NYC Damages

[houseofha]

Looking to start an ongoing string for those people in the NYC regions who lost power. I myself didn't lose aything (yet - knock knock) but thought it would be nice to offer some help to those who might have or may have an interesting story to tell.

Moderators, if you could make this one of the first strings in this forum, that would be appreciated - some people may need to buy some stuff fast due to losses, etc. I yself spent much time stirring my tank because a good generator was $1000.

Thanks,

HoH

[Pseudo Boy]

Lost all 8 fish and half of my corals. total $6000 plus.

I guess I don't need to pack heavily on my next trip...

Pseudo

[occb2]

Psudo. I'm sorry to hear that. I myself lost one, or better yet, 3/4 of a arco. I thought it would have been worst, but it wasn't. Psudo if you need any frags to get you started again I have a bunch. Later,
Rob

[Dopler125]

Hey guys..hows the tanks goin..man with the strike looming all the rain and now the black out,I havent been around except to sleep.Rob Hows the new tank?..Jim hows yours?...I lost the brown acro frags yesterday..sux..everything else seems to be ok..i havent seen my cleaner shrimp in 2 days though.I think what saved me was a battery air pump...man when those acros go they go fast.Rob i'll catch up with you for a few frags...Jim gimmie a shout when you get a chance..Blah i lost a video card in the black out too..sheezzzz

Nick

[houseofha]

Rob,

Nick, I am hanging in there - no losses just yet - all tangs have ich though from me going in there and stirring up the tank - will see in a few days who survives, for now I have the UV sterilizer running 24 hours and hope this will take the edge off the parasites. I also did a major water change today - so, we'll see what happens.

Finally got the dual 96's installed this week, so, that's a good thing.

ANyhow, keep it real and hope everyone does OK with this blackout.

Jim

[cb747]

I lost a yellow tang--sailfin tang---firefish---batfish---1 cleaner shrimp--an emerald crab and so far all the softies look ok. Had a battery operated airpump that when i put it in the tank it made noise and no air came out. Ill be playing football with that later LOL Now in hindsight im going to be buying a bilge pump for the future. They work off of a car battery and had i had it i would have suffered no losses i dont think I wonder if it will be at all possible to submit some kind of claim to our utility provider? I have all my casualties in the freezer just in case!

[krish]

folks,
sorry to hear the losses.
Here is what i would suggest.
Costco has a 1000W inverter for 68 bucks.
Get a few car batteries and wire it to this
inverter.
Have a couple of power heads and may be an airpump
in the tank.
Leave the stuff hooked up to the inverter and make this
kick in during the outage.
I would make sure that no more than 50W drain on
the inverter by the pumps. This should keep it going
for about say 20 hours.
If the pumps are on timers, they will go longer.

At least that is my plan. I am plumbing the closed loop
with a Mag7, which from the manufaturers spec is to
draw 70W. Need to run some tests or send it back
to the store.

Now, i would not be able to do much in winter, when the
heaters are required. A generator is the solution and
comes with a new bundle of logistic issues.

good luck to you all.

-krish

[Rebels23]

So far I have lost a ton of mysis shrimp and pods and a cleaner shrimp. Keeping my fingers crossed for the coral.

Rebels23

[zhangg3]

guys, might want to check out CompUSA. They have a Belkin 1200 va UPS for sale for $100. I just went out and bought one.

[vic8361]

Sad to hear of the losses.

Hi Nick glad to hear you had one of those air pumps on hand. Big life saver for such a small price. I've been hitting myself on the head for not having one. Going to order a few soon. A few guys I know saved there tank the same way. . If that brown frag you was holding for me died I'll still give you the money for not picking it up on time. Talk to you soon buddy.


Jim sorry I haven't been in touch I am glad all is well with the tank. The rock work looks awsome keep up the good work. I have a small piece of blasto for you on the sand.


Well hears my story. I got home about 5:15 pm and started to aerated the water by taking a two quart pot of water out of the tank and pouring it back in 20 times every 15 to 30 min's. All seemed to be fine. By three in the morning I was tired and laid down for a moment. Sure enough I fell a sleep. My wife woke me up about 5:30 and told me to check the tank. Being so groggy I took the pot and did the same and laid down again thinking every thing was all right. 10 mins later my son yells papi the fish are dying after he was checking the tank out with a flash light. My bycolor dotty back was dead and my to damsels where upside down panting for air. All my other fish where gasping for air as well. I started to really work the pot and my son took a big cup and started to help me. After five mins of work the damsels swam away and the fish seem to be breathing better though still very stressed out. After that I thoght about moving my magnet back and forth and that really moved the surfice of the water a great deal. So I kept on with pot and mag until the lights came back on at 7am. Thank God all I lost was the bicolor and my midas blenny still a big lost though.
One good thing that happend my coralbanded shrimp was out in the open when the lights came back on. Believe it was still in shock and wouldn't move. I netted it and got it out. Haven't been able to keep any peperment shrimp due to the coralbanded shrimp killing them. I had three pepps in my other tank and swaped them with the coralbanded shrimp. I am so happy I was able to get it out. I was getting to manny aptasias to control them with Kalk injections. so a good thing came out of this terible disaster. Priase God
I wanted to thank God for my family who was there for me and my tank. If it wasn't for them I believe I would of lost most of my fish.

Vic

[gregmoeck]

I came home from a dive trip to the Cayman Islands 2 years only to find my tank a smelly dead swamp. I lost everything including the rock and sand. I had a great tank, tons of SPS and it was thriving big time. Stupid girl friend who was in charge of watching the tank didnt do anything when the pump stopped.

I had better success this year. I went to Japan for 2 weeks, came home and my tank was fine.

[glipper69]

I guess I had a little intuition. the second the power went out I got up threw on my hat and ran to the nearest LFS. Fish town USA.
They where in the process of shutting down. I begged them to let me purchase there only battery operated AIR PUMP. and after going to 4 stores I was able to find some batteries. Well I am happy to say, it worked I lost nothing. all fish and corals cross my fingers are doing just great. That was the best 13 dollar investment ever.

I hope all of you recover form your losses. I wish you the best.

psuedo sorry to hear about the losses. thats a tough one

Frank

[Dopler125]

Vic
I got your messages,but its been to late to call by the time i've been getting in.I'll call you tomorow if i dont get called out...Well I lost my fox faced rabbit fish and my cleaner shrimp.I havent seen them since yesterday,and just now i found the fox face.What a bummer...I think i'm going to invest in one of those inverters that run off the car...

[dieselfish]

Our power was out for 16 hours. I did nothing and lost nothing. I don't understand why so many people lost so much. I didn't even put a air pump in.

[Dopler125]

My tank temp got up to 86.I think thats what did my acros in.Things are looking back to normal tonight

[houseofha]

Man-o-man. sprry thear about everyones losses.

I had a friend ho has a 75 asnd lives in washington heights - he did nothing for 20 hours and only lost an arabian psuedochromis, don't get it either, just dumb luck I gues.

Keep the stories coming and maybe soe guys/gals here will offer up some stuff.

HoH

[wakeboarder2342]

Hey pseudoboy, perhaps the supreme reef god is punishing you for ripping azonic off with the whole sump thing. to the rest of you sorry about your losses,, id get a UPS or a good inverter, 1 powerhead makes up for alot of water dumping or stiring!!!

[occb2]

Another person with no post dumping on Pseudo Boy. I've heard nothing but GREAT things about Pseudo and one person, who to me sounded like they were trying to get something for free, shouldn't destroy the rep. of someone like Pseudo Boy. Plus this is a thread for what people lost, not bashing. Later,
Rob

[houseofha]

No need to do that here, not to mention, noone asked for your response - especially since it didn't happen to you - or do the right thing and post your disatisfaction in the buyer/seller forum.

HoH

[glipper69]

krish

how would you set up the inverter to kick in when the power goes out?

just curious, how it works since I am considering your inverter idea

thanks,
Frank

[grevedin]

Lost:

13 fish - only one ocellaris clown survived
All my Acros (including a 13" X 11" acropora mirothtalma)
All Pocilliporas
Most Montipora's
All Shrimp
1 huge bright green carpet anemone

Still deciding on next steps: whether to go softy only; FOWLR; or take a break from the hobby all together.

[grevedin]

jamesbburgess

The last thing people want after what has happened, is someone like you coming along and bashing another reefer.

I can only recommend that you keep quiet and be glad the same didn't happen to you.

[Pseudo Boy]

Hi Grevedin,

Sorry to hear about you too losing stuff. Don't worry about the bashing. I am getting used to it now. He is going by what is in the feedback forum and that does not concern me. I said what I wanted in order to help Azonic and I got the runaround. It was never about the money. I am not even mad at him. I am just not ready to settle for what he is willing to give me to justify his case. When he does, it will be all over.

People know me and what I am about and that is what really matters to me. I don't yell at people or get bent out of shape for what other people say or do.

In the case of your tank. What you should do is protect your investment. Keeping softies won't matter when the power goes out. I have friends that lost all of their leathers and such after the blackout also. I placed UPS units on my tank after the Blackout (too late). I love SPS reefs so I won't stop buying them because of what I lost or what I might lose. Just go for it. I have had setbacks before and kept on going. That is what makes this a great hobby (albiet and expensive one).

Later,

Pseudo

[dieselfish]

Scratch my last post.

Just reported missing; 1 Cherub angelfish

If anyone has any Information on its whereabouts please post.

[krish]

glipper69,
Here is what i have in mind.
a) purchase the 1000W inverter 70 bucks from Costco.
b) Purchase a couple of car batteries. The larger the
amp hour, the better.
c) purchase those huge cables that you find to jump
start or something in those lines that can handle the
total current.
d) Hook up both the batteries in parallel. Make sure the
positive is connected to positive of each and the
negative to the negative of each. This is important.

e) Hookup up the inverter to the battery.
f) The inverter has 2 110V output sockets. Now hookup
your powerheads and or airpump to this.

Now you need to purchase a good relay whose contacts
can handle say 100 amps or even better say 150 amps
at 12V. These are available.

The relay has a coil that needs to be powered. The coil
voltages may typically be say 12V or 24V or even 110V.

If the coil is 110V, i would plug it into an electrical outlet
directly.

If the coil is rated for 12V or 24V, you need to purchase
an adapter that will provide you the 12 or 24V DC at the
specified amperage.

Now, the idea is this. When there is no power interruption,
the relay will be engaged all the time. When there is an
outage, the relay will disengage.

The relay has contacts that make or break the electrical
circuit. I would go with a single pole type relay.

I would connect the ground terminal of the
battery directly to the inverter.
I would connect the positive terminal of the battery to
the relay and the inverter to the relay.

So when there is no outage, the relay is magnetized and
the contact(between inverter & battery) is broken.

When there is an outage, the relay is de-magnetized and
the contact is established, thus powering the powerheads
and pumps.

Now as far as parts go,
Here is http://www.jameco.com is one supplier.
I have their catalog and i see there are a number of
AC/DC table top power supplies, that can be purchased to
power a relay.

The potter & Brumfield type relays have contact ratings of
40Amps at 14VDC. You might have to use about 3 of these
relays in parallel to achieve 1000W DC power or there are
a bunch of DC/AC solid state relays that can handle 280V at
75Amps AC and costs 37 bucks.

I would place the relay between the battery and the inverter
because the inverter does not need to be energized by the
batteries when not needed.

Now to charge the batteries, i would purchase one of those
trickle chargers that has overcharge protection built in. You
can just hook this up to the batteries and leave it alone. You
can find these in most stores at the auto section. You can
even set these chargers on timers, so that they come on
and charge the batteries periodically. The choice is open.

These are some ideas that i plan on. But of course, one need
to do the soldering around and is easy to learn.

I checked the 1000VA computer UPS. It comes in a nice package
and costs 100 bucks. But the battery is built into it and will
not pack the power that a standalone car battery or batteries
can provide. Moreover, the battery in the UPS might need
replacement. I am not sure how easy that is.

I am sure that others might have better ideas.

-krish