Storm Season among us. Power outage readiness!!!

[Zeal]

Bump. Hurricane season is here. Still haven't bought anything...

I need something for a condo. I think these EcoFlow are a bit expensive.

Marine battery, inverter, solar panel(?)

I have NO idea what im doing

 

[brandon429]

This is especially risky season for outages due to rolling blackouts due to electricity extremes.

Texas and Cali in particular. guess who's reef got a new sandbed yesterday and is one thousand percent spotless clean and free of detritus, its the best condition for fightin' a reef tank could be in.

my plan is this: have 20K mah common cordless lipo powered fan from amazon in cabinet. upon outage hook up batter air pump and place wet paper towels around the reef, stuck to outside. lights off for any number of days the outage persists. fan the paper towels, it'll keep cool even in blazing august heat that is if Im lucky enough to be at home when it clicks off. if not, it'll die like a dang dog and Ill be sad.

if we can look at a reef tank and in the cross section of the sandbed is all kinds of mixed colors, little pockets of gas, lots of worms...what we'd consider reef ideal, that's the worst condition to try and ride out an outage in

lets rip clean any filthy reefs here who want to prep for a long hot summer. post up the jobs we will skip cycle deep clean them.

 

[Reef junky 305]

What generator do you guys recommend to power up apex eb8 without frying them?

 

[CanuckReefer]

What generator do you guys recommend to power up apex eb8 without frying them?

Any well reviewed 'inverter generator', or what I do is run a regular roll up non inverter gen but run all my equipment through a 'double conversion UPS' , this changes AC to DC then back to AC, while cleaning the power. Mine is purchased from a major data center I do work for occasionally. You can find them as well online. Voltage is rock steady utilizing this method.

 

[Pêcheur]

Does anyone know how long it takes to charge an Ecotech battery backup?

I have one for my Vectra S2 as part of my life support plan. I’m thinking should a power outage last more than a day, I could always find a spot with electricity and recharge it. I can’t imagine it would take too long?

 

[Clo]

I just have a bubbler for now. But given I'm at an apartment, what's a good inverter or something safe for indoors or on the balcony that isn't crazy loud?

 

[tehmadreefer]

 

[pbrown]

Good afternoon everyone, I wanted to make this thread to give myself and others who live in Florida and other outlying states who are affected by hurricanes and other storms which can leave us without power for days to weeks at a time. I am still newish to the hobby and I haven't had my tank up and running long so I haven't experienced a power outage lasting longer than a few minutes while the tank has been up and running. Anyone who has a good plan of action that will work on the smallest to largest sizes of tanks. I myself have a 25gal lagoon. I already have a bubble box and extra batteries, and frozen bottles of water to help oxygen levels and water temp. Any other tips or tricks to help your aquarium survive is greatly appreciated. Also I understand a generator is the best option probably, but I live in an apartment and don't have storage space for one. Thank you to all who post and happy reefing everyone, stay safe during this storm season.

 

[pbrown]

Good afternoon everyone, I wanted to make this thread to give myself and others who live in Florida and other outlying states who are affected by hurricanes and other storms which can leave us without power for days to weeks at a time. I am still newish to the hobby and I haven't had my tank up and running long so I haven't experienced a power outage lasting longer than a few minutes while the tank has been up and running. Anyone who has a good plan of action that will work on the smallest to largest sizes of tanks. I myself have a 25gal lagoon. I already have a bubble box and extra batteries, and frozen bottles of water to help oxygen levels and water temp. Any otor tricks to help your aquarium survive is greatly appreciated. Also I understand a generator is the best option probably, but I live in an apartment and don't have storage space for one. Thank you to all who post and happy reefing everyone, stay safe during this storm season.

I live in CA and purchased this to get me through the power outages/ fires. It is small- good for apartment or home. Supported my tank through last year. After last year I did purchase the solar panels that can be used to recharge battery and a second unit so I can charge one/ solar while using the second. Has USBports too so can also charge phones. We also have generator but is a lot easier to work these small but powerful units. Depends on the size of the tank.
Hope this helps.

 

[pbrown]

I live in CA and purchased this to get me through the power outages/ fires. It is small- good for apartment or home. Supported my tank through last year. After last year I did purchase the solar panels that can be used to recharge battery and a second unit so I can charge one/ solar while using the second. Has USBports too so can also charge phones. We also have generator but is a lot easier to work these small but powerful units. Depends on the size of the tank.
Hope this helps.

Also note that I have an ER plan in place that my neighbor will alert my house sitter ( who may be at work) and my parents ( who live two miles away) if out neighborhood grid has a power outage. We have a basic phone free plan and I have walked through what to do in outrage. I have also written out and diagrammed out with pictures what needs to be done.
worst case scenario- have also listed a local reefer who can support major issue. This at least gives me some comfort if outage happens when I am not home/vacation.

 

[Groovyg]

Good afternoon everyone, I wanted to make this thread to give myself and others who live in Florida and other outlying states who are affected by hurricanes and other storms which can leave us without power for days to weeks at a time. I am still newish to the hobby and I haven't had my tank up and running long so I haven't experienced a power outage lasting longer than a few minutes while the tank has been up and running. Anyone who has a good plan of action that will work on the smallest to largest sizes of tanks. I myself have a 25gal lagoon. I already have a bubble box and extra batteries, and frozen bottles of water to help oxygen levels and water temp. Any other tips or tricks to help your aquarium survive is greatly appreciated. Also I understand a generator is the best option probably, but I live in an apartment and don't have storage space for one. Thank you to all who post and happy reefing everyone, stay safe during this storm season.

i am running a whole house generator but thats not good enough i have smart switch and inverter to battery backup just in case

 

[Snoopdog]

For those that did a whole house generator, any tips on brands or things to keep that cost down?

 

[paintman]

For those that did a whole house generator, any tips on brands or things to keep that cost down?

I just got through hurricane Ida here in NJ with my 17KW Generac. Kicked on Wednesday evening around 10 p.m. I cycled it 6 hours on 6 hours off just for my tank and hot showers. If I was to do it again I would research either diesel or gas generators as propane is over $5/gal. no complaints with Generac other than the cost. All in with the unit, 2-200 gallon tanks, and the greasing of the palms in our township (permits zoning), it cost us around $8000.

 

[Snoopdog]

So those with Generac generators running them cost more using natural gas than a comparable gas generator?

 

[Mical]

For those that did a whole house generator, any tips on brands or things to keep that cost down?

I purchased ours in July 2019. It's a whole house natural gas Generac 16Kw w/auto transfer switch - total install (including permits) was $7800. Generac is the only one I would consider. I've had portables and got tired of maintenance, lugging gas, cables through snow/inclement weather. $7800 is a whole lot less than what I have invested in my tanks, plus it added roughly 10% value to my home.

 

[Snoopdog]

I purchased ours in July 2019. It's a whole house natural gas Generac 16Kw w/auto transfer switch - total install (including permits) was $7800. Generac is the only one I would consider. I've had portables and got tired of maintenance, lugging gas, cables through snow/inclement weather. $7800 is a whole lot less than what I have invested in my tanks, plus it added roughly 10% value to my home.

Yeah that is my thought. I mean I could not imagine losing years of coral growth from a power outage. I wonder what the chances of losing natural gas is in a hurricane?

 

[paintman]

For those considering a whole house generator. A word of advice. Spend the extra coin and find a place a little further away from the house for the location of your generator. They are a litlle noisy and after awhile can be a nuisance. Especially at night. TRUST ME YOU WILL THANK ME LATER!!!!!!!

So your saying how bad can it be? Well it's not to bad until you get into a situation like I just did with huricane Ida. I had to run my generator for 5 days. After awhile listening to the sound just gets to be a annoying as hell.

Fortunately for me I have a stand alone garage about 30 ft. from my house, and I placed my unit on the far side away from the house. I would say the unit is located roughly 50'-75' away from my main electrical panel in the house, so there was the extra cost of laying the wire under ground. Even with that you can still hear a slight rumbling sound from the engine.

Also pony up the extra bucks and get either 2 tanks or one oversized. I called my propane company last Thursday just after the storm left to get on the refill list. Now hear it is a week later and I am still waiting for a delivery. Fortunately I have (2) 220 gallon tanks and I am at 50% capacity after the storm.

 

[josephxsxn]

12kw Briggs and Stratton Fortress (propane powered) with auto transfer switch here was able to get through a multi day outage during Michigan's nasty storm last month in August without issues tanks didn't even know anything happened. I wouldn't have really known I didn't have power of not for the internet going down too.

 

[c_healy]

I’ve got a portable generator in the garage ready to go. About to pick up a whole house stand by generator, seeing as I sell them, I figure I may as well finally get one.

 

[zdstrong]

I have a maintained generator on site and actually just finished my battery backup for Vortech pumps and UPS that I run router and apex off of. Haven’t done the math but batteries alone should run Vortech at full power for a couple days