Help, I may not have Hydro for 5 hours tomorrow...

[papa_dog]

I just got home and my wife showed me a notice from the Hydro company advising that we may have no electricity for up to 5 hours tomorrow due to upgrades being done in the neighbourhood (nice long notice isn't it!).

Some background for my question - I have a 10 month old 120 gallon mixed reef (it's getting there anyway) with a basement sump (about 65 gallons including the refugium).

I do have a battery back-up that I can use to try and keep some sort of power going, but not too much or it won't last long. Obviously the pump for my sump (a Blueline 55) would kill the battery really quickly and keeping the lighting off is likely a good thing till full power resumes. I think the heater is important (although I will likely turn it down to about 75 or so instead of 78). Along with the heater I am thinking about running the two Hydor power heads (a 2 and 3). Since the Hydors only draw a few watts each, should I add a third Powerhead to make up for the 700 gallons per hour that the main pump usually adds (I have an extra Hydor 2) or should I use that power to add a small air pump and stone to ensure that there is enough oxygen in the water?

Any thoughts?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Keith

[Canadian Reefer]

I wouldnt fret over a 5hr stint without power. You wont need your heater your house temp is not that much cooler than your tank and it is a large volume of water so it willl take a long period to cool down. If you want run your koralias although I doubt you will need it. When we had the big black out back a few years I was out of electric for way longer and no worse for the wear. IMHO

[papa_dog]

Originally Posted by Canadian Reefer

I wouldnt fret over a 5hr stint without power. You wont need your heater your house temp is not that much cooler than your tank and it is a large volume of water so it willl take a long period to cool down. If you want run your koralias although I doubt you will need it. When we had the big black out back a few years I was out of electric for way longer and no worse for the wear. IMHO

Thanks for the reassurance. Sounds like I am overreacting to something that is likely going to be a non-issue.

Guess I am just overly concerned - me being such a rookie (it's my try at a salt water tank) and the tank being so young (in reef tank terms) and just starting to really stabilize.

Thanks.

[Katie3G]

I was without power for 22 hours in September. The temperature of the tank went down to 70F. I stirred the tank for a few minutes every hour. In the end I did not suffer any losses (except one coral that was not doing well). Remember, when livestock is shipped it probably sits in a bag for much longer than 5 hours. You might want to cover the tank with a blanket to keep in the heat.

[Sk8r]

Let the temperature drop as far as 70 if it tends to: slower chemistry means slower chemical processes, longer time it can endure. Let all changes happen slowly.

I have a sheltered area of my tank where bubbles won't bother much and I just insert an oldfashioned airhose/bubblewand during outages, with a small airpump running on battery backup. The little pump doesn't draw much power, and I've not lost anything as a result during an 8 hour outage.

[PaxRoma]

my tank has gone 24hrs without power before and there is no damage. I don't use dsb though.

[aleonn]

Five hours isn't bad for a tank your size. Of course it always helps with battery-operated powerheads to aid in circulation.

[seege]

If you're concerned about the outage going past the scheduled time, go rent a generator. I have one myself but if I didn't I would probably rent one for a planned outage as they seem to occasionally run really long here...

-Murphy

[papa_dog]

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions.

This will be the first major power outage since the tank was set up (had a maybe a 5 minute one if that) and as I said above, I'm still a rookie and still have lots to learn.

Thanks Sk8r you always give such great info and suggestions. Maybe what I'll do since I do have the battery pack is to run the two Hydors to keep circulation going and as you said, I wont worry about temperature unless it drops below 70. Thank you, I didn't consider that all the processes would slow as the temperature drops (even though I should have as it is pretty basic science). I do have an air pump and stones, but it's a large double pump that will draw more power than the two Hydors (I generally use it together with an old powerhead when mixing new salt to bring up the PH of the new water).

Think I'll pick up one of the battery powered air pumps next time I am at my LFS just to have on hand in case (winter is coming and if we are going to loose power here for a couple of hours or longer unexpectedly, it is generally a bad winter storm that does it in Toronto).

Murphy, got to admit that one of my worries was that the upgrade will take longer than the 5 hours they've scheduled. There are a couple of Home Depots close by where I can likely rent a generator - but I'll likely wait to go to that extreme until I find out that it'll be longer.

Thanks again everyone I'll try and post tonight or tomorrow to hopefully report no losses.

Keith

[agreeive?fish]

perfect excuse to buy an generator so you always have one on hand

i doubt 5 hours will be an issue but just because the electric co says it will be 5 hours only means 5 hours is the number some pencile pusher came up with and he probably has no practical hands on field experience working on the system so his estimate on paper is only a wild guess and i suspect it could be double or triple the stated time..one little snag in the process can domino effect the whole upgrade process

buy a back up generator if at all possible

[99mstng]

The battery powered air pumps are great . . . I've got a couple on each of my tanks and they are plugged into the wall. When they sense the power goes out the battery kicks in. I think they were only about $20 each.

[Uncle Salty 05]

Originally Posted by agreeive?fish

perfect excuse to buy an generator so you always have one on hand

i doubt 5 hours will be an issue but just because the electric co says it will be 5 hours only means 5 hours is the number some pencile pusher came up with and he probably has no practical hands on field experience working on the system so his estimate on paper is only a wild guess and i suspect it could be double or triple the stated time..one little snag in the process can domino effect the whole upgrade process

buy a back up generator if at all possible

+1

[Sk8r]

Just what I picked up re marine tanks: 62 begins lethality, so you don't want to go that far down; but 70 is territory I've been in before.

Also remember that rock and sand holds the prior temperature for hours and gives up heat more slowly: your fish and retractile corals will shelter in the warm rock as the circulation lets the water chill.

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by agreeive?fish

perfect excuse to buy an generator so you always have one on hand

i doubt 5 hours will be an issue but just because the electric co says it will be 5 hours only means 5 hours is the number some pencile pusher came up with and he probably has no practical hands on field experience working on the system so his estimate on paper is only a wild guess and i suspect it could be double or triple the stated time..one little snag in the process can domino effect the whole upgrade process

buy a back up generator if at all possible

I agree. If not buy one, then rent one. There are few instances where you will have enough notice to rent a generator (usually power goes out and everyone has that same idea). You could honestly get a decent smaller one for around (or even under) $200, which should be plenty to run some heaters and pumps if need be.

[RegalAngel]

Originally Posted by seege

if you're concerned about the outage going past the scheduled time, go rent a generator. I have one myself but if i didn't i would probably rent one for a planned outage as they seem to occasionally run really long here...

-murphy

+1

[papa_dog]

Well, believe it or not, the power outage was almost exactly 5 hours (almost to the minute).

I ended up using the battery pack to power the two Hydors as planned and it lasted about 3 hours. I also covered the tank with a few thick towels to insulate it some. When the power came back on the tank temp was down to 72.3.

It looks like everything did make it, although it took a while for some of the fish to come out of hiding (and I have yet to see my Wheeler Goby and his Pistol Shrimp friend - but it's not the first time I don't see them for a day or two). I think all of the coral opened up and/or extended polyps - most of which looked pretty much their normal selves after a couple of hours of light and once the temperature came back up to and passed 75 degrees. My RBTA had moved down his rock a couple of inches (maybe due to the change in flow?), but by the time the lights turned off this evening it had moved back up to it's normal perch

Thanks again for all of the suggestions and I think I might just keep an eye out for a good deal on a small generator.

[Mylilreef]

personally i would just worry about the koralias. helps keep things stirred up and oxygenated. all your beneficial bacteria can die off quickly if oxygen deprived, thus disrupting the nitrogen cycle. thats my 2¢