Storm Season among us. Power outage readiness!!!

[MPCReefer]

Tampa Bay are here , everyone is going crazy people are flooding the grocery stores and gas stations, with the feel of panic in the air, I worked this morning on the beach and had to go through a police check point they were only letting residents and contractors on the beaches.
They are saying damage is imminent and mass power outages are guaranteed, with rumors of the city of Tampa down town manually shutting down power before the storm even hits! It's going to be intense everyone go to shelter don't be brave its not worth it, it doesn't make a good story if you can't tell it!

Looks like you guys may luck out, unfortunately for us in Charlotte County that spells trouble.

 

[CMMorgan]

Looks like you guys may luck out, unfortunately for us in Charlotte County that spells trouble.

How did you make out? We got power yesterday. Still no internet or cell. (I'm piggybacking on Walmarts wifi right now)
Looks like I lost one major coral, damaged a few more but no fish casualties.
Ran a solar bubbler and a few battery ones.
Traded off some power from the generator to circulate the water for a few hours a day.
Relied mostly on sunlight.

 

[MPCReefer]

How did you make out? We got power yesterday. Still no internet or cell. (I'm piggybacking on Walmarts wifi right now)
Looks like I lost one major coral, damaged a few more but no fish casualties.
Ran a solar bubbler and a few battery ones.
Traded off some power from the generator to circulate the water for a few hours a day.
Relied mostly on sunlight.

Got power back Thursday night and just got internet back today. Was able to run tank on inverter and generator, lights and all. Have a couple SPS looking rough, hopefully they come back but fish and softies all made it through like champs.

 

[knd342]

I found a solar battery backup that I really like. Can run minimum tank equipment for about 30 hours on a full charge before I need to charge it again via solar (which I can do while it's running the equipment.)

 

[DHill6]

Which brand? I went the same route with a Goal Zero Yeti 500x, it’s a small tank this should be enough along with back ups to mp10s

 

[R-balljunkie]

If anyone is interested....just tested, ran the whole house just fine. Barely blipped when the 4 ton air conditioner came on.

I plan on storing it away in my garage when not used. Good alternative to fixed whole house generators. Not on a ATS but can be deployed in a matter of minutes.

links are just for reference, plenty of vendors to choose from...

I've had this setup for around a year now, fires right up every time. I keep it on a battery tender in the garage, can have it deployed in under 5 minutes, two persons. I think the costs can be knocked down to under 2k if the locale is ideal. So far, not a drop of gasoline, only natural gas with the propane tanks as backup.

Generator 13kw	$ 1,344.00	https://www.lowes.com/pd/DuroMax-13...Portable-Generator-with-Oem-Engine/1000842388
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[R-balljunkie]

 

[JTP424]

Regarding apts/condos, have a 15 gallon waterbox and my power is CONSTANTLY going out.
My main concerns have always been:
Water movement - O2 movement etc.
Temperature - Raising temp and lowering temp.
Nutrients - removing extra and adding etc.

Water movement - battery powered airstones, bout a cheapie off amazon and split the tubing so there are two moving spots.

Temperature - Cooling the temp, I keep a battery powered fan and kind of set it on the net cover.
Most difficult component is actually warming the water. Tried the hot hands deal, kept a bunch of the larger ones, taped them to the glass when the temp drops quickly, cover the tank with those emergency blankets to keep the heat in etc. Keeps the water AT temp. Doesn't really warm it. Extra temp probe too just in case.

Nutrients - I keep a 5 gallon of pre made salt and a 5 gallon of RO/DI ready for water changes etc (potentially raise the temp of the pre-made to adjust water temp?)

I keep the fan and airstones in a small box in my stand, so they are out of the way, RO/DI extra, if you have an ATO, you can save space by multi-using that. Keep a gallon jug of pre-made salt.

*This of course is all based on the size of your tank.... with yours being a 25, you might be able to just keep a couple things?

 

[Crazy35111]

Always had a backup generator for the just in case.

 

[Brian_68]

Always had a backup generator for the just in case.

And one that is big enough to run your furnace if you live up north. Tank electric heaters can't keep up when the room temp drops in the 50s or lower.

 

[Bathbob]

I'm out of town and the power went out yesterday at 6pm. Battery backup kicked in and kept everything running without a hitch until 2am, when it ran out of juice and I lost visibility into what's going on remotely.

The tank is 88 gal display that had a water temp of 79F when I lost contact. I was able to turn the gas furnace up to get the inside air temp to 76F, and I experienced overnight outside temps in the 50s. The outside temp is 55F now.

I have a huge 12V battery powering a single powerhead that's pretty high in the water (it sometimes makes vortex little patterns) that should be able to run for a week or more. I tested it before I left and it was working. I'm relying on it now.

Power is supposed to be back on in 5 hours, but outages are so widespread, I don't think I can bank on that.

 

[Brian_68]

I'm out of town and the power went out yesterday at 6pm. Battery backup kicked in and kept everything running without a hitch until 2am, when it ran out of juice and I lost visibility into what's going on remotely.

The tank is 88 gal display that had a water temp of 79F when I lost contact. I was able to turn the gas furnace up to get the inside air temp to 76F, and I experienced overnight outside temps in the 50s. The outside temp is 55F now.

I have a huge 12V battery powering a single powerhead that's pretty high in the water (it sometimes makes vortex little patterns) that should be able to run for a week or more. I tested it before I left and it was working. I'm relying on it now.

Power is supposed to be back on in 5 hours, but outages are so widespread, I don't think I can bank on that.

Sounds like the water circulation is covered. Was the battery backup a whole house unit then that you were able to run the furnace before it died?

 

[Bathbob]

Sounds like the water circulation is covered. Was the battery backup a whole house unit then that you were able to run the furnace before it died?

Yeah exactly. Unfortunately the battery is only 13.5kWh, it was around 75% charged at the time of the outage, and my consumption was like 1-1.4kW average.

I have a small 3.2kW solar system too, but it's almost the worst day of the year for solar.

All-in-all, I was prepared and I should be OK, just as long as the power comes back on soon. Stressful though.

 

[Bathbob]

Yeah exactly. Unfortunately the battery is only 13.5kWh, it was around 75% charged at the time of the outage, and my consumption was like 1-1.4kW average.

I have a small 3.2kW solar system too, but it's almost the worst day of the year for solar.

All-in-all, I was prepared and I should be OK, just as long as the power comes back on soon. Stressful though.

Power came back for a total outage time of 12 hrs. Only the powerhead was operating during that time. Tank temp went from 79F -> 72F and room air went from 76 -> 65F with outside temps in the 50s. Video is back up and it seems all animals are OK!

 

[brandon429]

Full report on Amazon's $400 Jackery 500 lipo backup

full charge

loading test from 100%: only running one airstone bubbler and one tetra preset heater that runs 78 degrees, a bit cool outside so the heater for sure cycles on an off in the day not like summer/rarely ever comes on except for night

consider you guys' reef tanks and all the pumps and motion devices and heaters and the degree they have to work...compared to my fishbowl setup basically which is one air pump and a tetra heater for a 10 gallon tank from wal mart.

I only get one 24 hour run from 100% to 5%

that's crapola but dang I can't find any cheaper 500 watt-hour packs. it costs me $412 to be able to battery-carry a pico reef for one day. my gas powered igen 2200 westinghouse from amazon was $500 bucks and carries a full size fridge, very large, plus reefbowl plus five cell phones charging as much gas as we need to cycle through it.

that being said, setting it up is a hassle. this jackery can be set out and handle any 24 hour period for my pico reef even if I'm not home to connect it, kiddo could connect it for me. so I'll keep it. but that stings, I thought I could get three days on a childs bubbler setup for 1 goldfish pretty much lol!

 

[c_healy]

If anyone is in the market for a generator(whole house stand by or portable) let me know, we sell generac generators and I can give forum members a little break.

 

[bakbay]

Full report on Amazon's $400 Jackery 500 lipo backup

full charge

loading test from 100%: only running one airstone bubbler and one tetra preset heater that runs 78 degrees, a bit cool outside so the heater for sure cycles on an off in the day not like summer/rarely ever comes on except for night

consider you guys' reef tanks and all the pumps and motion devices and heaters and the degree they have to work...compared to my fishbowl setup basically which is one air pump and a tetra heater for a 10 gallon tank from wal mart.

I only get one 24 hour run from 100% to 5%

that's crapola but dang I can't find any cheaper 500 watt-hour packs. it costs me $412 to be able to battery-carry a pico reef for one day. my gas powered igen 2200 westinghouse from amazon was $500 bucks and carries a full size fridge, very large, plus reefbowl plus five cell phones charging as much gas as we need to cycle through it.

that being said, setting it up is a hassle. this jackery can be set out and handle any 24 hour period for my pico reef even if I'm not home to connect it, kiddo could connect it for me. so I'll keep it. but that stings, I thought I could get three days on a childs bubbler setup for 1 goldfish pretty much lol!

Sorry — didn’t read the whole thread but you can try doing a DIY project if you have an Ecotech pump/return. I did this and got 40+hrs from it, YMMV on a MP10/40. Good luck

Thread 'DIY Bootleg "EcoTech" Battery Backup'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-bootleg-ecotech-battery-backup.945396/

 

[brandon429]

did not know that thank you

 

[brandon429]

**my usage is like this: 70 watts when heater and bubbler is on, then average of 10 watts running when only the bubbler. 70/10 cycling several times an hour, still think it could go 40 hours knowing that pull average?

 

[EricR]

I'm interested if anyone actually has a DC solution that runs heaters for a reasonable amount of time.
Marine deep cycle 12v battery hooked to AC inverter -- maybe a day max?
*best bet is obviously a generator

I just had a 15 hour outage (that I knew was coming) and lived through it without heat:
-- a couple of battery-powered Penn-Plax bubblers with air stones (would've run forever)
-- Old EcoTech 12v battery backup through 12v boost converter to run Nero powerhead at 24v (no problem with juice leftover)
-- Blanket over tank I believe helped; tank down to 72 degrees F at 1am when power came back on