Time to Get Serious (Red Sea Reefer 250 Build)

OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The wife and I spent the week settling into our new apartment. Overall, I really like the new place. It's surprisingly better than our previous apartment. Our goal this week was to get our fishy roommates into their new home.

Tuesday (July 9th)
Today we moved our current fish and coral into the new apartment. It was a smooth process as we have done this once before. Siphoned out the water into 5 gallon buckets, loaded the tank and equipment into the back of the truck, carried it up the stairs and set it up in the hallway. This will be their temporary home as the new tank is finished.
58460206916__54E6F0A3-D0D8-4BC7-B274-B6A11259E7F1.JPG


Friday (July 26th)
Other than the move itself, this may have been the most productive day for the new tank! I spent the majority of the morning cutting and dry fitting my orange PVC prior to gluing everything in place. I decided to keep with white schedule 40 fittings. The white really kept the cabinet looking bigger.
58465220138__A2CC1523-D165-467F-8CFC-DF894A99F133.JPG


After a lunch break it was time to start the aquascape. I really want to keep this an open/minimalistic aquascape. The goal was to have lots of tunnels and overhangs for fish, yet keep enough room to mount corals. I was careful to keep in mind that the tank will be most often viewed looking from the front right/side right. It was my first time using Nyos Reef Cement. After a couple of mistakes with the ratio of powder to water I figured it out and was very impressed with the product. I ran out just before finishing the scape, but decided to move forward with the build and add these pieces later.

IMG_9222.jpg

IMG_9226.jpg


Once the rockscape was "finished" it was placed in the tank, sand was added, and I began the long process of filling the tank. One bucket at a time...55 minutes a bucket...
IMG_9228.jpg

(I know what you're thinking...I can't see the rockscape!!! Wait for it...)

Saturday (July 13th)
Woke up early to start filling buckets. Also decided it was time to do a quick leak test of the bulkheads. Sure enough...there was a pretty substantial leak coming from the emergency drain. After a mild panic attack and several choice words, I diagnosed it as a pinched o-ring. I replaced the o-ring and the problem was solved. Few hours later the tank was filled!
58475154954__9F5681D6-10CE-43FF-AF6E-27D267FE9280.JPG


I turned on the Varios4 return pump and learned that I was pretty good at gluing everything together as there were no leaks in the plumbing. We had company that afternoon so the tank sat and settled as I took a much needed break.

Sunday (July 14th)
This was the most stressful day of the build so far... I am by no means computer savy, so the thought of figuring out the Apex system put fear in my soul. After countless YouTube videos, dozens of step by step walk throughs, and many many hours...I managed to get the tank up and running on Apex Fusion! This was a proud moment. Luckily my wife is a little better at programming and was a huge help during this step.

IMG_9243.jpg


I need to wait for my probe calibration fluid to arrive later this week for everything to be good to go. With the majority of the hard labor done I was finally able to stand back and appreciate what I have accomplished!

IMG_9250.jpg


IMG_9252.jpg


I plan to let the tank sit this week to ensure a cycle does not start up. Until then I have a 3/4" gate valve arriving Monday to replace the stock RSR valve...which I cannot dial in. I also have more Nyos Reef Cement being shipped to finish up the rockscape! Other than those few items I plan to start the skimmer this coming weekend and maybe add my fish!
 

NY_Caveman

likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
View Badges
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Messages
17,008
Reaction score
108,390
Location
New York
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The wife and I spent the week settling into our new apartment. Overall, I really like the new place. It's surprisingly better than our previous apartment. Our goal this week was to get our fishy roommates into their new home.

Tuesday (July 9th)
Today we moved our current fish and coral into the new apartment. It was a smooth process as we have done this once before. Siphoned out the water into 5 gallon buckets, loaded the tank and equipment into the back of the truck, carried it up the stairs and set it up in the hallway. This will be their temporary home as the new tank is finished.
58460206916__54E6F0A3-D0D8-4BC7-B274-B6A11259E7F1.JPG


Friday (July 26th)
Other than the move itself, this may have been the most productive day for the new tank! I spent the majority of the morning cutting and dry fitting my orange PVC prior to gluing everything in place. I decided to keep with white schedule 40 fittings. The white really kept the cabinet looking bigger.
58465220138__A2CC1523-D165-467F-8CFC-DF894A99F133.JPG


After a lunch break it was time to start the aquascape. I really want to keep this an open/minimalistic aquascape. The goal was to have lots of tunnels and overhangs for fish, yet keep enough room to mount corals. I was careful to keep in mind that the tank will be most often viewed looking from the front right/side right. It was my first time using Nyos Reef Cement. After a couple of mistakes with the ratio of powder to water I figured it out and was very impressed with the product. I ran out just before finishing the scape, but decided to move forward with the build and add these pieces later.

IMG_9222.jpg

IMG_9226.jpg


Once the rockscape was "finished" it was placed in the tank, sand was added, and I began the long process of filling the tank. One bucket at a time...55 minutes a bucket...
IMG_9228.jpg

(I know what you're thinking...I can't see the rockscape!!! Wait for it...)

Saturday (July 13th)
Woke up early to start filling buckets. Also decided it was time to do a quick leak test of the bulkheads. Sure enough...there was a pretty substantial leak coming from the emergency drain. After a mild panic attack and several choice words, I diagnosed it as a pinched o-ring. I replaced the o-ring and the problem was solved. Few hours later the tank was filled!
58475154954__9F5681D6-10CE-43FF-AF6E-27D267FE9280.JPG


I turned on the Varios4 return pump and learned that I was pretty good at gluing everything together as there were no leaks in the plumbing. We had company that afternoon so the tank sat and settled as I took a much needed break.

Sunday (July 14th)
This was the most stressful day of the build so far... I am by no means computer savy, so the thought of figuring out the Apex system put fear in my soul. After countless YouTube videos, dozens of step by step walk throughs, and many many hours...I managed to get the tank up and running on Apex Fusion! This was a proud moment. Luckily my wife is a little better at programming and was a huge help during this step.

IMG_9243.jpg


I need to wait for my probe calibration fluid to arrive later this week for everything to be good to go. With the majority of the hard labor done I was finally able to stand back and appreciate what I have accomplished!

IMG_9250.jpg


IMG_9252.jpg


I plan to let the tank sit this week to ensure a cycle does not start up. Until then I have a 3/4" gate valve arriving Monday to replace the stock RSR valve...which I cannot dial in. I also have more Nyos Reef Cement being shipped to finish up the rockscape! Other than those few items I plan to start the skimmer this coming weekend and maybe add my fish!
Nice detailed write up. As I said elsewhere, I love the aquascape.

 
OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
@powers2001 and @MichaelE I think I can answer both of your questions in the same response.

In earlier posts on this build I mentioned that I had purchased my dry rock and began to cycle it in a 30 gallon tote. I started the cycle back in April with a few frozen cubes of mysis. I monitored the ammonia and nitrite/nitrate/phosphate over the course of a few weeks. The cycle seemed to take place in roughly a month in which I added two damsels. I fed the tote as if it were an established aquarium. During the move the damsels were still alive and I will be returning them to the LFS.

When I built the rockscape I used the same rock from that tote and used the water to begin filling the tank. This gave me roughly 25 gallons of water from the cycled rock. In theory my tank has already cycled and the bacteria has already established itself withing the dry rock. I drop a pinch of fish food in each morning before work to feed the bacteria. The plan is to monitor the ammonia levels this week, which I tested today and they read zero. I have added a cap full of bacteria, used to cycle the dry rock to the tank each day so far, to keep the bacteria levels up and help seed the sand.

I do believe that this weekend I will be able to add my two clowns and twelve line wrasse with no issues.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Tested for ammonia and phosphates for the second time this week and both read zero.

IMG_9278.jpg


IMG_9277.jpg


Things are looking good to keep on schedule for adding fish this weekend. The only thing that may change that is if the Nyos Reef Cement doesn't arrive tomorrow. I want to finish the rock before adding fish to avoid additional stress.

Really happy that I shifted the light schedule to turn on before I leave for work in the mornings. Gives me a chance to enjoy the tank for a few extra minutes throughout the day! Loving the way things are looking.

IMG_9276.jpg


I will be borrowing a PAR meter from a fellow hobbyist this weekend to check out what the light output is from the Radions at 60% with diffusers on. Want to make sure things are right before adding coral.
 
OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Last night I picked up a PAR meter from a fellow hobbyist and immediately got to work mapping my tank. I picked key points on the rock work where I plan to mount corals.

Tank PAR.jpg

(Excuse the red tint...I had a filter on)

I have the Radions set to 60% intensity and running a program that I found on the Neptune Forum that is meant to mimic the AB+ schedule.

SPS AB+.JPG


Overall I was very happy with the PAR at 60% intensity. I believe this gives me plenty of opportunity for a true mixed reef. There are numerous locations to place SPS in the 300-400 range and a variety of options for soft corals in the 100-300 range.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A lot has happened in the last week! After testing the water every morning for ammonia or any sign of a new cycle and coming up clean, I determined the process of cycling the rock ahead of time had worked. I slowly started to introduce some livestock over the last week.

Wednesday (July 24th)
I added my two clownfish to the DT. My thought here was that clowns are relatively hardy fish, so in the event of a small cycle, they should be able to make it through. I turned all lights off for the day as I placed them in the tank before work.

IMG_9370.PNG


Saturday (July 27th)
After the clowns being in the tank for 4 days and still no sign of a cycle, I decided to add some corals. I added a few shrooms, torches, zoas, and a goniopora. A fellow hobbyist/friend has been keeping my torch collection in his tank throughout the build. Everything came back looking happy and healthy!

IMG_9446.PNG


I have dipped everything in Coral RX, a quick dip in 3% hydrogen peroxide, and a quick dip in fresh RO/DI water to ensure nothing got into the new DT.

Monday (July 30th)
Walked out into the living room to find the clowns already making the large green torch their new home.

IMG_9414.jpg


The rest of the corals are looking very happy and healthy this morning. Snapped a few pictures with my iPhone and PolypLab Lens. Lights have been on for less than 20 minutes at this time of the day and are just starting to ramp up over the next 3 hours.

IMG_9416.jpg

IMG_9417.jpg

IMG_9419.jpg

IMG_9421.jpg


Livestock List

Fish:
(1) DaVinci Grade A Clownfish, (1) Black Ice Clownfish

Invert: (1) Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Coral: WWC Bounce (3 total), Jawbreaker mushroom, Kryptonite mushroom, Unknown patchwork rhodactis mushroom, Aussie gold torch, Indo Dragon Soul torch, Green torch, Purple/Green torch, Red Goniopora (long tentacle), Red/Yellow goniopora (short tentacle), Hallucination zoa, Bloodshot zoa, Speckled Krak zoa, Buttkisser zoa, Beauty and Beast zoa, Jubilee zoa, Rasta zoa, Blue Hornet zoa
 

RandyC

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 25, 2016
Messages
700
Reaction score
1,014
Location
Bay Area, California
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Looks like you're off to a great start! Love the aquascape. Did you put any ceramic media in the sump? Not sure that you'll have enough rock for for proper colonization of beneficial bacteria once the tank has a larger bioload.
 
OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Looks like you're off to a great start! Love the aquascape. Did you put any ceramic media in the sump? Not sure that you'll have enough rock for for proper colonization of beneficial bacteria once the tank has a larger bioload.
Thank you!

Right now I have approximately 40lbs of rock and 40lbs of sand. I ordered both from BRS. I used all but a few small pieces of the rock.

I have plans to add a refugium in the very near future. The refugium will have live rock along with macro algae to help with biological filtration. I am going to avoid putting sand in the fuge to make cleaning easier.
 

RandyC

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 25, 2016
Messages
700
Reaction score
1,014
Location
Bay Area, California
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Thank you!

Right now I have approximately 40lbs of rock and 40lbs of sand. I ordered both from BRS. I used all but a few small pieces of the rock.

I have plans to add a refugium in the very near future. The refugium will have live rock along with macro algae to help with biological filtration. I am going to avoid putting sand in the fuge to make cleaning easier.

Are you going to have the fuge in the Red Sea sump? That thing is so tiny! I put in a 12 gallon external fuge on my Reefer 250. You can check it out on my build if you're interested: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/randys-redsea-reefer-250-and-the-rest-of-the-coral-farm.569126
 
OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
OP
OP
AwildcatsZ

AwildcatsZ

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
409
Reaction score
570
Location
Orange County
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Weekend From Hell
This weekend started off like any other weekend. My wife and I were enjoying some beers on Friday before going to meet our friends out for dinner. That would be the last good thing to happen for awhile...

Friday (8/2)
6:30pm

We were just saying goodbye to my brother and his fiance via Facebook Portal, enjoying said beers, when everything shut off. Power outage. When the power went out it was like you hear in the movies, power cuts, insert power going off sound effect. My wife and I looked at each other an jokingly said "I guess we will be late to dinner."

Not having a battery back up, I decided to manually turn water over in the tank using a cup. I did this every 10 minutes or so just to keep things moving and fresh.

8:30pm
Ok, something is wrong. Typically a power outage, especially in Irvine, California, only lasts 10, 20, maybe 40 minutes. We try to get on the internet using our cell signal, but no luck. The thought that this could be bad starts to creep into my mind. Still manually moving water with a cup.
IMG_9492.jpg


10:35pm
It is confirmed that tonight will be a long one... So Cal Edison posts that "most power up by 6:00am"
IMG_9480.PNG


10:43pm
It keeps getting worse. Now it is 8:00am ETA for power restoration. We were also able to find out that this was caused by a fire inside one of the electrical vaults. That can't be good...
IMG_9481.PNG


11:00pm
My wife has to be up early to meet with fellow co-workers (people above her) for brunch. She kisses me goodnight as I sit in darkness trying to think of a solution. Just then I remember that we have a car battery jump pack. This has a 12v adapter which we have an adapter for a standard outlet plug. I plugged this in with a small pump to circulate water and give my arm a rest. This was my only nap the entire night. I woke up to my alarm after 45 minutes, the pump was still running, but gave out shortly after. Back to manual circulation.
IMG_9479.jpg


Saturday (8/3)
12:30am (6 hours without power)

I decide to plug the battery pack into my car and try to charge it to get myself a few more minutes of rest. During this time I made the intervals between circulating water 30 minutes to avoid leaving my car running in the parking lot for too long without me in it.

3:30am
Battery pack finally charge to nearly 100%. You see some interesting things in a parking lot between the hours of 1am and 3am. I have to imagine most people were also using their cars to charge electronics, but there's a mix of people stumbling back from a night out and raccoons.

After getting back up to the apartment, I plugged the pump back into the battery pack and tried to take a quick nap.

6:30am (12 hours without power)
Sun is finally up, as am I. It's been a long night of turning water...running on fumes. I start to notice the water is getting cold. I use a kitchen thermometer and read the water temp at 74 degrees. While this is manageable, I don't want it to get much colder. I try hooking a small 100w heater to the battery pack, but no luck.

At this time I make a post to the SoCal Reef Pack Facebook page asking if anyone has additional information as to when we will get power back. I was shocked at the amount of people who offered their help. They offered to bring over generators, UPS, hold corals and fish, heck, some even offered to bring breakfast and coffee. Truly amazed.

The only issue we have with the generator is that our apartment complex does not allow gas powered appliances, bikes, grills, etc. to be stored/run in the units. Since my wife works for the company, we do not want to put her career at risk.

11:30am (17 hours without power)
The first signs that things aren't going well start to show. The water is beginning to get cloudy. My guess is a bacterial bloom. I also noticed that the two clownfish are beginning to come to the surface to gulp air...

My wife confirms with her superiors that we can run a generator due to this being a unique situation. I call my father-in-law and he said he will pack his generators and be over ASAP. At this moment I have gotten in touch with another hobbyist who is coming over to take home all of the frags in my frag tank for a ridiculously low price. I just wanted them to survive as I decided to put my focus on the main DT.
IMG_9528.PNG


1:00pm
My father-in-law and mother-in-law arrive with the generators. We get those hooked up and plug the return pump and heater into the generator and for the first time in over 18 hours, I can take a breath. At this point, I have done all that I could to keep the tank alive and honestly, I'm proud that I kept it going this long.

So Cal Edison has now made the statement that parts of Irvine may be without power for multiple days...super awesome.
58655767301__82DE1BCD-0CEF-4DE4-8748-174D67DD383F.JPG


IMG_9494.jpg


6:30pm
The fish have stopped visiting the surface for air and the water has gotten up to 76 degrees. We decided to plug in the TV, set a hotspot with a cell phone, watch some Netflix and play card games with the In-Laws. Beginning to think everything will work out.

9:00pm
Wife and I lay down to try and get some much needed sleep. She has already mentioned that we must turn the generator off at midnight, as these are the posted quiet hours. She said we can turn it back on for a couple hours in the middle of the night, but it cannot run throughout. I agree, and we close our eyes.

Sunday (8/4) 12:00am
My wife is now on call and she asks if we can turn off the generator for a few hours. I shut it down and take my position on the couch as I now know the drill. Every 10 minutes, get up, circulate water.

12:30am (30 hours without power)
As I lay back on the couch after moving water, contemplating how much longer I can do this...the ceiling light comes on! WE HAVE POWER!!! My wife comes running out of the bedroom with pure joy on her face. I think we hugged or something, but we immediately begin getting the tank up and running!

30 hours...emotional lows, emotional highs...sleep deprived...fish and coral still alive. We did it.

6:30pm (18 hours with power restored)
I decide to test ammonia as I read that this is common after long power outages. Unfortunately the test was reading 0.25ppm. I immediately changed 10 gallons of water. Only two corals look stressed at the moment. One is a red goniopora that looks to be losing color and the other is my dragon soul torch which has not fully opened since regaining power.

7:00am (24 hours with power restored)
Ammonia test was reading closer to 0. I plan to change another 10 gallons of water tonight when I get home.

11:42am
I have installed a Wyze security camera. After checking in on the tank, fish are still swimming and I see the torch corals swaying in the current.

After thoughts...
I need to invest in a battery back-up. This has moved to priority #1. I have done a lot of research on these since the incident and found that typical UPS do not offer more than 45-60 minutes of power for a small powerhead. The EcoTech battery back-up will run a MP40 for 3 days but does not work with the Apex. I need to do more research into the IceCap battery back-up.
 

Dal-Reef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Messages
576
Reaction score
1,343
Location
Coppell
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Weekend From Hell
This weekend started off like any other weekend. My wife and I were enjoying some beers on Friday before going to meet our friends out for dinner. That would be the last good thing to happen for awhile...

Friday (8/2)
6:30pm

We were just saying goodbye to my brother and his fiance via Facebook Portal, enjoying said beers, when everything shut off. Power outage. When the power went out it was like you hear in the movies, power cuts, insert power going off sound effect. My wife and I looked at each other an jokingly said "I guess we will be late to dinner."

Not having a battery back up, I decided to manually turn water over in the tank using a cup. I did this every 10 minutes or so just to keep things moving and fresh.

8:30pm
Ok, something is wrong. Typically a power outage, especially in Irvine, California, only lasts 10, 20, maybe 40 minutes. We try to get on the internet using our cell signal, but no luck. The thought that this could be bad starts to creep into my mind. Still manually moving water with a cup.
IMG_9492.jpg


10:35pm
It is confirmed that tonight will be a long one... So Cal Edison posts that "most power up by 6:00am"
IMG_9480.PNG


10:43pm
It keeps getting worse. Now it is 8:00am ETA for power restoration. We were also able to find out that this was caused by a fire inside one of the electrical vaults. That can't be good...
IMG_9481.PNG


11:00pm
My wife has to be up early to meet with fellow co-workers (people above her) for brunch. She kisses me goodnight as I sit in darkness trying to think of a solution. Just then I remember that we have a car battery jump pack. This has a 12v adapter which we have an adapter for a standard outlet plug. I plugged this in with a small pump to circulate water and give my arm a rest. This was my only nap the entire night. I woke up to my alarm after 45 minutes, the pump was still running, but gave out shortly after. Back to manual circulation.
IMG_9479.jpg


Saturday (8/3)
12:30am (6 hours without power)

I decide to plug the battery pack into my car and try to charge it to get myself a few more minutes of rest. During this time I made the intervals between circulating water 30 minutes to avoid leaving my car running in the parking lot for too long without me in it.

3:30am
Battery pack finally charge to nearly 100%. You see some interesting things in a parking lot between the hours of 1am and 3am. I have to imagine most people were also using their cars to charge electronics, but there's a mix of people stumbling back from a night out and raccoons.

After getting back up to the apartment, I plugged the pump back into the battery pack and tried to take a quick nap.

6:30am (12 hours without power)
Sun is finally up, as am I. It's been a long night of turning water...running on fumes. I start to notice the water is getting cold. I use a kitchen thermometer and read the water temp at 74 degrees. While this is manageable, I don't want it to get much colder. I try hooking a small 100w heater to the battery pack, but no luck.

At this time I make a post to the SoCal Reef Pack Facebook page asking if anyone has additional information as to when we will get power back. I was shocked at the amount of people who offered their help. They offered to bring over generators, UPS, hold corals and fish, heck, some even offered to bring breakfast and coffee. Truly amazed.

The only issue we have with the generator is that our apartment complex does not allow gas powered appliances, bikes, grills, etc. to be stored/run in the units. Since my wife works for the company, we do not want to put her career at risk.

11:30am (17 hours without power)
The first signs that things aren't going well start to show. The water is beginning to get cloudy. My guess is a bacterial bloom. I also noticed that the two clownfish are beginning to come to the surface to gulp air...

My wife confirms with her superiors that we can run a generator due to this being a unique situation. I call my father-in-law and he said he will pack his generators and be over ASAP. At this moment I have gotten in touch with another hobbyist who is coming over to take home all of the frags in my frag tank for a ridiculously low price. I just wanted them to survive as I decided to put my focus on the main DT.
IMG_9528.PNG


1:00pm
My father-in-law and mother-in-law arrive with the generators. We get those hooked up and plug the return pump and heater into the generator and for the first time in over 18 hours, I can take a breath. At this point, I have done all that I could to keep the tank alive and honestly, I'm proud that I kept it going this long.

So Cal Edison has now made the statement that parts of Irvine may be without power for multiple days...super awesome.
58655767301__82DE1BCD-0CEF-4DE4-8748-174D67DD383F.JPG


IMG_9494.jpg


6:30pm
The fish have stopped visiting the surface for air and the water has gotten up to 76 degrees. We decided to plug in the TV, set a hotspot with a cell phone, watch some Netflix and play card games with the In-Laws. Beginning to think everything will work out.

9:00pm
Wife and I lay down to try and get some much needed sleep. She has already mentioned that we must turn the generator off at midnight, as these are the posted quiet hours. She said we can turn it back on for a couple hours in the middle of the night, but it cannot run throughout. I agree, and we close our eyes.

Sunday (8/4) 12:00am
My wife is now on call and she asks if we can turn off the generator for a few hours. I shut it down and take my position on the couch as I now know the drill. Every 10 minutes, get up, circulate water.

12:30am (30 hours without power)
As I lay back on the couch after moving water, contemplating how much longer I can do this...the ceiling light comes on! WE HAVE POWER!!! My wife comes running out of the bedroom with pure joy on her face. I think we hugged or something, but we immediately begin getting the tank up and running!

30 hours...emotional lows, emotional highs...sleep deprived...fish and coral still alive. We did it.

6:30pm (18 hours with power restored)
I decide to test ammonia as I read that this is common after long power outages. Unfortunately the test was reading 0.25ppm. I immediately changed 10 gallons of water. Only two corals look stressed at the moment. One is a red goniopora that looks to be losing color and the other is my dragon soul torch which has not fully opened since regaining power.

7:00am (24 hours with power restored)
Ammonia test was reading closer to 0. I plan to change another 10 gallons of water tonight when I get home.

11:42am
I have installed a Wyze security camera. After checking in on the tank, fish are still swimming and I see the torch corals swaying in the current.

After thoughts...
I need to invest in a battery back-up. This has moved to priority #1. I have done a lot of research on these since the incident and found that typical UPS do not offer more than 45-60 minutes of power for a small powerhead. The EcoTech battery back-up will run a MP40 for 3 days but does not work with the Apex. I need to do more research into the IceCap battery back-up.

What a heck of a ride... glad everything is back up and running
 

powers2001

started reefing 1999
View Badges
Joined
May 2, 2013
Messages
5,812
Reaction score
5,508
Location
LIVING WELLS MONTANA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
@AwildcatsZ what a valiant effort. I’ve been told oxygen levels are good in a display tank for 24 hours after the onset of a power outage although I have no experience with this. Check out Tunze Safety Connector. You can connect Tunze DC powerheads to car batteries and the like. You even connect them to small solar panels. I will post a link to a video when I find it.
 

NY_Caveman

likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
View Badges
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Messages
17,008
Reaction score
108,390
Location
New York
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Weekend From Hell
This weekend started off like any other weekend. My wife and I were enjoying some beers on Friday before going to meet our friends out for dinner. That would be the last good thing to happen for awhile...

Friday (8/2)
6:30pm

We were just saying goodbye to my brother and his fiance via Facebook Portal, enjoying said beers, when everything shut off. Power outage. When the power went out it was like you hear in the movies, power cuts, insert power going off sound effect. My wife and I looked at each other an jokingly said "I guess we will be late to dinner."

Not having a battery back up, I decided to manually turn water over in the tank using a cup. I did this every 10 minutes or so just to keep things moving and fresh.

8:30pm
Ok, something is wrong. Typically a power outage, especially in Irvine, California, only lasts 10, 20, maybe 40 minutes. We try to get on the internet using our cell signal, but no luck. The thought that this could be bad starts to creep into my mind. Still manually moving water with a cup.
IMG_9492.jpg


10:35pm
It is confirmed that tonight will be a long one... So Cal Edison posts that "most power up by 6:00am"
IMG_9480.PNG


10:43pm
It keeps getting worse. Now it is 8:00am ETA for power restoration. We were also able to find out that this was caused by a fire inside one of the electrical vaults. That can't be good...
IMG_9481.PNG


11:00pm
My wife has to be up early to meet with fellow co-workers (people above her) for brunch. She kisses me goodnight as I sit in darkness trying to think of a solution. Just then I remember that we have a car battery jump pack. This has a 12v adapter which we have an adapter for a standard outlet plug. I plugged this in with a small pump to circulate water and give my arm a rest. This was my only nap the entire night. I woke up to my alarm after 45 minutes, the pump was still running, but gave out shortly after. Back to manual circulation.
IMG_9479.jpg


Saturday (8/3)
12:30am (6 hours without power)

I decide to plug the battery pack into my car and try to charge it to get myself a few more minutes of rest. During this time I made the intervals between circulating water 30 minutes to avoid leaving my car running in the parking lot for too long without me in it.

3:30am
Battery pack finally charge to nearly 100%. You see some interesting things in a parking lot between the hours of 1am and 3am. I have to imagine most people were also using their cars to charge electronics, but there's a mix of people stumbling back from a night out and raccoons.

After getting back up to the apartment, I plugged the pump back into the battery pack and tried to take a quick nap.

6:30am (12 hours without power)
Sun is finally up, as am I. It's been a long night of turning water...running on fumes. I start to notice the water is getting cold. I use a kitchen thermometer and read the water temp at 74 degrees. While this is manageable, I don't want it to get much colder. I try hooking a small 100w heater to the battery pack, but no luck.

At this time I make a post to the SoCal Reef Pack Facebook page asking if anyone has additional information as to when we will get power back. I was shocked at the amount of people who offered their help. They offered to bring over generators, UPS, hold corals and fish, heck, some even offered to bring breakfast and coffee. Truly amazed.

The only issue we have with the generator is that our apartment complex does not allow gas powered appliances, bikes, grills, etc. to be stored/run in the units. Since my wife works for the company, we do not want to put her career at risk.

11:30am (17 hours without power)
The first signs that things aren't going well start to show. The water is beginning to get cloudy. My guess is a bacterial bloom. I also noticed that the two clownfish are beginning to come to the surface to gulp air...

My wife confirms with her superiors that we can run a generator due to this being a unique situation. I call my father-in-law and he said he will pack his generators and be over ASAP. At this moment I have gotten in touch with another hobbyist who is coming over to take home all of the frags in my frag tank for a ridiculously low price. I just wanted them to survive as I decided to put my focus on the main DT.
IMG_9528.PNG


1:00pm
My father-in-law and mother-in-law arrive with the generators. We get those hooked up and plug the return pump and heater into the generator and for the first time in over 18 hours, I can take a breath. At this point, I have done all that I could to keep the tank alive and honestly, I'm proud that I kept it going this long.

So Cal Edison has now made the statement that parts of Irvine may be without power for multiple days...super awesome.
58655767301__82DE1BCD-0CEF-4DE4-8748-174D67DD383F.JPG


IMG_9494.jpg


6:30pm
The fish have stopped visiting the surface for air and the water has gotten up to 76 degrees. We decided to plug in the TV, set a hotspot with a cell phone, watch some Netflix and play card games with the In-Laws. Beginning to think everything will work out.

9:00pm
Wife and I lay down to try and get some much needed sleep. She has already mentioned that we must turn the generator off at midnight, as these are the posted quiet hours. She said we can turn it back on for a couple hours in the middle of the night, but it cannot run throughout. I agree, and we close our eyes.

Sunday (8/4) 12:00am
My wife is now on call and she asks if we can turn off the generator for a few hours. I shut it down and take my position on the couch as I now know the drill. Every 10 minutes, get up, circulate water.

12:30am (30 hours without power)
As I lay back on the couch after moving water, contemplating how much longer I can do this...the ceiling light comes on! WE HAVE POWER!!! My wife comes running out of the bedroom with pure joy on her face. I think we hugged or something, but we immediately begin getting the tank up and running!

30 hours...emotional lows, emotional highs...sleep deprived...fish and coral still alive. We did it.

6:30pm (18 hours with power restored)
I decide to test ammonia as I read that this is common after long power outages. Unfortunately the test was reading 0.25ppm. I immediately changed 10 gallons of water. Only two corals look stressed at the moment. One is a red goniopora that looks to be losing color and the other is my dragon soul torch which has not fully opened since regaining power.

7:00am (24 hours with power restored)
Ammonia test was reading closer to 0. I plan to change another 10 gallons of water tonight when I get home.

11:42am
I have installed a Wyze security camera. After checking in on the tank, fish are still swimming and I see the torch corals swaying in the current.

After thoughts...
I need to invest in a battery back-up. This has moved to priority #1. I have done a lot of research on these since the incident and found that typical UPS do not offer more than 45-60 minutes of power for a small powerhead. The EcoTech battery back-up will run a MP40 for 3 days but does not work with the Apex. I need to do more research into the IceCap battery back-up.
What a crazy story. Great job staying dedicated and doing what you could to save the tank!
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 66 51.6%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 67 52.3%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 32 25.0%
  • None.

    Votes: 29 22.7%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 7.0%
Back
Top