Something wicked this way comes "hurricane matthew"

[eliramos]

Hey everyone so living in south Florida we all know what's about to happen.
I've never had a reef aquarium during a hurricane so I'm a little nervous.
I have a generator but my family will obviously be using it as well. My question is how much gasoline should I need do I leave the lights off and just leave the pumps. I want to use as little amount of gasoline as possible.
I may sound completely ignorant in what I'm asking but I honestly have no experience with something like this.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[eliramos]

Im also running a 90 gallon marine land set up, with a large protein skinner the name escapes me right now. Two led lights and a 30-40 gallon sump!

 

[mcarroll]

Hard to say without knowing the period of time....which is pretty unpredictable.

You barely need anything to survive a few hours, but the requirements go up exponentially the longer the outage lasts because heat and light both become issues....and both are expensive to run.

 

[mcarroll]

Having a way to eliminate or at least limit evaporation would help with heat retention. I would have on-hand the absolute smallest heater than will keep the display tank warm so it can be run independently and most-efficiently.

A "powered-heater" would be the most ideal in terms of efficiency...something in the format of the Reefpack 250 or the Lifeguard Heater Module will accept about any heater....but there are others heaters that are purpose-built like this.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Hey everyone so living in south Florida we all know what's about to happen.
I've never had a reef aquarium during a hurricane so I'm a little nervous.
I have a generator but my family will obviously be using it as well. My question is how much gasoline should I need do I leave the lights off and just leave the pumps. I want to use as little amount of gasoline as possible.
I may sound completely ignorant in what I'm asking but I honestly have no experience with something like this.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

To survive a power outage, it is important to realize what it is you are trying to keep alive. If you have fish, then the most important thing is air. So buy a battery powered air stone :) if it is corals, then light. So set your light to low at 6 hours daily. Having a heater is not so important because many fish and coral can handle the lower temperature for a while. Hot is what kills them fast. You can always heat some water in a pot and add that to the tank, but this doesn't sound like fun and would need to be done far too often for you to keep up with temp loss.

 

[Frosty Latte]

I believe the guy from BRS explains this in one of the episodes from 52 weeks.

 

[JFrar]

Im right there with ya! Maybe worse or better if ur S florida. Im right by the cape. The eye is gonna be right off shore from us. We have to evacuate, were on a barrier island. Hoping my tank can make it w/o power for 24-36 hours. My tank had been running for over 8 years and is sps dominant..... :( wishing everyone on the east coast luck!!! This might be bad

 

[JFrar]

Got a genarator i will be turning on as soon as i can come back home. Im just going to mainland

 

[JFrar]

I'm trying to get the temp LOW, like 75-76 degrees. Then hope it can make it. The bubbler will only last so long

 

[Jakepen]

Best of luck to you guys, that would be difficult to leave your tank, knowing the power is going to be out.

 

[mcarroll]

Maybe take frags of everything (or the most prized) with you?

 

[Zero Nitrates]

I hope it changes direction and goes out to sea. Everyone stay safe.

 

[Brew12]

I have a generator but my family will obviously be using it as well. My question is how much gasoline should I need do I leave the lights off and just leave the pumps. I want to use as little amount of gasoline as possible.
I may sound completely ignorant in what I'm asking but I honestly have no experience with something like this.

It really depends on what type of generator you have. If you have one of the little Honda 2000i inverter generators you could power your tank for a day on under 2 gallons of gas. If you have a more standard 4ooo watt generator it could take 6 or 7 gallons of gas per day.

I believe the guy from BRS explains this in one of the episodes from 52 weeks.

I'm pretty sure they said the coral would be fine for a few days without lights.

My personal loss of power plan prioritizes power heads (mine also provide some aeration the way they are set up). I keep a fairly large amount of ice in the bulk freezer in the garage. If I have to I will move a heater up from my sump into the tank. I will leave everything in the sump off until I can get a generator hooked up.

 

[Marta]

Good luck everyone who is in the path of the storm! I have kids/grandkids in southern Georgia and I am worried for them...God Bless!

 

[mcarroll]

I you're staying on-premesis, the easiest thing is to get an inverter and some long extension cords so you can just use your car for 12v power.

Not a great long term solution, but maybe the best for the medium term outage.

This is my go-to....but so far every time I've deployed, the power comes back on before I get everything hooked up. :rolleyes:

 

[feelinfrgy26]

In SE GA here and plan to use power inverters to keep our tanks going if we can't find a generator sometime soon. Went to the gas station and got an extra 30gallons and filled up all 3 cars so we should be good to go for a little while...stay safe!!!!

 

[eliramos]

Thank you guys so much for all the responses! Definitely not as worried as I was before! Praying for all you as well! Hope you guys have a safe hurricane!!!!

 

[locito277]

Miami resident here. Glad I haven't added water to my systems yet. I would definitely try to keep water moving via powerhead as you'll be fine a few days without light. Prayers and well wishes to
You guys. Hope it turns away miraculously!

 

[Higher Thinking]

I have not heard of anyone doing this, but it will definitely work (it just takes a bit of investment). You can get compressed oxygen tanks pretty easily so I would hook one those up to an air stone or a sponge filter type setup. The latter will also allow for a little bit of flow to go through the tank. If it's a large tank, you could get several sponges filters and attach them around the edges and run air lines to them all. I doubt this will help anyone currently, but it would be a great standby for people who routinely lose power. A canister of compressed oxygen running gas at a reasonable rate could literally last months depending on gas flow. At any rate, most any size canister and flow rate will last several days.

 

[jhoop]

Prayers for all ! Hope it moves out to sea !