Power Outage...

I was lying in bed last night and was thinking about all of the big snow and ice storms that have missed us this year, but seems like everyone else got. Then a very frightening thought came over me. What would I do if we had one of our ice storms and knocked out power for more than a couple of hours. I feel we are in the clear now for this year....but what do you guys do for cold and power outtages? I was thinking of the money spent and going to be spent on my critters and corals and it scares me to think I could lose them all in a blink of an eye! Any insight would help....thanks!

 

I know I have a battery back up for the heater and return pump. Never known how long it will last. But for safety measures I am going to purchese a actually generator while I live up north for that reason. In another forum a guy last year had everything die in his reef tank because the power was knocked out for about a week. I thought maybe I was the only one that ever thinks about that on a regular basis.

 

Freak Oct snowstorm hit Buffalo last year. I was without power for a week. Lost everything in my 30 gal. Generator is definitely in my plans. Heard a rather creative way of keeping the water warm - for those having a gas stove, take water from the tank, heat it on the stove & gradually put it back in. Another thing to do is get rigid insulation board (the thicker the better) and put it around the tabk to cut down on heat loss. Problem is when things are running smoothly that's the last thing we think of. They used to sell a kti that used peroxide to increase the O2 levels in your water. That would also help.

 

A battery operated air pump with air stone is also beneficial for the adding of oxygen to your tank which will become depleted quickly due to fish and bacteria respiration mainly!
A generator is very important as well for the temp to remain constant and to run a skimmer etc.
Placing a warm blanket around the tank will help to insulate and keep the tank temp. from decreasing to fast as well IMO!

 

Where or how do you have your heater on a battery back up? I have no generator as well.

I have heard to use a warm blanket and cover the tank as much as possible to retain the heat. I guess in actuality if your power is out for days and you have no generator, your gonna expect to lose the livestock.

When we had a black out here in Ontario and New York it lasted 13.5hrs for me. At the time it was summer and I had a 35g cichlid tank, needless to say I was worried because it was pretty hot that day. I didn't lose a single fish but I don't know about a reef tank?

I think it's normal to worry about these things because it can happen. I always wonder what people do when their tanks physically crash? That's my biggest worry...what do you do?

 

Thanks for the thoughts......I went looking at UPS devices to hold me over on critical (heater and return pump) devices. But I have no idea how long these two items would last on a back up battery source. The heaters (2) are 200W each and the return pump is a mag 9.5. The literature says it uses 93 w. I don't know even where to start on this.....does anyone have an idea? Thanks again and yes Nemo.....I worry about actual crashes, but I figure at that point I have lost it all anyhow!

 

Here is an option

You can get small generators off of ebay for a just over a hundred dollars. You could probably run alot more then just a tank with some of the larger ones.

 

Late this fall, here in the North West, we lost our power for 5 days. I do have a gen (purchased it several years before the tank). What a blessing!!

It was not fun walking over extension cords, but was much better than loosing the livestock. I'll be rewiring the transfer switch to move the tank circuit over to where I'll not need the extension cords.

There are small, very quiet, Honda generators that would easily fill your pump and heater needs. A bit larger and you can even keep the lights on....

 

Don't think that a UPS wil have enough power to keep things going very long. You can get a small generator for a couple hundred $$.

 

i had a tornado hit my farm in january and knockout my power for 30 hours
ran to walmart and bought 4 or 5 of the battery operated air pumps (comes wth air stones)
with some great luck a friend came over and lent me his lttle generator and i was able to run 2 filters and my heater plus my refigerator so i was able to save my food and my tank
i plan to buy my own generator ths year
i have an idea and was wondering what any one here thinks
ive seen thoose plugs for laptops that plug into your car what if you ran an extension cord from it and ran a heater or pump n your tank ?