I hope everyones tank is ok

[Marko9]

This storm is a doozy. I hope that not too many of us lost power.

[jtarmitage]

Amen to that. From the sounds of it, you did lose power?

[jtarmitage]

BTW, thanks for the PD's. Just curious, but what level of light do they prefer to get the max color out of them?

[MrMikeB]

Its been off and on all morning. I am more worried about the power surges than I am on the extended outage.

[D&KSac]

After this storm and some flickering lights im seriously thinking about getting a battery backup for a pump and heater. Hope everyones tanks alright. I havent lost power yet. But im keeping my fingers crossed.

[Marko9]

I did not lose power, but I heard that 200,000 customers of smud and PG&E were without power this morning. I also use a battery backup, so I am not as worried as I was last year.

PD's are tricky. Too much light and they brown out, but I know that John is getting good color out of his 400's.

[bored4long]

I was discussing the power outages with a coworker this morning.

Question: What are the risks (ranked in priority) with lost power? What 'life support' should be provided during a power outage (and how long can the livestock go without that life support)?

Thanks.

[Marko9]

IMO, the two biggest is the lack of oxygen and temperature. I have a UPC on both of my tanks that are hooked up to a tunze and a heater.

[edsimmons]

I agree w/ Marko9

[edsimmons]

So far I've had only power surges but part of my fence in the back yard came down.



I know what I'm doing this weekend :-(

[Marko9]

That suck Ed. My neighbor hood is one of the oldest in Sacraemento and I know there are a few trees that are down. Luckily our ground is not that saturated or it would be a lot worse.

[kdblove_99]

Our fence is leaning bad and half a tree out front broke, Its a good size tree. Barely missed neighbors car!

[beerguy]

My office is in midtown. I watched a window blow off of the house next door.


I have a UPS on the tank at home. You have to be careful because many don't provide "true sine wave" power. Powerheads and pumps don't do well on clipped wave. My solution is that I have a single Tunze stream plugged into the UPS. 180 gallons will hold temp for a long time so I'm not too worried about temp. The Streams are very low power so they run a really long time on a small UPS. They also use a transformer so it doesn't matter if the power is true sine or clipped. I have a 1000kva that has run for over 4 hours at a time.

If that fails I've got a 4500kva generator in the garage.

[MrMikeB]

IMO, you should worry about flow and oxygenation first, which go hand in hand. You don't want to have still/potentially toxic water sit around your reef.

I have seen some creativity where folks have put an air pump on a battery backup and when the power failed, the pump would activate and provide both oxygenation and flow (with the bubbles moving to the surface it creates flow).

Most outages are not too terribly long where heat becomes a huge issue, and given the slow decline in temp over time, there is a degree of flexibility in this area.

[GreshamH]

Originally posted by edsimmons
So far I've had only power surges but part of my fence in the back yard came down.



I know what I'm doing this weekend :-(

Hay, that's my fence

I had the same thing happen. Our neighbors just moved in next door like 3 days ago. It's their first home. What a warm welcome into home ownership for them. They lost a skylite into my backyard as well .

[Marko9]

Too true Mike. I run a nanostream because it only uses a few watts and I could sustain it for about 12 hours. I also have a small honda generator in the garage if things go real bad.

Hey Beerguy, how often are you in Sac? You said you have an office here, but the question is, do you have tank up here

[pbetito]

Originally posted by Marko9

Hey Beerguy, how often are you in Sac? You said you have an office here, but the question is, do you have tank up here

He is a Carmichael native

[beerguy]

Originally posted by Marko9

Hey Beerguy, how often are you in Sac?

Pretty much the entire past ~40 years.

[maxdout]

well my tank is a crap shoot right now. my powers been out since 7am and nothing running since my battery backup is already done for. (bad battery) so currently temps are 69 and falling and no flow so hopefully smud gets the power going quickly or im going to end up with nothing. o yes i did call smud and they said on the voice recorder, your neighborhood is part of the 20k pple outo f power and we are working out best to get it going. anyone have a spare generator?

[edsimmons]

maxdout,

So your tank temp dropped 10d in 4 hr!?!

Is it your 40g?

[MrMikeB]

I do in fact have a generator. My power is on for now, and you need it more than I. Come on over and I will have somebody here to meet you.

PM me for address

[beerguy]

Just lost power at my office.

I wonder how long the UPS's will hold out.

[WarrenG]

I have a DC to AC inverter that will run some equipment. It plugs into the car lighter and uses the car's battery. You can get them cheap at Harbor Freight and for more money at Radio Shack and elsewhere. A 300watt model is less than $40 at some places.

Inverters at HF

I am currently raising my tank's temperature to above 80 so it can remain at a good temp for longer if the power goes out.

[buttons buster]

Good Luck everyone.
We don't need any repeats of what happened to me

Hope everyone is safe

[tfp]

crap! we just had our first major "flicker" out here in folsom .