way too heavy to be quickly deployed anywhere. I used it twice this year during shorter outages.

 

[tomboys]

uh yeah!

I don't live anywhere near the ocean, so hurricanes aren't even possible here.... yet I have 2 generators.

How often do you lose power?

 

[Tamberav]

I have a battery powered air pump and lots of batteries.

Generators are great until you can't find gas which happens in bad hurricane situations. So even if you get one, I would not rely on it always being a solution.

The tank mainly just needs flow.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

The Honda EU2200 will power your whole tank and you can charge your phone and laptops at the same time and would last more than 8 hours on a whole tank which is less than a gallon. Super quiet and looks like a little red suitcase. Couldn't be happier with this additional purchase, even though I already had the EU3000

The new model even has a built-in Bluetooth to connect to your phone for status monitoring.

I just looked at the stats on the EU2200. Its 1800W max and @ half load, run time is 6hrs. I don't think its linear between run time and power consumption either. So I guess with one mp40, skimmer and return pump will last you about 16-24hrs. However, just thinking about having fresh fuel, starting the engine and maintaining the engine scares me.

 

[Malcontent]

I just looked at the stats on the EU2200. Its 1800W max and @ half load, run time is 6hrs. I don't think its linear between run time and power consumption either. So I guess with one mp40, skimmer and return pump will last you about 16-24hrs. However, just thinking about having fresh fuel, starting the engine and maintaining the engine scares me.

They can modded to run off of propane (which doesn't have a shelf life like gasoline does) or natural gas.

There's a good chance natural gas will still be working even when electricity isn't so it can be an unlimited supply of fuel piped straight to your home.

 

[LeftyReefer]

How often do you lose power?

Often enough.... last time was less than a week ago, in a wind storm.

Utilities go down all the time here. Lots of trees, storms, and above ground utilities in rural areas equals lots of outages. But on the plus side, they are usually pretty good (quick) at restoration unless the whole state gets hit hard, then it may be an extra day or two.

Being in Michigan, we don't get hit by hurricanes, so we don't usually get long extended outages like the gulf coast states see. Our outages are usually short. day or two, maybe three. from wind, snow, or ice, tornado here or there.

As others have mentioned, dual-fuel or tri-fuel generators are becoming more common and are a good idea so you are less reliant on any one fuel source.

I also run ethanol-free (REC gas) in all my generators since it has a longer shelf life than pump gas.

 

[Reefing102]

Sorry for the losses. While I can’t give any additional advice than what’s already been given, I wouldn’t give up just yet on some of those corals, while they don’t look great, they don’t look completely lost yet either.

 

[Koigula]

Well it is a tough subject as no matter what you do you are only buying time for power restoration. Severity is regional. I have been hit with EF0 tornado lifting a 300lb trampolene and drifting it towards a stream. We get upt o F2 but I have never seen them.

I would go quality on a generator. They do go on sale in past but these days probably not. Hondas are always good for small motors. I have one that I need to test this weekend. Local power is nuclear and stable.

The issue is most power failures are very short and how far away from home are you when it happens.. It may be local tree damage or a power cut over for a new development being planned for 4 hours. The solution to this is high school electronics and reliable equipment.

I ditched all chinese power bricks and use commerical grade PSU's that are cheap to get. Here is my 24 volt system with a DPDT relay I installed in a few hours. When 24 volt power is not available to the 2 Tunze streams, the relay goes back to the two marine batteries and circulation continues. The batteries would outlast other issues such as temperature but most power outages are short and works for 90+% of issues. I went with Tunzes as they can handle external power switching on the drivers as the Safety switch they sell does the same thing. I do have one MP40 I let go idle on power outage. I am not clear if the internal safety relay it has would be fried by a 24 volt battery. I haveseen 100 ah lithium batteries weighing next to nothing but prices are too high still.

Keep bateries off concerte. I use a NOCO 24 v AGM charger. Seems good quality and stable.

Hope this helps someone,

Only thing worse than loosing everything is loosing everything when you have a generator that will not start.

 

[tomboys]

Ok

Often enough.... last time was less than a week ago, in a wind storm.

Utilities go down all the time here. Lots of trees, storms, and above ground utilities in rural areas equals lots of outages. But on the plus side, they are usually pretty good (quick) at restoration unless the whole state gets hit hard, then it may be an extra day or two.

OK. The last time we had a power cut was about 5 years ago and it lasted about 2 minutes. I've never known one to last longer than an hour or two in my whole life.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

They can modded to run off of propane (which doesn't have a shelf life like gasoline does) or natural gas.

There's a good chance natural gas will still be working even when electricity isn't so it can be an unlimited supply of fuel piped straight to your home.

I live out in the boonies where natural gas isn't available. However, I do have 500g propane tank. How reliable are these engines?

 

[ChiCity]

what honda generator is everyone using,
this one?

Honda 2200-Watt Remote Stop/Recoil Start Bluetooth Super Quiet Gasoline Powered Inverter Generator with Advanced CO Shutdown-EU2200ITAN - The Home Depot

More power, same legendary quality. Honda's advanced inverter technology provides 2,200-Watt of quiet, light-weight and fuel-efficient power. The EU2200i can power a wide variety of applications, making

www.homedepot.com

 

[James_O]

I’m so sorry man, that was a gorgeous tank.

I guess a small generator would be well worth it in the long run, rather than loosing all your coral.

 

[Koigula]

Ok

OK. The last time we had a power cut was about 5 years ago and it lasted about 2 minutes. I've never known one to last longer than an hour or two in my whole life.

As a kid in rural Maine we lost power for 4 or 5 days at a time. I seemed to enjoy it.

 

[Koigula]

what honda generator is everyone using,
this one?

Honda 2200-Watt Remote Stop/Recoil Start Bluetooth Super Quiet Gasoline Powered Inverter Generator with Advanced CO Shutdown-EU2200ITAN - The Home Depot

More power, same legendary quality. Honda's advanced inverter technology provides 2,200-Watt of quiet, light-weight and fuel-efficient power. The EU2200i can power a wide variety of applications, making

www.homedepot.com

Something with atleast 3 gallons capacity is best. Better option is LPG conversion kit so it does not foul or gum up.

 

[a.t.t.r]

Somehow after all these years penplex is still the only company with a proper battery back up air pump. No other turns on when power goes out and back off when power is restored.
$12 best investment you can make. I have one fed into my canister and it now operates as an airlift when power goes out to keep the canister from turning toxic

Someone needs to make an updated one of these with recharging batteries and safer longer lasting solid state parts and a longer lasting piston.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I just looked at the stats on the EU2200. Its 1800W max and @ half load, run time is 6hrs. I don't think its linear between run time and power consumption either. So I guess with one mp40, skimmer and return pump will last you about 16-24hrs. However, just thinking about having fresh fuel, starting the engine and maintaining the engine scares me.

I store both generators (well nearly all my fuel-powered equipment) with non-ethanol gas which can store far longer than anything you get at the pump. It's a little more expensive to buy but I can start it all with a pull or two and have never had to perform any maintenance on any of my equipment (other than oil change here and there) since I moved into the house. Depending on what I'm running I either use non-ethanol or premium gas. I rotate my fuel tanks annually, dumping the fuel into my car and filling fresh every fall. Between whats store and two vehicles worth I should have 60 gallons in case of a very long outage.

Nothing to be afraid of.

Lowes carries non-ethanol Husqvarna fuel now and if you live in certain coastal areas most of the marinas in addition to most of the gas stations have non-ethanol fuel. There is really not much to maintain here.

 

[Koigula]

I store both generators (well nearly all my fuel-powered equipment) with non-ethanol gas which can store far longer than anything you get at the pump. It's a little more expensive to buy but I can start it all with a pull or two and have never had to perform any maintenance on any of my equipment (other than oil change here and there) since I moved into the house. Depending on what I'm running I either use non-ethanol or premium gas. I rotate my fuel tanks annually, dumping the fuel into my car and filling fresh every fall. Between whats store and two vehicles worth I should have 60 gallons in case of a very long outage.

Nothing to be afraid of.

Lowes carries non-ethanol Husqvarna fuel now and if you live in certain coastal areas most of the marinas in addition to most of the gas stations have non-ethanol fuel. There is really not much to maintain here.

That is a good tip. I need to start getting non-ethanol gas too

 

[BZOFIQ]

...

I ditched all chinese power bricks and use commerical grade PSU's that are cheap to get. Here is my 24 volt system with a DPDT relay I installed in a few hours. When 24 volt power is not available to the 2 Tunze streams, the relay goes back to the two marine batteries and circulation continues. The batteries would outlast other issues such as temperature but most power outages are short and works for 90+% of issues. I went with Tunzes as they can handle external power switching on the drivers as the Safety switch they sell does the same thing. I do have one MP40 I let go idle on power outage. I am not clear if the internal safety relay it has would be fried by a 24 volt battery. I haveseen 100 ah lithium batteries weighing next to nothing but prices are too high still.

Keep bateries off concerte. I use a NOCO 24 v AGM charger. Seems good quality and stable.

Hope this helps someone,

Only thing worse than loosing everything is loosing everything when you have a generator that will not start.

I too am going this route so I or whoever is home doesn't need to panic to connect a generator immediately.

Here is work in progress on the new build.

...


Only thing worse than loosing everything is loosing everything when you have a generator that will not start.

Precisely what I thought and that was one of the many reasons I got gen #2 past weekend.

 

[a.t.t.r]

You want a hassle free generator. Turn off the fuel. Run it dry then take a 10mm tool and loosen the nut on the carb’s bowl to vent any remaining fumes, spray the whole thing with wd40 and store somewhere as dry as you can. It will run like new every time. Also do not run in dirty areas keep that air filter clean to prevent carbon buildup. A nice big jug of car engine oil works perfect on these and is cheeper then “small engine oil”. Most take 10w30 (it’s the 30 number that actually matters 5w30 works as well).