Winter emergency kit

[Guinny]

I am really worried about this winter, we're predicted to get 80 inches of snow over the winter and I want to make a survival pack.

Things I want to have....
30 gals of saltwater
15 of RO/DI for top off and w/c on my fresh tank
Battery bubbler (have one somewhere)
Batteries
Battery heater (If I can find one)
Portable generator (?)
Maybe a heated blanket if I can't find a battery heater


Anything else Im forgetting?

[Mouse]

Generator, a big one.... Think of all you would run on it, then double the power output of it to be safe.

After 6hrs of the tank running on the thing your wife will look at ya with evil eyes from beneth the pile of blankets and you will wish ya had gotten a bigger one.
Space Heater -- (one you can run on the generator and still have room for other things) If you heat the room the tank is in you can prevent heat loss from the tank AND keep yourself and family happy.


Heated blanket??? wouldnt ya need power for this?

[Guinny]

Well a generator for the house is out of my budget. I'm 21 living at home and going to school. Lol

I was thinking of a much smaller something for my 30(29?) gal aquapod. Maybe something like this http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...i_sku=10250454

Or a car battery and a power converter. For
What I understand oxygen and heat are of the most importance. My LFS said my tank could go 4-6 days without light before I saw any adverse effects.

[scolley]

For this particular problem, its good you have a nano. In the winter heat it going to be you big enemy. Circulation after that. Light a dim third.

People are quick it insulate tanks when they lose power, but if its winter and you lost power a day or more, that's not going to help much.

A power inverter, a car to hook it to, and a long extension cord to run from the car to your tank is what you need. Less than $100. Look up inverters on Amazon. For most nanos 600 to 800 watts will be sufficient, but the more watts the better.

Now you cannot necessarily plan on running your car all night, so if you have the cash, you can buy a marine battery or two, and a charger, at your local auto store and hook those to the inverter while you sleep. But that might be a good time to insulate your tank as one of those batteries will only run a 250 watt battery about 3 hours. Better than nothing though.

[nlgill13]

with power inverters and deep cycle batteries, it is all about the research.

Deep cycle (marine/auto) batteries are designed to take continuous drain....regular car batteries are not! they are intended to only crank the engine over and can not hold up to a continuous drain. You also want a sealed battery b/c the fumes of non-sealed batteries are an explosive mixture that you do not want in your house.

Power inverters come in two main styles, pure sine wave inverters or modified square wave inverters....most cheap inverters are modified square waves and there is a debate if these are good to use on appliences like pumps (ie it may kill your pump because this is not as clean of a power supply)

Here is a great full depth article on deciding what you need and setting up a battery back up system (its a great article and source for everyone)

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...step-step.html

[scolley]

Originally Posted by nlgill13

Here is a great full depth article on deciding what you need and setting up a battery back up system (its a great article and source for everyone)

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...step-step.html

GREAT write up! Thanks for that link!