Almost Gameover

[Tylt33]

Well, I got an emergency text message from my roommate today; he got home and the power had been out for a few hours. I got home, my main tank was 68 degrees, and my smaller tank was still at 76. I was really helpless as to what to do in this situation other than watch my fish die; I live about 15 minutes out of civilization, and dont have a gas stove or anything to heat water. I'm moving soon, but until then I guess I have to just cross my fingers. Yikes.

[missyshrout]

Ryan I am so sorry. How far out of town do you live and maybe we can come and try to bring buckets to save some of your corals and fish.

Let me know.

[iairj84]

That's scary man, hopefully it all works out well for you. I know I would be really freaked out if something like that was to happen. Good luck with everything.

I'm headed to vegas til saturday tomorrow and it's things like this that freak me out. We can all hope for the best.

Wait... How are you posting online without any power?

[Tylt33]

Everything looks like it should be ok. I was pretty horrified when I got home; my roommate had just gotten there and so his text message said "Power has been out, I don't know for how long; your fish look ok, but they probably need attention. Tank at 68 degrees." So I dropped lunch and jetted out there. I had all these great ideas; my battery operated pump (unfortunately needs its battery charged, and the fish were gonna freeze before they ran out of oxygen), turn on the gas powered furnace (the furnace itself needs electricity), heat water and put it in jugs and float them (the stove is electric, as is the water heater). So I wrapped the tanks in blankets and just kinda sat there thinking, "Holy crap, what do I do."

The power ended up coming back on, but I didn't know what to do otherwise. I live out in the canyon past the covered bridge... pretty far out. My only plan was to nab the fishies and take them to one of the pet stores as some kinda sanctuary. Yikes!

[iairj84]

Good to hear everythings okay!

[Twisted]

You could try to take the fish to a local pet store, probablly best to call them first and see if they can clear a tank for you. Then "rent"/ "Borrow" thier space for a day or two depending on how the store is about it.

Another option would be to get a few phone numbers of fellow reefers in your area at the next meeting and if it happens again maybe one of them will let you swing buy and get some hot water, or might have a QT tank not being used that you can throw them in until your tank is back in business.

I know they have tons of battery powered air pumps and such, but never seen a heater run off a battery, I think they use too much juice. Perhaps a power converter for your car, I know they convert 12v to 110v but not sure if they drain a car battery useing a 200w or more heater. If a car battery would last long enough, you could lways buy a car battery and an inverter for next time, but that would be kinda spendy.

[kyletech]

I've seen a camping shower setup that pumps out of a 5 gallon bucked through a propain stove type contraption then to the shower head and the pump runs off your car battery or any 12v battery. something like this would work to heat a tank.

[Underwaterparadise]

Before I bought a generator I always had a small inverter that I could just hook up to a car battery. it gives you enough to power a small heater. propane camping stoves work good as well.

[Tylt33]

Originally posted by Underwaterparadise
Before I bought a generator I always had a small inverter that I could just hook up to a car battery. it gives you enough to power a small heater. propane camping stoves work good as well.

This is a friggin' great idea. Thanks guys!

[kinghokus420]

i just went to kragen in pdse and a 5500w generator was only 400$. not too bad imo as i listen to the wind whip through the trees, clutching my air pump.

[bobbert]

power just kicked back on out by the mall. Was just getting the generator ready when it popped on. I was lucky the power was out all day and my tanks only got down to 72.

[iairj84]

Well the inevitable happened.... I'm in vegas and the power was out for 24 hours.... I can only hope things are alright


Check the chico reef club site for more info on what I was able to have done....

[boviac]

Hilarious. I was about to post to this thread similarly to what I'm writing now but the power went off for about 30 seconds while I was writing it yesterday. Trees fell all around my neighborhood but our lines are underground. People to the south of me had tree fall on their driveway and cars - minimal damage if any but they were stuck until about 6pm yesterday.

Here's a post to the topic I started to get people aware of this situation not too long back.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1255645

Luckily I'm in a spot in town that had power nearly the entire time. We had two distinct brief (<10sec) outages and a few dimming events which caused some of my PH's to chatter as they restarted. But nothing to worry about.

I did turn off my lights and the extra powerheads as I didn't want any unneeded stress to the grid or to my equipment/tanks.

Personally, I finally got my 1000W inverter for christmas and luckily before all of this opened it up to find it came with no way to connect to a battery. I found a pair of cables for a smaller inverter left over and was able to modify them and test it out in my garage first on the dremel used to modify them and second on a 1000W radiant heater I was using in the garage. Didn't wait too long for the heater to start glowing red but long enough to feel heat coming from it. Thing was when I turned on the heater, my truck engine idle took a big drag downward as the alternator must have been suddenly full on. Good thing to note. So I've checked that my extension cord goes from the inverter located in the garage from the nearby truck to my tank and decided which components I will run. Further, with this storm coming I ensured both my families vehicles were full of gas. Luckily, I have had power nearly the whole time.

That being said I feel for everyone who doesn't. We drove down to the Saturday Market downtown and probably only about 15% of the venders were there around 10:30am. Further, I was surprised to see so many traffic lights out and therefore, home areas that were still without power. So many of us even with gas heat have electric HVAC fans and electric igniters now so that's out. I bet there was a run on generators and inverters as well as gas heaters this week.

Sorry Dan and Mellisa that you had to work so hard last night trying to keep fish warm. I remember when I lost power for three days but my tank stayed alright - I spent quite some time turing water and keeping it warm. Similar wind event - power down everywhere.

Again, I highly recommend people consider their investment in their hobby (livestock) and consider how much it would cost to have a standby energy source - even it if it is something as simple as battery powered bubblers. You've got too much time, energy, and livestock to loose in an event like this.

Good luck until the power comes on for everyone!

[iairj84]

Well I'm back from Vegas and everything for the most part seems okay....

I lost a small Zoa frag that had fallen off of it's perch on a rock. I don't know if a fish knocked it over or if one of my parents did while tending to the tank, but either way it's alright as it was a small frag....

The lights were off when I came home which must've been due to the timer cycle getting wacky. I turned on the lights when I got home just to check everything out and it seems okay. The fish were doing fine, they were sleeping in the frogpawn when I came in and were excited to great me and see me once they knew I was there. That was very comforting as it gave me a little bit of comfort in knowing that they were alright. The cleaner shrimp also came out and was willing to clean my hand (which I didn't put in the tank due to the chance of toxins.)

The corals were closed up which was primarily due to the lights being out. I turned the light back on and reset the timer so the light will only be on for another half hour until it kicks off again. My initial zoa frag I got was opened within 5 minutes which was also comforting to me. The Frogspawn has inflated a little bit but it normally takes close to an hour to open fully so I wont know until tomorrow probably.

I'm going to do a little 25% water change tomorrow just to make sure there's fresh water in there. I can't say whether or not it will help but it surely shouldn't hurt... I think I'm going to have to buy a small generator in the near future. Until then I will buy a 500-700 watt inverter that can be hooked up to one of our deep cycle marine batteries. I don't know how long that will last me but It's a lot better than nothing.

[iairj84]

FYI for those of you unable to find battery operated air pumps Wal-Mart carries them in their marine boat section I didn't think to even have someone look there but I saw them there tonight. I'm sure most everyone will be getting one at the LFS but if another outtage happens before they can get one they have them at wally for $7

[boviac]

Thanks for the tip and glad to hear everything was ok after your vegas trip and the situation here.

If the deep cycle battery doesn't make it through the entire power outage... at least you might have a car battery to run the inverter and as long as you have gas - you'll have the needed power.

[kinghokus420]

i can honestly say that a generator is a MUST i've been out for the last 6 days and i've had a generator for the last 3. i was only able to run it for a short time each day but i can confirm that a 4000w can run my whole tank and a tv for the girls. do yourselves a huge favor and pick up a cheapo or become friends with someone that has a spare gen.

[boviac]

Originally posted by kinghokus420
... or become friends with someone that has a spare gen.

Hey Josh - Friend... ...

So glad to hear you were able get a generator and keep everything alive and your girls sane.

See you at the meeting!