How do you protect your tank in power outages?

[eengmd]

One of the reasons I got out of reefkeeping way back before Duncans and Acns were around was a 3 day power outage. There was a bad storm in Memphis one summer with tremendous wind damage. we lost our power for three days. I thought I was smart manually stirring the water, floating ice to prevent high temps, changing water, ect. Then the power came on and I was not smart enough to keep the sump clean and that water had become stagnant. In hours after the power outage floating were my puprple tang, LN butterfly, clownfish, ad hawkfish. Several days later my SPS became white. My polyps and MR and a few other SPS survived.

This time around I have started a nano and I am looking for a recommendation for a generator or battery power pump and heater or anything to help keep my nano going in case of a power outage. I live on a mountain in the Roanoke Valley area in Virginia and it is not uncommon for ice to weigh down limbs thus crashing onto power lines leaving us out of power for several days. Last year we got lucky and was out of one half day but several neighborhoods down were out for four.

Any suggestions on a 1000 watt or lower generator or other ideas? If I should get a generator what features are a must?

[noboddi]

Get a thermal camping blanket to wrap around your tank. Get some battery powered air pumps for water movement, or a vortech with the battery backup option, and get some heat packs. Wrap the heat packs in saran wrap, seal them in a zip lock bag, and float them in your tank

works better then you would think

[Iamaxxer]

Why buy a small generator? We live up here in Iowa 2 years ago I lost power for 5 days in Feb.
I bought a 5600watt Generator. I could power my furnace, well, fridge, and lights. Yes keeping the tank going is a must but so is trying to stay comfortable on a extended outage.. and a 1000 watts won't do that...

[typhoonreef]

I live in Florida ,my power was out in 2004 for 5 days due to hurricanes,it also goes out constantly due to daily thunderstorm.Go get yourself a honda eu2000,there small and quiet and always dependable,you will pay about a grand for it ,but you cant go wrong with honda quality.I run my 150 gal tank,refrigerator,and big screen tv with it when needed, no problem.Yes, you can get other brands cheaper at Home depot with more wattage,the main difference is dependability and extreme noise.I have both kinds and nothing compares to the honda.They probably make a 1000 watt also.In any case;any generator is better than none,and mandatory in this obbsession. Good luck.

[Flipper62]

I have all of my tanks plugged into APC battery backups like you have for computers. I use 2 or 3 depending on the size of the tank....Lights & pumps on one....heater & chiller on another. This will keep everything running for about 6 to 8 hours.

As far as a few days....your best bet is to get a generator. You can get a Gererac 10,000 watt from Home Depot for $1000.00. You can run your entire home on that much. Ya...that seems like a lot of money, but how much money do you have invested in the tank.

You can also get smaller generators cheeper but at lower wattage & will be limited to what you can run.

[iamwrasseman]

generator will do the trick ,just remember to always have a few days worth of fuel on hand because when your power is out so are the gas stations most often .figure out how and what you are going to power up and have a plan as far as power cords or running it through your breaker box .have your stuff labled so its easy to identify when this happens ,you will be in a panic and thats not a time to be figuring everything out !if you have a small generator remember that your refridgerater only needs power every two hours for about ten to fifteen minutes also . if you have everything hooked up and it comes on it will usually pop the breaker so unhook and hook it up with the other stuff off .and remember have fun ,life is an adventure !

[iamwrasseman]

yup hondas are great i have one . another thing you may have to warm up your generater with a plumbers soldering torch if its real cold ,the oil gets pretty thick and its difficult to start when its near 0 degrees out . wark up the bottom of the motor ,it will take ten or fifteen minutes to do it so be patient and careful there is gas nearby also .

[Flipper62]

Originally posted by iamwrasseman
yup hondas are great i have one . another thing you may have to warm up your generater with a plumbers soldering torch if its real cold ,the oil gets pretty thick and its difficult to start when its near 0 degrees out . wark up the bottom of the motor ,it will take ten or fifteen minutes to do it so be patient and careful there is gas nearby also .

Plus 1 on the Honda Generators. I'm lucky, for my business I have 7 Honda generators. I have them to run our mobile shops. I also have 1 just to run my home.

I also have dedicated outlets in every room.... for the refridg, TV, lights....ect. Then all of the outlets run to a breaker box & then to the outside of the house to a 30 amp twist plug. If there is a power outage for more then 6 or so hours, I just unplug the plugs from the normal AC plug & plug it into the aux outlet. Then go outside....Fire up the generator & plug the cords into the aux electric box . Everything is then up & running off of the generator

Our next home will have a Natural Gas electric back up. No need for a generator. Faster then a blink of an eye, the second the AC goes out the gas unit kicks in, you dont even see a light blink. When the AC comes back on, the Gas backup kicks off. This is really good when your on vaction.

.

[just dave]

[snorvich]

I have a generator. Keeps my tanks, refrigerator, water, and heat going.

[aquaman67]

Here's a good article written by Richard Durso (inventor of the Durso standpipe) about disaster planning. It's worth a read.

http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug2002/feature.htm

Here's the air pump I use.

http://www.petsolutions.com/Silent-...129045+C10.aspx

Some other things about those pumps. I'd go to Wal-Mart and get some airline tubing. The tube that comes with it is useless (It's like a foot long) and an air stone.

I also got a 6 pack of D batteries and keep them in the fridge to keep them fresh. I change the batteries when I set the clocks forward or backward like the smoke detector and CO2 alarm.

Also most important. When you hook up your pump, unplug it to make sure it comes on. There is an on/off switch on the side of the pump. If the switch is off the pump will not come on when the power goes out...check it!

I have a generator and 20 gallons of gas.

For a nano you might be able to use a computer battery back up to run the heater and a power head.

[devgru]

I too live in Florida like typhoonreef.I am fortunate to have purchased a surplus military generator for 1000.00,its 17,000watts.read it again 17,000,not 1,700.

after hurricane charley(my birthday of all days) it powered our then 3/2,our landlords 3/2 behind us,and our neighbors 3/2(no CHA) with no problems at all