Storm Season among us. Power outage readiness!!!

Reeferdood

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You moved to the right place for hookups bud. My buddy Rob and I are getting ready to open a small little extension of his aquarium service business. We have connections and will beat any price the LFS's will try to sell you anything...
RC pilot? What do you fly?
 

Rcpilot

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You moved to the right place for hookups bud. My buddy Rob and I are getting ready to open a small little extension of his aquarium service business. We have connections and will beat any price the LFS's will try to sell you anything...
RC pilot? What do you fly?
I used to fly RC airplanes, but I quit the hobby around 2012.
I did IMAC for awhile. I got into the larger gasoline powered planes 50cc and up. They're fun, but ya got a 50/50 chance of bringing it home in a trash bag, every time you fly it. $3,500--$6,000 airplane and you can get knocked down by a phantom radio wave or glitch. Things can be fine for a couple years, then one day it happens, "I got it. I got it. This is FUN!! Uh oh.... sumtin wrong.... I don't got it no more... splat!"

Fish tanks are a bit slower type of excitement.

Thanks so much for the info on your new endeavor. It will be awhile before I'm ready for livestock, but I'd definitely like to meet people and make friends in the local area. PM me with some info on the new shop.
 

14 foot reef

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35 kw 1000 gallon propane tank....I'm covered
 

Austin Prosser

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Just buy a cyber power battery backup or two they will switch instantly to battery power with out a cut in electricity then get a gas generator to switch too when the battery switches off from cyber power backup you can get them at frys electronics in a bunch of sizes this will eliminate any second with out power to the tank.
 

CC13

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35 kw 1000 gallon propane tank....I'm covered

You could run a hospital in that for days lol

I have a Honda EU3000is. It’s more than enough for what we would get up here in Toronto. I had to use it a few times this summer though we had nasty wind storms that knocked powerlines down and power was out for a few days.
 

Dirtyjerzy

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I got a 1500watt inverter when sandy hit nj hooked it up to the truck and ran my tanks . I also keep prime on hand just incase ammonia levels rises etc..
 

Zeal

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Reviving old thread. Checked the weather this morning. Apparently there's a storm off the coast of Africa and something brewing in the caribbean.

Yay for Miami living

I live in a condo so I can't have a generator. What can I do just in case for a power outage? I was thinking about buying the Ecotech battery backup for my MP10 since that will last about 72 hours but I think 3 days still isn't enough. I want something that could run the MP 10 for about 5 days or longer. Max 7.

I can charge my battery at my families house(they have a generator connected to the city) but then I'll need to do something to keep the water flowing in the tank while the battery charges...

Any recommendations would be appericated. This will be my first hurricane season with a reef tank so I want to be prepared
 

IslandLifeReef

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Reviving old thread. Checked the weather this morning. Apparently there's a storm off the coast of Africa and something brewing in the caribbean.

Yay for Miami living

I live in a condo so I can't have a generator. What can I do just in case for a power outage? I was thinking about buying the Ecotech battery backup for my MP10 since that will last about 72 hours but I think 3 days still isn't enough. I want something that could run the MP 10 for about 5 days or longer. Max 7.

I can charge my battery at my families house(they have a generator connected to the city) but then I'll need to do something to keep the water flowing in the tank while the battery charges...

Any recommendations would be appericated. This will be my first hurricane season with a reef tank so I want to be prepared

I used a battery operated air pump with an airstone and stirred my tank every 4-6 hours with a large spoon last year after Irma. We lost power for 3 days. No losses. I would also recommend freezing water in many sandwich bags and putting them in a cooler if the power goes out. At the end of the 3 days, my tank temp had risen to about 81 degrees and I wish I had some ice. Fortunately, we got power back before the temp got any higher.
 

Zeal

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I used a battery operated air pump with an airstone and stirred my tank every 4-6 hours with a large spoon last year after Irma. We lost power for 3 days. No losses. I would also recommend freezing water in many sandwich bags and putting them in a cooler if the power goes out. At the end of the 3 days, my tank temp had risen to about 81 degrees and I wish I had some ice. Fortunately, we got power back before the temp got any higher.
Was that enough for the coral tho
 

Amoo

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During last year's Hurricane I ran my return pump only off of my car battery (with it running) with an AC inverter for the first 48 hours until things cleared enough for me to get the generator hooked up.

Vehicle doesn't need to be running for this to work, but the alternator running kept the battery charged, still in a pinch a battery and an inverter can get you going for a while.
 

Dirtyjerzy

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Iv gotten a power inverter in the past hooked it up to my truck and ran a cord to the appartment. I always keep prime on hand to add to the water and the battery back ups work also
 

squampton

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Luckily we don't typically get many power outages where I am, and while we get a ton of rain, huge storms are not the norm. Power might go off once or so a year for an hour or 2.

I am in an apartment so cannot have a generator, so just use one of those battery back up things made for computers, the only thing I hook up to it is the return pump to increase its usable time, have never had it used yet though, haven't had a power outage since getting it last year.
 

Burrito

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so i have a ecotech backup and 2 mp40s, my tank is 100g and im using a cor20 return pump (no backup plan for it) which i may be swapping out for a vectra m1.

1 mp40 can run 36 hours on the battery, my assumption is the vectra would be much less. what would be more advantageous, to run a return pump say 5 minutes on, 15 minutes off as long as that can last (maybe 12 hours) and have the full system move water around or run just the powerheads for 36 hours and stir the sump now and then by hand ?
 

Bthomas

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Had my first power outage scare last night.. Doesn't happen often but left me with some general questions..

How long can fish survive with no airation?

How long do you think it would take a tank's temp to drop too low without a heater in the winter time?

Luckily my power was only out for half an hour last night but i plan to buy a couple battery powered air pumps to run air stones in case this happens again.

How many air stones would you suggest for a 150 gallon tank?
Also would there be any way of insulating the tank to prevent temp drop?
A generator isn't really in my budget unfortunately.

Thanks
 

lapin

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2 or 3 will work. More fish = more need for air.
At the PO they have insulation blankets for hot water heaters. Perhaps one of those will fit around your tank. Heat rises so a cover on the top will also help.
 

CC13

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2 or 3 will work. More fish = more need for air.
At the PO they have insulation blankets for hot water heaters. Perhaps one of those will fit around your tank. Heat rises so a cover on the top will also help.

Would covering the top not prevent aeration? I know there are the air stones, but a couple powerheads placed at the surface would also help keep the oxygen levels from dropping.
 

DLHDesign

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Would covering the top not prevent aeration?
It does, but if you've got airstones pushing new air into the tank, that will be a larger source of gas exchange than anything else. Keeping the heat up, then, becomes more important in the case of an emergency.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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