Erin O
Valuable Member
I'm waiting to hear good news, too lol. There's talk that it could take days to get power back for usany luck yet ,ya'know were all waiting to hear good news
chipmunkofdoom2
Always Making Something
If you're looking for something you can do right now, try going to Walmart and looking for inverters. My store has this one in stock. It's a little expensive for what it is, but it'll work. Start your car, hook up the inverter to the battery terminals, and run a long grounded extension cord to your equipment. As long as you have gas, the car and inverter will keep running. You'll want to make sure your car is far away enough from your house to prevent CO from getting in. You'll also want to make sure you have adequate ventilation to where your engine to prevent overheating.
Long term, battery-powered air pumps are the cheapest option. They're not automatic though, you'll need to be home and set them up unless you have them installed 24/7, which most people don't. I personally run a DIY battery system. It's just a deep cycle battery, a transfer switch and an inverter. If you don't feel up to that, an inverter/charger and battery will do the same thing. Generators are okay, but they require maintenance, sometimes don't work when you need them to, and depending on your power reliability, may only be used once every 10 - 12 months.
Long term, battery-powered air pumps are the cheapest option. They're not automatic though, you'll need to be home and set them up unless you have them installed 24/7, which most people don't. I personally run a DIY battery system. It's just a deep cycle battery, a transfer switch and an inverter. If you don't feel up to that, an inverter/charger and battery will do the same thing. Generators are okay, but they require maintenance, sometimes don't work when you need them to, and depending on your power reliability, may only be used once every 10 - 12 months.
I agree with you on the Generators but Inverters are a waste of time!
A 2.5kw inverter will need a massive battery pack to keep it running any length of time.
At full power using a 12V battery you would be consuming about 245A per hour with 2.5Kw load (assuming the inverter is a typical 85% efficient unit). As you can see the battery size would become enormous and expensive. We could run the math but simply put if you used a $3500 10KW Tesla Powerwall battery you would at best get 4 hours of runtime on that 2.5Kw Inverter at full power and at best 8 hours if you used 1.2KW from it. I don't think they make Powerwalls in 12V size but the power consumption is still the same.
Using a running car will work for smaller inverters but their are some huge Caveats.
A typical car Alternator can put out about 70 - 150 Amps and on the high side of that it could power a 500W inverter but your engine is going to be running at idle for a long time. That is a really bad thing for a car engine to be doing.
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Sump Crab
Valuable Member
Easiest thing to do is run your dc pumps off of a car battery or deep cycle marine/rv battery. If you have no dc pumps then buy a portable livewell pump from a tackle store and run it with a car battery.
Erin O
Valuable Member
Still no power. I'm doing the "shaken, not stirred" method (shaking tank water in bottles) until my battery air pumps get here. The fish are still alive, but I'm pretty sure my zoas are dying. I'm running out of battery on my phone, so I'm not able to get on R2R very much right now. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. Your support means a lot to me
OP
OP
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
I'll get you a replacement for the zoa. Mine are growing like crazy. don't stress about that.Still no power. I'm doing the "shaken, not stirred" method (shaking tank water in bottles) until my battery air pumps get here. The fish are still alive, but I'm pretty sure my zoas are dying. I'm running out of battery on my phone, so I'm not able to get on R2R very much right now. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. Your support means a lot to me
Electricity is one of those things we all take for granted until it's gone for days. Once that happens your mindset changes completely. The first things you install afterwards is a good generator.
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These battery air pumps are automatic and turn on when the power goes out. They work great. Helps when you are out of the house, or the middle of the night to get some water movement. You can connect a USB battery pack for longer runtime as well.
USB Battery Powered DC Air Pump - Single Output
Single Output | Battery Powered | Silent Cobalt USB Powered air pumps use a 5V DC powered motor that also has an onboard battery that can last up to 24 hours without a direct connection to a power supply. It can run continuously or with a 10-second on/off cycle in the battery powered mode to...
www.marinedepot.com
chipmunkofdoom2
Always Making Something
These battery air pumps are automatic and turn on when the power goes out. They work great. Helps when you are out of the house, or the middle of the night to get some water movement. You can connect a USB battery pack for longer runtime as well.
USB Battery Powered DC Air Pump - Single Output
Single Output | Battery Powered | Silent Cobalt USB Powered air pumps use a 5V DC powered motor that also has an onboard battery that can last up to 24 hours without a direct connection to a power supply. It can run continuously or with a 10-second on/off cycle in the battery powered mode to...
I am aware of these. In general, I don't think they're a very realistic solution for a majority of hobbyists. For better or worse, aesthetics are the most important thing to a lot of reefers. For some people, even running a cord in your display for a powerhead is not acceptable. I don't think these hobbyists would have an airline and airstone sitting in their tank 24/7, especially when it's only going to be useful once every few months (or less). Even reefers who don't mind cords in their tank may not be thrilled with the airline/airstone uglying up things.
I agree with the premise of backups that turn on automatically. I don't think I could ever go without having an automatic solution that keeps my tanks running in the event of an outage. All my tanks have at least one pump on a power source that automatically fails over to battery if the power fails. I just think these are a really hard sell for a lot of hobbyists because of the looks.
It's unfortunate, because I think pumps like this could eliminate power outage deaths in this hobby partially, if not entirely. These pumps have been out for several years though, and there are very few reefers I know of that A) even have them, and B) have them installed in their display 24/7.
Erin O
Valuable Member
Quick update: Still no power. The streets on either side of us have power, but my street doesn't. air pumps should be here today. Fish are still alive (YAY!) Zoa is looking pretty sad
OP
OP
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
Not sad just stretching for light. I bet they will be fineQuick update: Still no power. The streets on either side of us have power, but my street doesn't. air pumps should be here today. Fish are still alive (YAY!) Zoa is looking pretty sad
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