Power Outages = HELL

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ashleysomething

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 14, 2008
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Maryland
Our power failed today for several hours. Our tanks are in transition right now, as we cycle up one of our new 623-gallon tanks.

Everyone pulled through (and they are still happily looking for food, the ammonia on the tanks still reads 0ppm!) and all looks well.

If you don't have a good plan set up for the rays in your care, get one. Even if your tanks are getting moved around, have at least some battery-powered aeration stones, at the very least.

After long hours of keeping the media wet with tank water and blowing in tubes, we are going to get an emergency system up that should run our stuff for about 4 hours. We are going to get battery backups (the biggest available for computers) to run sponge filters, but we are also considering purchasing a generator. Anyone have any experience with this?
 
just a thought, you could buy an APC computer backup battery and plug your power strip into it. It would get you through another power outtage and its cheaper than buying another ray
 
Generator. Got a used one never regretted it . All the tanks are on power strips so its just a matter of hooking the strips up to extension cords. And unplugging all the power but the heat and the filters.
 
swede;3183876; said:
just a thought, you could buy an APC computer backup battery and plug your power strip into it. It would get you through another power outtage and its cheaper than buying another ray
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That's what we are thinking; probably get a couple of those, at least until we move into a house and can get a generator set up.

tcarswell;3183890; said:
Generator. Got a used one never regretted it . All the tanks are on power strips so its just a matter of hooking the strips up to extension cords. And unplugging all the power but the heat and the filters.
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What kind of generator did you get? A gasoline powered one?
 
Did you guys get huge hail too?
It was crazy here.

Depending on the number of tanks you have, it might be smart to invest in both the APC and the generator. Unless its a BIG generator.

Also those little battery powered air pumps might be good too. They don't seem like much, but one per tank could keep the water oxygenated and your BB alive.
 
gobucks1;3183940; said:
Did you guys get huge hail too?
It was crazy here.

Depending on the number of tanks you have, it might be smart to invest in both the APC and the generator. Unless its a BIG generator.

Also those little battery powered air pumps might be good too. They don't seem like much, but one per tank could keep the water oxygenated and your BB alive.
Click to expand...

I faintly remember waking up to a bit of hail, but it wasn’t bad. The storm itself threw power lines around, knocked down trees, etc. It was like a severe thunderstorm, and it sucked.

I am thinking about having an APC to automatically kick in; maybe if we use one that is big enough we could get about 4 hours out of it. That should be enough, but maybe a small gas generator would be a good idea, if we can get a good deal on one.
 
i like the idea of having both if you could afford it... i mean, that way, if you are not home when the outage begins, at least the APC will be powering the tanks. then when you get home you could plug the APC into the generator, at which point, so long as the generator is sufficient (or at least close to sufficient) you could go for even a long period of time with no power in the lines
 
My power could go out for 3 weeks and nothing would die. The softcorals would lose color other then that nothing would change. And the Monster freshwater fish i have would be pissed bc i would stop feeding them


so whats the deal>? you really think when the power goes out for a few hours your fish will die get a grip on reality i mean serouisly what kind of unstable tank are you building that would kill its inhabitants if your power blows for a few days
 
Amen on the generator. After a long power loss due to Katrina, I installed a 15KW Generac nat'l gas fed emergency generator. The system tests itself every week. In a power failure, it kicks on and reaches full power in 7 seconds. It runs the whole hatchery as if nothing is wrong. Beats the hell out of hand aerating 125 tanks.
We're installing a smaller (12KW) unit to run the house and do away with running extention cords to the hatchery to keep the fridges and freezer going.
 
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