Storm Season among us. Power outage readiness!!!

ReefStrong

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Battery Back-UPS or APC. You can usually find these all over for sale. FB Marketplace Thrift stores. Even look up some you tube for ways to greatly extend the power run time. I think if you run absolute bare mins on one or even two of them, you'll be gtg. I live here in Florida also and power outages in the short term do happen fairly regularly. For the long term... Get a little mini generator just big enough to run the fridge/freezer a fan, light and most importantly... Emergency power to the Reef!... If you know what I mean...lol
 

Viking_Reefing

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While we don’t get any hurricanes in Sweden and our electric-grid is fairly solid (I can’t remember a power outage in my 30 years of being alive) I still run a UPS for peace of mind.
I highly recommend one, battery powered air pumps etc are all well and good but if you’re not home when the power cuts out they are of no use. If you get a decent UPS unit it can run the essentials for a while, giving you time to react.
 

Acolaojr

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I have a inverter that is plugged into my outlet that has an automatic transfer switch when the house loses power it automatically switches over to the battery. It’s also charges the battery. I also have a couple generators Incase the outage is several days.
 

fishybizzness

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I have a inverter that is plugged into my outlet that has an automatic transfer switch when the house loses power it automatically switches over to the battery. It’s also charges the battery. I also have a couple generators Incase the outage is several days.
Just hooked up an inverter/charger/automatic transfer switch unit with a deep cycle marine battery. I plan to add another battery in a few weeks and eventually a few solar panels to the system in the near future. I'm figuring that with 2 batteries I will be able to run my reef tank and freshwater tank for well over 12 hours. I am going to do a test when the other battery is online to see how much running time I get..

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Acolaojr

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Just hooked up an inverter/charger/automatic transfer switch unit with a deep cycle marine battery. I plan to add another battery in a few weeks and eventually a few solar panels to the system in the near future. I'm figuring that with 2 batteries I will be able to run my reef tank and freshwater tank for well over 12 hours. I am going to do a test when the other battery is online to see how much running time I get..

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We basically have the same setup I ended up buying a battery from the inverter store. One battery weighs 148lbs.
 

c.poindexter

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I am on the back up generator wagon. I had to purchase one years ago to save the pipes from freezing with a 7 day outage.
 

Acolaojr

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Have you ever tested your system to see how many hours you get off of one battery?
No I never ran the battery dry yet however I did lose power for several hours I want to say close to 4 hours before I hooked up a generator and it was still going strong. I have an Apex that tells me how many amps I draw when all the pumps and heaters are on. I used a battery calculator to give me an estimated time the battery would give me. You can find them on battery websites or solar company websites.
 

fishybizzness

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No I never ran the battery dry yet however I did lose power for several hours I want to say close to 4 hours before I hooked up a generator and it was still going strong. I have an Apex that tells me how many amps I draw when all the pumps and heaters are on. I used a battery calculator to give me an estimated time the battery would give me. You can find them on battery websites or solar company websites.
I'll have to look those up.
 

Acolaojr

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I'll have to look those up.
Just be aware they usually base the math on using only half the battery life. I wanted to power the tank for 24 hours at full capacity I think they told me I needed 14 batteries LOL. The heaters use the most power and they aren’t always on so I decided to just go with one strong battery so far it was enough.
 

fishybizzness

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Just be aware they usually base the math on using only half the battery life. I wanted to power the tank for 24 hours at full capacity I think they told me I needed 14 batteries LOL. The heaters use the most power and they aren’t always on so I decided to just go with one strong battery so far it was enough.
Thanks for the advice! I live in the Caribbean so I don't use a heater or chiller. In summer I just use a fan blowing over the sump. Keeps it in the low 80s. In "winter " the tank stays in the high 70s without a fan. I also have a 16 k propane gen that runs the whole house. The reason I got this setup is that our powerplant is very unreliable and we have regular power outages, some for several hours. Alot of them happen at night. I would rather just turn off the generator at night and just have the tanks run on the inverter. We also have regular hurricanes that knock out the power for extended periods. For irma, we were out for 3 months and on generator power that whole time!
 

Phildago

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Haha I can’t afford a generator usually is a few days to week until I can borrow one. But I’m with you plenty of beer and my tank is in a room that has direct sunlight through one window but not close enough for direct. It will be an interesting hurricane season.
If you can afford a reef tank you can afford a generator. You can grab a 1500 watt on Amazon for 150 bucks. Not a bad deal.
 

TheRedBeardedReefer

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Hey there,
Having a backup for at least your circulation pumps is a really smart move. I built mine for about 15 dollars (I already had a battery I wanted to use) of parts from Harbor Freight and Autozone.
From this one battery I can run both of my maxspect gyre 250s at 10 percent for nearly a week. Then, swap in a backup battery if power isn't back.
Here's the video I followed. It should work for any 12-24v setup (just find the right size barrel connector). I followed pretty closely, making modifications as I needed for my unique setup: DIY Maxspect Backup Battery.
If you do this definitely make sure you vent the container (hydrogen gas) in a way that also prevents moisture from entering.
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MatsReef

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A generator or battery backup is an essential piece of equipment. Just today I had to fire up the generator for 4 hours in Michigan. It was 15°F this morning when the power went out. Especially anywhere there's power lines on utility poles be prepared. It doesn't cost a fortune either. This generator was like $380 a couple years back from Costco.
 

iprayforwaves

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Small tank, a power inverter would be a good choice. Run it off a car battery. Even better would be to be able to run it off a car battery in a car, so you can recharge it by running the car. Inverters aren't that expensive, depending on the size needed.

I did this back in 2004 (i think that was the year). I had an inverter and 2 car batteries. I kept my tank alive for over a week just running the main pump off the inverter and taking turns charging the extra battery in the car. PITA but it worked!
 

jaxteller007

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My brother (runs our family home automation/security business) is looking for some options for me for a backup battery. What are the sort of minimums that I should look to run during a power outage? At least one wave maker? For peace of mind I'd like to keep my return pump running (reduce the chance of flooding).
 

Scott Ulrich

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My brother (runs our family home automation/security business) is looking for some options for me for a backup battery. What are the sort of minimums that I should look to run during a power outage? At least one wave maker? For peace of mind I'd like to keep my return pump running (reduce the chance of flooding).

Probably the heater, the return pump and a wave maker?

We just had our power go out for 24 hours, started at 11pm - I have a generator, but couldn't get it started so I had to wait until the next morning to work on it. Turns out the gas that was left in it was bad from the previous year, switched to fresh gas the next day and it fired up. So moral of the story is to keep your backup gear routinely inspected.

The temp dropped to 70F by the morning though. Everything was okay, except for my fairy wrasse who just disappeared (it has been about 6 days now). I have an eggcrate lid so I have no idea where he went - absolutely no sign anywhere. Hoping he is just hiding and will come out any day now :( Either that or jumped up through one of the lid holes and dog got him off the floor...
 

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