Planning ahead paid off this time...

jprince58 · #1 12/12/2007, 02:37 PM

Although we never lost power during last year's ice storm, it scared me enough that I went out and bought the biggest portable generator I could find (and afford). I ended up with a Coleman Powermate 5500 watt unit that has mostly sat quietly in the garage ever since. That is, of course, until the power went out Sunday morning.

Once it was apparent the power wasn't going to come back on, it took Richard and I about 1/2 hour to get it wheeled around back and string some extension cords into the house. A couple quick pulls of the starter cord and my nearly-new generator started paying for itself. In all, we had the tanks, furnaces, fridge, and just about anything else we wanted up and running in no time. We were inconvenienced slightly by not having all the normal household lights and any high-amp/220v appliances, but overall, the whole ice storm event was pretty much a non-event for us.

Perhaps it's a little late, but here are some thoughts I had while running on standby power:

You can never have enough extension cords on standby for this sort of thing. Although I had several, it was quickly apparent that we didn't have enough. I picked up several new cords (of various gauges, as well as three-way splitters) that are going to get boxed up and stored with the generator specifically for this use.
Advance planning pays off. If I hadn't already thought this through, it could have been a total goat-rope. I still had a couple of surprises that slowed down the whole setup operation, though.
Keep the generator where it can be easily accessed. Discovering that your generator is in the far back corner of the garage, behind everything else you own, after the power goes out is not a good thing. Ours was right up front and ready to go. I don't even imagine what it would have been like trying to grope around the dark garage and move everything out of the way first.
Be sure you have enough gasoline on hand to run the generator for several hours. Our generator will run about 12 hours on 5 gallons. I had the tank full and another 8 gallons on hand. It was nice not to have to worry about rounding up gas at the last minute. Fortunately, the local gas stations had power, so it wouldn't have been a biggie for us. It could have just as easily gone the other way, though. Having that much gas gave me more than 24 hours to find more if it had been an issue.
When hooking things up, don't do anything you're not comfortable with or trained to do. I have a LOT of training and experience working with electricity and was able to draw on that to get things running in our house in fairly short order. If you don't know what you're doing, you should stick with the basics and just hook things directly up to extension cords. For most folks, more simple = more better.

Our power has now been on for about 4 hours, DSL came up about an hour ago, and things seem to be back to normal. All that's left is to top off the tank and put the generator away for next time. Oh, and I still need to coil and store about 10 billion feet of extension cord.

For those of you without a generator, I sincerely hope you found a way keep things warm and flowing. Speak up and let everyone know how you fared the storm.

TulsaReefer · #2 12/12/2007, 02:58 PM

Oops, double post, see next post...

TulsaReefer · #3 12/12/2007, 03:03 PM

We were very fortunate in more than one way. Our power went out Monday at around 6:00 a.m., right after we got up and I was getting ready to see if the airport was open and if I would be flying out for a trip this week. Luckily when the power went out the tanks were pretty toasty warm, and I wrapped them in blankets to hold in what heat they had. Then scavenged all the UPS units from my various computers and began to put at least one powerhead on each for a little circulation on each tank (both the 110 and the new 29).

Got a little worried about how long it would be out, so I started to look at my options, as I hadn't really planned that far ahead, last year during the bad weather we didn't have any problems, so I was a bit lax in my preparations. Was able to link my laptop to my cell phone enough to get on the internet and find that Sams Club showed they still had generators available. So I jumped in the car and headed that way. Got there just in time, as they brought the last pallet load of Black Max 5250's out and people began to cart them off. Bought myself an early Christmas present

. Then loaded up on gas, headed to HD to pick up an armload of misc extensions cords and headed back to the homestead.

Got home, to find that the beast I had bought weighed in at about 150lbs, and so the wife and I wrangled it out of the back of the car (they had loaded it for me, so I wasn't aware of the beast I had bought). I'm sure it was comical as we were shouting at each other as we proceeded to drop it on our toes, but we all survived, including the generator. Spend half an hour assembling the misc wheels and such so I could drag it around to the back of the house and fire it up. Luckily the aquariums were doing alright as between the gas fireplace being run at maximum, and the blankets they were only losing heat at about 1 degree every three hours. Got the generator fired up, cords arranged and brought the tanks back online. Had capacity to run everything on the tanks, including the lights, but decided that they could take a break for one day on the lights, and used the extra power to run my other essentials, a coffee pot and microwave (I was hungry!).

Of course since I had a generator I now expected the power to come back on any time, and it did. Right after I got back from loading up on gas to get us throught the night about 6 p.m. that evening, 6 hours after I got home and got the generator up and running the power came back up at our place. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining by any means... And I guess it was worth it, I don't have to worry now about this in the future. I need to look into getting a plug and a transfer switch installed to run the essentials, such as the gas furnace and aquariums, so it would be easier than dragging cords everywhere. And would make it much more usable as now we really don't have a way to power up the furnace otherwise.

All for us ended well, no problems with the tanks at all. And if anyone needs to board some things for a while, I have a 29G frag tank that is empty of fish, and it has space for quite a few corals and fish if someone is in need. PM and we can set up a time to do a transfer. And feel free to pass thing along if you know of anyone else in need who can't get on the Internet.

tpdpercula · #4 12/12/2007, 03:04 PM

My power was out for just about 24 hours thankfully. Took off work to keep an eye on my gas powered fireplace and had 10 battery operated pumps running on all the tanks. Temps got down to around 63 in the tanks but, ALL the fish are eating and none have shown any ill effects as of today. Since Im planning on selling my large tank Im planning on buying a generator for the Fish Room. If it was not for my darn fish/tanks I could SO live in the cold for weeks on end. I have LOTS of insulation!

kittyj · #5 12/12/2007, 03:29 PM

Unfortunately I wasn't prepared at all. Three+ days without power. ALL of my fish and corals are dead. I recently upgraded to T-5s, so within the last month, I've purchased about $350 worth of new coral. Lost fish I've had about 3-4 years and was very attached to. Think I have one hermit crab and one snail left. That's it

Can't decide if I want to replace the livestock or just throw in the towel. If I keep going, I will definitely be buying a generator.

Very sad, and I feel so incredibly irresponsible for not being a better caretaker. Hope I'm a lesson to other reefkeepers. I tried my best - kept the water as warm as I could by floating bags of hot water, did a water change every day, wrapped in blankets, etc. In the end, I never could keep the temperature above 72 degrees, and I'm sure lack of oxygen played a huge role.

Kimberly

sasscuba · #6 12/12/2007, 03:30 PM

We have a 8500 starting watt/5550 running watts ourselves. You should wire it into your fuse panel and you only have to use one cord. No more extension cords. You run a 220 line out of your generator into a 220 plug you install under your box and wire it into it's own circuit breaker. Power goes out you just cut the main breaker coming into the house and now your generator breaker becomes your main. We ran our house heat, all house lights, refrigerator, outside freezer, outdoor christmas lights, outside flood lights for dog, 125 gallon reef tank and a 40 gallon FOWLR. Full tank lights and all equipment on both tanks. Like the power never went out.

No extension cords, period. Takes less than 5 minutes to wheel out of the garage and get the whole house running. We even washed clothes although no dryer...too high of watts to run but we did use the microwave.

We had 19 hours of no power and sporadic power the last 2 days but we are back on now.

sasscuba · #7 12/12/2007, 03:37 PM

You can also pigtail a 3 way out of your furnace if it is gas and use 110 to push the blower motor to have heat if you don't want to wire it into the house panel.

jprince58 · #8 12/12/2007, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sasscuba
... You should wire it into your fuse panel and you only have to use one cord...

Although our setup worked this time, I did come up with several ideas of how to make it better next time. Your solution is at the top of my list of ideas.

Of course, the ultimate zero-effort solution is to installa permanent standby generator with an automatic transfer switch. Power outages were so frequent when I lived in Utah, that I actually considered doing just that. That was before the reef tanks, though, and I just couldn't justify the expense. Fortunately, outages are so rare here, that I think we can get by with a portable system.

TulsaReefer · #9 12/12/2007, 03:48 PM

Sasscuba, any idea how much it would cost to have a transfer switch and such wired in? Probably won't do it this week or anything, I'm sure the electricians have higher priority jobs to be done, but later I think I'll have to get this done. I have basically the same size generator, and it would probably be much smarter to have this done, as well as make it easier on the wife if I'm not here to get it set up. Just wheel it to the side of the house, plug it in, throw the switch, and let it rip.

I've already declared to the wife that the next house we build is just going to have a natural gas backup unit built in, big enough to run the entire house, including air conditioning and everything. With an automatic switchover, so even if we aren't home it will kick in. Just not worth not doing it in the end, as in the price of a new house it's not that much, and it would sure be nice to never have to worry about power ever again. And with natural gas no need to go out and buy fuel. We had a unit like this at a small company I worked with in OKC, and it was really nice. Power would be out and we'd be all unaware that anything happened, except for the 5 seconds or so it took the unit to come on and switch over, and we all had UPS units for that short time.

TulsaReefer · #10 12/12/2007, 03:55 PM

I'm so sorry to hear of your losses. If there is anything I can do, including help stock up your tank with whatever I have that you might be interested in, don't hesitate to ask. I know it really doesn't help make it any easier, but my frags are your frags...

Quote:

Originally posted by kittyj
Unfortunately I wasn't prepared at all. Three+ days without power. ALL of my fish and corals are dead. I recently upgraded to T-5s, so within the last month, I've purchased about $350 worth of new coral. Lost fish I've had about 3-4 years and was very attached to. Think I have one hermit crab and one snail left. That's it

Can't decide if I want to replace the livestock or just throw in the towel. If I keep going, I will definitely be buying a generator.

Very sad, and I feel so incredibly irresponsible for not being a better caretaker. Hope I'm a lesson to other reefkeepers. I tried my best - kept the water as warm as I could by floating bags of hot water, did a water change every day, wrapped in blankets, etc. In the end, I never could keep the temperature above 72 degrees, and I'm sure lack of oxygen played a huge role.

Kimberly

kittyj · #11 12/13/2007, 11:59 AM

Lee, that is so kind of you. Thank you.

ReeferKeith · #12 12/13/2007, 01:24 PM

Power is still out at my place. Its been out since 3 AM Monday morning. Thankfully I was prepared with my cheap Chinese made 1000 watter. So far so go as I have not had any casualties. Hopefully they have me running soon.

SoonerReefer · #13 12/13/2007, 01:57 PM

We are back online now,what an ordeal! I finallly found a Generator Monday morning and I got one of the 3 left on the shelf at Sutherlands.Everything in my tank made it just fine,John and Kerry have some of their corals at my house but they lost their fish and a few more corals at home.
I think after all this is over we need to find out who lost what and help those who have lost Fish and corals both.This weather has put the hurt on alot of folks with tanks and being so close to Xmas makes it tough.

Donny
OMAS

TulsaReefer · #14 12/13/2007, 02:21 PM

I agree Donny, anything I have I'll be happy to share with anyone who took losses. I hate to see people get discouraged with the hobby and leave it. And the financial strain at this time of the year can be something I'd hate to see someone have to deal with.

As a club we may want to put together a list of emergency contacts, listing those who have backup power available, and/or even a phone tree for distributing information on who has power and who may not to help out those without. Hopefully this never happens again, but the way things work if we are all prepared it probably won't. I could have helped a few people as well, but it's hard to get the communication out when the city goes dark like it did. We get so used to communicating online, it's hard to know where to start otherwise.

mskohl · #15 12/13/2007, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sasscuba
We ran our house heat, all house lights, refrigerator, outside freezer, outdoor christmas lights, outside flood lights for dog, 125 gallon reef tank and a 40 gallon FOWLR. Full tank lights and all equipment on both tanks. Like the power never went out.

I bet your neighbors hated you. Christmas lights!?!?!?!

We had power restored last night and cable tv and modem back today. My house and tanks went 12 hours without power before my husband got home from OKC with a generator. Thank God we have one now. It really has saved my tanks. I only lost a few corals. We were running the blower on our gas heater and the tanks. After the first day, we went ahead and connected the tv and dvd player because my kids were going insane and I was quite tired of playing Battleship.
lol

I think Tulsa and NE Oklahoma got hit much harder than anyone expected. Last news I saw, they were predicting it was going to stay around central OK. Not so much....

I'm not looking forward to 6" of snow. If we hadn't had this ice, then it might have been fun, but the snow is just going to slow progress on restoring power.

sasscuba · #16 12/13/2007, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mskohl
I bet your neighbors hated you. Christmas lights!?!?!?!

It ran them but yes I did shut them off. It did not feel right. Now that the neighborhood is back on everyone has them on so on ours went too.

GLD · #17 12/14/2007, 09:16 AM

KittyJ,

Sorry to hear about your total loss of tank critters and corals. I will be glad to give you some frags out of my tank so that you can begin again !

Hugs,
George

jprince58 · #18 12/14/2007, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by kittyj
Unfortunately I wasn't prepared at all...

Oh man, I'm so sorry to hear that, Kimberly!! Richard and I will toss our offer out there with the rest of the folks. We don't have too much other than zoanthids that are frag-worthy, but we'll gladly provide some starters to help get you going again.

jjmcat · #19 12/14/2007, 11:17 PM

I was lucky to have the oddballs family house some of my corals.I am in the process of draining the tank now.Time for a fresh start on the tank.I am now looking at some positives in all this and came up with one.NEW AQUASCAPEING!I have 6 large gel celled batteries that I thought were fully charged but they weren't.My main problem was keeping the temperature up and failed.I tried shrink wrap and large hand warmers in ziplock bags but I could only keep it at 55.

GLD · #20 12/15/2007, 10:29 AM

Jarrod,

HUGE BUMMER. Just like my offer to Kimberly, let me know when you want some start-up frags!

Maybe OMAS needs to organize a bulk discount purchase of generators for next year !!

SoonerReefer · #21 12/15/2007, 11:34 AM

I think OMAS should purchase a few extra Tanks to house corals and fish should this happen again.I will be keeping my 40 and 55 around just for things like this,I think it would be easier too if we had a list of who has a Generator and the tank room to help those who cant afford either.
I kept both John and Kerry and Guys stuff at my house during the power outage and once we get our other 75 up I will have plenty more room for stuff if this ever comes up...

Donny
OMAS

TheMcs · #22 12/15/2007, 02:19 PM

We lost power Monday morning 2AM. I was at HD at 5:30AM along with 12 other people. No generators there or anywhere else in the district. Went to BA Lowes, nothing there either. Guy let me know there were 5 in Muskogee and 100 in Ponca City. Had them call Muskogee for me and hold one. Got out there along with 4 other people from Tulsa. Only ones they had left were the B&S 5000w. Ran 2 encased oil space heaters (fish room & dog room), 400w heater, Hammerhead pump, fridge, and fuge lights. 5 gallons lasted about 9 hours.
Power came back on at about 7PM last night. 5 1/2 days with no power. Tank got down to 62 one morning when the breaker flipped on the generator. Not sure when (we were at my parent's). I was amazed at the AquaMedic heater. Ambient room temp was 55 or less most of the week, it kept the tank at 67-68, including the recovery from 62. At 4/5w per gallon it beat room temp by 13 degrees.
For the most part nothing looked stressed. Lost a couple small corals yesterday before power came back on. I won't complain about that small loss. My fathead anthias was loving life (deepwater fish).
Tank is up to 73.7 about now. Thank God for that generator. I'm sorry for those that lost animals.

I'm with you other guys, before this happens again I'm going to figure out how to power the furnace.

One huge thing I'll remember next time is to place a note and my phone number on the generator. Fortunately my neighbor was home yesterday when PSO came to fix our street up. He was able to tell them we were isolated from the electrical system. They still disconnected us at the box until everything was done. The supervisor said he wasn't going to have anything to do with turning off our generator when my neighbor told him about the reef system hooked up to it. Neighbor had my wife's cell # (phone was dead) but not mine. Would have saved the workers some time & worry had I thought of that ahead of time.

gm333 · #23 12/15/2007, 02:49 PM

First of all I would like to say Sorry to hear all of the losses.
I was lucky to have a generator on hand when my power went out Sunday at 8:00. Unfrotunatly it was a smaller generator and would only run my returns and heaters in both the 135 and nano tank, and a ceramic heater for the room. Both my tanks are in the Den so I closed off the den with blankets. I had to unplug the heaters to run the Vho's and t-5's on the tanks for about 4 hrs before the temp started getting to low. Only ncirculation was the returns. So far I have only lost one acro. Other than that I am lucky.
I finally got power back on about an hour ago. My neighbors have had power since yesterday morning, but I was one of the unfortunate ones who had the meter box ripped off the house. Luckily some family friends own an electrical company and was able to get out there this morning to hook my power back up.
I am also willing to donate for the frag program. I will have to make a list to see what I will have available.

charmander59 · #24 12/17/2007, 11:54 PM

We lost power for a week. Got a generator on Tuesday for the house, but lost most of the corals and all of the fish both at home & at school. I was able to take a few corals and my 2 seahorses to PetStop in Owasso on Thursday. Luckily, most of them are still alive. The seahorse tank is testing fine, so I'm hoping to get them back in a couple of days.

sarai826 · #25 12/18/2007, 06:25 PM

It's Tuesday evening and I'm still out of power, myself.

I thought I was prepared with a brand new generator (a Honda)... but it didn't work, and the dealership still hasn't come through on any warranty. I'm finally running with a good generator now, but I lost several fish (yellow bellied tang, black spot angel, mandrian, purple pseudochromis) and quite a few corals, including my entire set of mag float experiment corals before I got consistent power back to the tank... the tank got down to 63 at the worst of it, despite wrapping and hot-water-bags.

The moral of my story: Check your generator frequently to make sure it works, and have a backup available if you can. I'm also rapidly becoming a fan of the idea of having a backup natural gas system installed...

My condolences to everyone who lost their tanks... and you're welcome to frags of what's left in my tank as well.