Reef tragedy...BUY A GENERATOR!!!!!

[lilmiss40]

I am devestated after losing all but two of my fish last night in a power outage due to a line down from a falling tree. If I would have had a small generator the tragedy could have been prevented! It didn't help that I work nights and worked a thirteen hour shift due to the time change. If I would have been home I would have know that my fish were in trouble and could have borrowed a friends generator. I have had power outs in the past, even overnights, but thinking back they were always in the summer (when it's warm in Michigan). I covered the tank up with several comforters to keep the temp up (which is recommended), its always worked in the past. When I got home in the morning the first thing I did was go check on my fish. I lifited the covering and found my huge royal tang lying on the bottom, along with my naso tang, yellow tang, cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimp, bleenie, coral beauty and one of my clown fish all dead. My mandarian goby was taking its last breath and one clown fish was at the top trying to hang on.
I cried my eyes out, threw up and cried some more. The water temperature had plummeted to 60 degrees. I don't know if this alone was responsible for the deaths or if lack of circulation did it. I'm thinking it was the cold, they have been without the circulation of water during the summer outages without problems. My crying woke my husband who immediatley went to his friends to get a generator. After the pumps and lights came on the clown fish and lunare wrasse that were left immediatley began to look more lively. My sandsifting stars and brittle stars did not look alive but after the power came on they started moving. My pulsing xenias were flaccid along with my kenya trees. Most of the other corals looked ok and the derusa clam and scallop are fine. Once the temperature started to rise all
the corals looked better except the kenya trees, I may still lose those. My sons 30 gallon tank faired better being upstairs where it stayed a little warmer. (Temperature again) Please forgive my rambling, the moral to the story, BUY A SMALL BACK UP GENERATOR FOR THE PUMP AND THE HEATER!!! It will definetely save you a lot of heartache and you will be saving money and lives in the long run!!!!!

[TippyToeX]

So sorry for your loss

A lesson for all other reefers to learn. We put so much money, time, and often love into our tanks. A generator is such a worthwhile investment to protect it.

[Reefmaniac1]

This was in 180g reef? I don't see the temp falling that quickly in a tank that size...even over a 13 hour period: That just seems like too much tank volume to change temp that rapidly. But hey, I wasn't there so I'm not saying that it didn't happen...just seems strange, that's all.

[astro2724]

I live in sunny florida(well not this year)anyhow.When I lost power from the hurricanes I used a deep cycle battery and a 400 watt inverter.I did not run the lights though.My power was out for almost a week and my only loss was two frogspawn corals that where kinda small to begin with.My point is generaters can be very expensive.For about $150 dollars you can run your basic pumps for days.Most corals will do fine for a week or maybe two depending on type without light.But cut off circulation and its over.Also a battery back up for a computer is a great idea for your pumps.Hope this helps for next time.Hope you get back up and running soon.

[Psyire]

LilMiss, sorry for loss. That would suck something terrible.

Astro, can you elaborate on the deep cycle battery & 400w inverter setup?

[lilmiss40]

Amy Thanks for your support.

Reefmaniac1 My tank is set up in the basement of a tri-level so it's always a little chilly down there anyway. The temperature outside that night was 40 to 45 degrees. It was about 55 degrees in the house, a nice day to sleep if I haden't been so upset. Back to work now on 3 hours of sleep is a little rough. Anyway, I was really surprised that it dropped that much also, especially with the comforters to hold the heat in, which I placed immediatley. Sometimes I hate Michigan weather.

Astro2724 Where would I find an inverter and a deep cycle battery? Would they also run a heater? Florida stays much warmer year round than Michigan so I need something to keep the tank warm if this should happen again. Thanks for the info!

[jjmg]

Like Astro, I also used a battery (my trucks) and an inverter to keep my three tanks alive after Ivan.

It's a very basic setup, an auto battery (or a deep cycle marine batt) and an inverter that can be bought at WalMart (auto dept near the batteries) for around $50. The inverter converts the DC power to AC and it will run a couple of power heads and a heater for quite a while. I just took my battery out to the truck once a day and made the ice run (if you've been thru a hurricane you know what I mean) and then came back and hooked it up again.

My complete system cost me $43 and change to keep 3 tanks alive for 8 days.

[redawg]

i got a generator just before charlie hit florida.. power was out for a few days.. called fema and they reimbursed me for the generator.. don't know if this would work for a powerline down but it's only a phone call away to find out..

[sparatus]

FEMA only comes into play if it's a presidentially declared disaster (which a downed powerline wouldn't be).....

As much as we put into our systems, a generator is an invaluable resource. I bought one two years ago prior to Hurricane Isabell ... It kept everything in my tank running, my freezer and refrigerator (plus the odd light, etc) ... for 3 days... when we lost power....

[STACKER]

Sorry to hear of your trouble, that really stinks! Is your reef covered in your homeowners insurance? Mine is with a $500 deductible, well worth $50/yr. as a rider that also covers several other expensive and nearly irreplacible items.

I use a Tripplite UPS that runs the return pump and powerheads for up to 1 hr. If I'm aware of an outage I'm covered long enough to get the generator fired up. I can also kill the overflow and return and just run the powerheads only for about 2 hrs.

[JC Pollman]

Lucky - or not - this is what happened to me:

I was in up state New York in 98 when the ice storm hit. We were without power for 3 days with temperatures around 0 farenheit. I did nothing for my 90 gal as I was more concerned with keeping the family warm. The night before the power came back on, the indoor thermometer read: 40 degrees. I shined a flashlight into the tank: everything was lying on the bottom not moving. Electricity came back on around midnight. When I got home from work I saw all my fish were at least moving around! In the end, they all made it, and even more surprizingly, none developed ich or any other problem. I renamed my 2 yellow tangs: Rocky I and Rocky II. I had no corals or even live rock. I have no idea why they survived, but I was certainly happy.

Having said all this, I must add: hoping is not a plan of action.

[EricStevens]

Sorry about your losses. I know what you mean. Last May we lost our power for 3 days. I was out of town, my wife was home alone with no generator. We lost everything. I have two tanks, a 90 gallon and a 55 gallon. The other night we had high winds and of course, our power went out. I immediately ran to Home Depot and bought a 5500 generator. It worked wonderful. I ran my two tanks, my daughters TV and beleive it or not, all my Christmas lights on my house. The moral of the story is we have a great investment in this hobby. The generator is money in the bank. No one in this hobby should be without one. These fish are pets, they are a part of the family.

[jtag]

Playfair's thread on marine battery/inverter setup in the DIY forum
is probably the best one that I've seen.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...threadid=64918

Slick!

[Scuba Dog]

lilmiss40

So sorry to read about your loss, I have always had the same fear...especaly in my area of the country that is prone to multi day power outages due to our bi annual ice storms, So I went to sears and put the 6700 watt generator on my sears card, so far I have never needed to use it, but its there just in case....plus I also keep two very expensive parrots as well...so haveing a source of power is very advantagous for me...actually its much cheaper for me to purchase a generator than it is to replace all my live stock....

[MarksReef]

So sorry for your loss. I have a generator, invertor, battery back up, kerosene heaters. but it does nothing If I'm not home.
Power outages and tank crashes and tank leaks are my biggest FEAR.
Again sorry for your loss

[shealygg]

Sorry for your loss! If anyone has a Pep Boys auto supply store in their area, check them out. I just bought a Nikota 3500watt generator for $299! Great deal! Check it out!

[Adonis Mt]

The battery/inverter idea has been mentioned. But this can be used in place of a generator as long as you have a running car. They sell 800w inverters, so if you just run wires from your car to the house, you can run 800w worth of equipment. The inverter is about $60 so that would be the total cost.

[phishlet]

lilmiss40,

I'm in Mi. too so I know how cold the winter nights can be. As a precaution I have 1200va computer type battery backup units on my tanks to run just my return pump and heater for a couple hours. Well worth the investment. I did end up buying a 5500 watt generator a few years ago too during a good ole Michigan ice storm.

[JENnKerry]

Sorry to hear about your loss. We had a power outage a few weeks ago. The power went out around 3 am on a Sunday morning. After getting up around 7:30 I called the electric company to find out what was going on. They were aware of the problem and said the power would be back on around 9 am. 9:30 rolls around so I called again, this time it said power would be restored around 3 pm. By this time the temp in my tank had dropped to about 71. I went and rented a generator, got back home around 11 am, and wouldn't you know, no more than a minute after I stepped foot in the front door, the power came back on. $50 wasted on a generator I never even used. But had I not gone to get it, the power would've stayed out til 3. Just my luck. Luckily nothing was lost and the temp went back up to normal in no time.
But I learned my lesson. Like Amy said, we put so much time and money into our tanks. As soon as my wife and I move into our new house and set up our 125, you better believe I'm getting a generator.

[pubily]

I live in a rural area with a total electric home. Need I say more?? laughing. I have a 7500 watt generator that we use probably twice a year...but when we need it...we really need it. Without power we can't get water from our well, no lights, no heat, no refrigeration, no hot tub and of course, the fish resent the inconvenience too.

I recommend anyone in a rural area with a reef tank should get a generator. I am a skeptic so I imagine few will take heed but I easily have $3000 invested in my 120 gal. tank and it's foolish to take chances. It's just like car and liability insurance.

[lilmiss40]

Thanks everyone for your condolences.

A generator is a must as we all agree, but they only work if your at home when the power goes out. I am an avid snowmobiler and I am gone most weekends. I am scared to death about losing more fish. Wishful thinking, but is there anything on the market that can be hooked up to the tanks power supply to detect a power outage and automaticly start the generator? I know they have emergency generators at large businesses that come on automatically during an outage but what about us little people with our big spending habits? Any ideas? I would hate to give up snowmobiling on weekends but I am totally obsessed with my fish and corals. Tina

[Scuba Dog]

yes get in touch with a local electrican and they can give you a quote , its doable...

[Eve]

Hi,

You can get a battery inverter from a place like Jehmco (sp?). I have one connected to two dedicated outlets. One outlet has the main pump for my reef tank (MAG 12) and the other outlet has the main pump for my softies tank (MAG-3J. The inverter uses as many deep marine cycle batteries that you would like to connect to it.

When the power goes out, the inverter automatically takes over and uses the power from the batteries. I only have 2 marine batteries hooked up to it right now, but intend to add at least another one at a minimum. We tested the inverter with 2 batteries by pulling the power plug at about 9:00 am on a Saturday morning and the inverter kept both those main pumps running until almost 10:00 pm that evening. The inverter has an indicator so you know when the power is running down. It starts at green, then goes to green & yellow, then goes to yellow before the power runs out so you have plenty of warning.

When the power comes back on, the inverter switches back over to house power and then automatically recharges the batteries back up and then just sits and waits until you need it again :-) It works wonderfully.

[lilmiss40]

Hi Eve
It sounds like the battery inverter is the way to go. thanks for the reply!

Tina

[Eve]

Forgot to mention that if you are seriously considering this option, go straight to the manufacturer (TrippLite) for the most current model. Jehmco only has the 500 model listed on their site and I think they are all the way up to the 612 model now.