What a tough weekend! Tornadoes

aquaman222 · #1 04/10/2006, 11:10 AM

Well if you have been watching the news, my home town of Gallatin, TN got bombed this weekend by what looks to be an F4 tornadoe. I lucked out and only lost power and had no damage to anything. Hundreds of homes were leveled.

Just a little hint about generators though.

I picked up one on Friday night. It would run 1850 watts. This was only enough to power the fridge, a small 13 inch tv, one 20 watt lamp and my Iwaki system pump.

I would recommend going larger if you are ever in need of a generator.

I got power back Sunday afternoon and all was well, but if it had gone the projected week without power then heating and lighting would have become a factor.

I tried on several occasions to power my lighting system to no avail.

Icecap ballasts will shutoff on generators because it sends some pulses on the current from time to time and the Icecap is pretty sensitive to this stuff.

Also my metal halide ballasts are magnetic and it take a strong initial surge to power up the lights.

I did manage to finally get two 250 watt halides running.

(I sacrificed the fridge for the tank for three hours)

Plus the halides help to solve the heating issue.

Fun time and I know some of our Gulf Coast reefers are gearing up for another hurricane season. Good Luck.

jjirsa78 · #2 04/10/2006, 12:57 PM

Many of us in the computer field have spent a lot of money on 'uninterruptible power supplies' (UPS) - they do contain batteries that will run a halide system or pumps for perhaps an hour, but more importantly, many of them will condition power sources to prevent spikes (dirty power from generator -> UPS battery; clean UPS battery -> lighting system).

aquaman222 · #3 04/10/2006, 01:05 PM

Good idea! I may need to pick one of those up. I hope I never have to use one again.

redawg · #4 04/10/2006, 02:07 PM

i remeber reading somewhere on RC here about ups's not being good for pumps because of something with the wave of the current.. maybe someone can shed a little more light on this.. it's been awhile since i've seen it

jjirsa78 · #5 04/10/2006, 02:57 PM

I can see potential problems with some draws, but in general, it should be fine. I just googled and found a few recommendations on wetwebmedia, too, so I'm inclined to think that any problems are going to be localized to a specific brand or setup - perhaps some motor driven pumps don't behave, I'm not sure. It's easy to test, in any case - you'll know relatively quickly if it's going to work or not. I'd probably avoid using it with any sort of wavemaker controlled pump - don't need the on/off draw on battery power.

shawnaus17 · #6 04/10/2006, 05:39 PM

I live within 30mins of all the damage in Arkansas and we were driving home with they hit.

CeeGee · #7 04/10/2006, 06:16 PM

I live right down the road from you aquaman222. Did you lose anything in your tank?

We should hook up sometime so you can see my lame tank.

jay24k · #8 04/10/2006, 06:58 PM

I have a 3000 watt generator I got for free. If I get another it will be a huge one. I want one that is 15000 plus built in so I can manually flip it.

aquaman222 · #9 04/12/2006, 09:18 AM

I did not lose anything at all. I just kept the main pump going and power did return on Sunday afternoon. I can't understand how people who live in hurricane areas would ever invest in a nice tank. Too much risk.