care during hurricane evacuation

It has just dawned on me that tanks would have to be left during occasional hurricane evacuations. This question is regional, I understand, but I am SE Coast and we do sometimes have to pack up and drive off in advance of a storm. I know there are some Floridians on the Forum...what do you plan to do?

Usually the storm doesn't strike so I would prefer to return to living tanks rather than accept that everything must die during every evacuation. It is normal procedure to turn off electrical power before evacuating for a hurricane.

Do I need to purchase a small generator and set the tanks up on it when turning home power off to leave? Are there other measures, perhaps less expensive, that would work?

Ideas?

 

at a minimum, I would have battery operated air pumps. Silent Air B11 Air Pump

There are cheaper units. However, in Florida, you guys get so much lightening that it would probably be nice to have a unit that automatically senses when the power goes off and then switches on under battery power.

 

Generator. I wouldn't do a battery back up for anything other than blackouts when you are there to tend to it. I vote generator, or don't leave I personally would leave for nothing, but that's just me.

 

your best bet is a generator,that way you have electricity for your whole house including your tank.

 

I wholeheartedly support having a standby generator. I considered it a must before setting up my big tank. As for the other steps to take, Robman posted this link into one of my threads a few months ago and it has darn near eveything you need to know on the subject.

Hurricane

 

A generator is great, but not everyone can afford the 15K expense in employing a stand by unit that goes on automatically when the power goes out.

The next best thing is an inverter. This is a device that creates AC power from a DC source, such as a car's battery. For the highly inductive loads, such as are common with reefkeeping (pumps and motors), an inverter will have the longest life. A standby battery would at best keep an airstone running for 12 hours or so. An inverter can be hooked up to your car--and providing you run the engine for 5 minutes per hour, can run your tank indefinitely.

 

Thanks for the info Sparky! I only have battery back-up at this point to run the return pump or the powerheads, ten hours would be the limit I think. So far I've only needed them for about four hours and I didn't run them the whole time as we were at home and able to monitor them. I'm checking into an inverter.

 

Thank you very much for these suggestions. I've read and bookmarked the "Hurricane" information. At this time, I don't think I can afford a homesized generator, but I'll do some more research on the variable sizes and cost. I have a couple of unused computer backup batteries. I'll look into the battery operated air pump option as well.

I'll also look into the inverter. It could be very useful for being home with the power out.

I live on a barrier island; read that "sea level". From my experience, my area has occasional mandatory evacuations before power is lost and we often return to no storm hit and no power loss. I am simply planning for when our area's luck partially runs out and we got hit by high wind and maybe some water damage. If we had a power outage and were not allowed back home, then what could I do.

Where I live, a hurricane hit would make aquarium care a moot point; there wouldn't even be a house left, much less a tank.

In short, I sincerely appreciate the excellent information.

 

Never leave?

Ocean Springs, Mississippi here....you know, just a few miles east of ground zero for Hurricane Katrina? (yes, Mississippi was where Katrina hit)

I'd thought the same way....that I wouldn't leave. My little house made it just fine, but some of my very best friends did a lot of swimming when twenty-eight feet of storm surge came crashing through. It's indescribable.....I guess I'm just saying, never say never!

 

Not only the cost of a generator but if you have to evac I wouldn't want one running alone in my house. Not to mention the noise..instant invite to those looking to make your things theirs.
When one gets close to us I have a 50% water change ready and top off water. I also have a tarp to cover the tank to keep all activity to a minimum. I also stop feeding a day and a half before we get hit and do a water change 12 hours before the storm. I run a canister filter for my carbon and phosphate remover so it gets closed off and removed from the system so as not to create a hydrogen sulfide disaster when the power returns. Other than that..I hope for the best. Thankfuly I'm on the same grid as the hospital so we don't go without power for long.