I can handle small Power outages but this is just silly

[KozmoTKramer]

So I live in the Seattle area, we were hit with a wind storm on Thursday. This is the same day I travel to Haiwaii for a 2 week vacation. SO since I have left the tank has been powered by a generator (it is now Saturday). The power is expected to be out through the weekend, 4 days of no power. Small 4 hour outages are not uncommon (twice a year) but 48 hours brings a whole new host of issues. Issues I have to solve by phone to a pet sitter, who by logical nature of not being intimate with the system, is not proactive. So I have been very reactive, and trying to get in a more proactive mode. Such as needing Ice in the freezer to keep the food cold.

This morning the tank got down to 69 degrees! All the backflow into the sump from shutting on and off teh generator to refill it delcalibrated the heater, and the fire in the living room was left off. Now i just want to fly home to protect my tank! I am not however, as this would devestate Mom (who irritated the hell out of me by being much more critical than sympathetic). I will have to rely on the pet sitter, and a few helpers. I don't think it will be too bad though. Please generator just keep running properly!

So now I have a lack of gas issue. Luckily my sister's boyfreind is bringing some from Seattle. Argh, and I think I need to have him change the oil in the generator. Sitter is at work till a bit later, so I hope the tank temp is back to normal.

Man this is stressful even with 1 pet sitter and 2 helpers!

Any thoughts or suggestions on other items I might prepare for? How about similar experiences?

Thanks for reading and/or responding!

[lessthanlights]

How big of a system do you have. Just try to keep the water flowing- lights are not needed, it can go without food for a week, and heat is good if possible . . . . . hang in there!

[pledosophy]

Wrapping the tanks in blankets will help hold the heat.

Getting powerheads that are on surge protetors with batteries can keep you up for a few hours.

Battery operated air pumps are good and there are ones that will only turn on once the power is off. They run on D batteries and cost like $15.

HTH

[bllfish]

Ditto on the air pumps pledosophy mentioned. I live in florida and the two hurricanes a few years back knocked my electricity out for 8 days and 10 days. After four days I invested in a generator.
The air pumps are "Penn-Plax Silent Air B11"

[Agu]

Good Luck..............

[MC Lighting]

I posted another thread about this yesterday in some areas they are not expecting power for more than another 6-8 days so feel lucky if you get power by monday... I started the other thread to emphasize that these things do occur in areas that you least expect it and thankfully you had the generator so you were way ahead of the game compared to others... I keep enough gas on hand to run my generators for a full week then the car gets siphoned.... I haivng inverters and other power means run at night on inverters/batteries and generator by day as I do not care about daytime genset noise and I can keep an eye on things. All of this power problme talk I went out today and did an oil chang eon my gensets and ran them for an hour under full load to make sure I am ready for the winter season.

[edwing206]

i went through the same thing. i went through almost 24hrs i had my tank wrapped with 2 thick blankets and every half hour i made bubbles in the tank by mixing the water up with a cup. hang in there and keep you tank warm and oxygenated

[xtm]

Sorry to hear about your situation. That would surely ruin anyone's vacation

Have you tried posting in the Seattle forum here in RC? There might be some locals who are willing to swing by your house and help ensure everything's ok.

good luck

[MC Lighting]

Most likely those who are close enough to help cannot read or post as in talking with my buddy although the phones are working the dsl data portion is not functioning at all as he has backup power, phone service but no internet, he said the cell system keeps going up and down in his area as well, very bad situation up there I feel for all those in the middle of it.

Originally posted by xtm
Sorry to hear about your situation. That would surely ruin anyone's vacation

Have you tried posting in the Seattle forum here in RC? There might be some locals who are willing to swing by your house and help ensure everything's ok.

good luck

[leeweber85]

As long as you keep the water circulating, the fish and coral should live through the low temps and no light.

[KozmoTKramer]

Thanks for all the responses!

Power came back up Sunday late afternoon.

My generator will DEFINATELY need an oil change when i get back. That will be the 2nd thing I do right after a water change.

Tank temp got up to 72 over the evening last night (I had a second heater I use to heat water change water), tonight it is back up to 74 1 off of 75 norm. Everything appear to be fine again and no deaths. Although my skimmer wasn't working for at least one day. The generator decided I needed another extension cord on a new socket, it seems all of a sudden the one socket couldn't handle the entire load.

So my pet sitter will be getting a $200 bonus for sure. She did a great job considering being a newb on tank keeping and generator running. No deaths to report either! Now I can relax and actually sleep at night LOL, last night was one of those half sleep nights the whole time.

Thanks again, I am relatively new to the community and am loving it!

[Phoric]

Glad to hear it turned out ok. I got power back late Saturday night.. I was just about to start a new tank last week but held off only because I was missing 1 piece of my system.. Glad I waited because all that new rock would have been dead by now. I have no generator and it got pretty cold.

[MC Lighting]

Glad everything worked out for you, my friend in Issaqua is still down and they do not expect power at the earliest on Tuesday possibly still till Thursday. One thing is if that outlet was ok running the load before without overheating and now it is not please check it when you do the oil change, I had one of mine on my portable do that and it caught fire, it turned out the wire going into it had corroded and got too hot under load... Just visually inspect everything and make sure that it all looks good and clean as well as no burnt smell.

Originally posted by KozmoTKramer
Thanks for all the responses!

Power came back up Sunday late afternoon.

My generator will DEFINATELY need an oil change when i get back. That will be the 2nd thing I do right after a water change.

Tank temp got up to 72 over the evening last night (I had a second heater I use to heat water change water), tonight it is back up to 74 1 off of 75 norm. Everything appear to be fine again and no deaths. Although my skimmer wasn't working for at least one day. The generator decided I needed another extension cord on a new socket, it seems all of a sudden the one socket couldn't handle the entire load.

So my pet sitter will be getting a $200 bonus for sure. She did a great job considering being a newb on tank keeping and generator running. No deaths to report either! Now I can relax and actually sleep at night LOL, last night was one of those half sleep nights the whole time.

Thanks again, I am relatively new to the community and am loving it!