Disaster weekend [PICT INCLUDED]

[xdusty6920]

man do i need a backup plan. last winter a strange thing happened that still spooks me. for some reason we lost power on one side of the road but not the other. the power was out for 9 days. we were lucky enough to have moved into an apt. on the other side of the street and got through without a second of power loss. what would be the cheapest and simplest way to ensure power during an outage?

[Aayalan]

I would say the cheapest way is a battery backup designed for computer systems. They will not only provide backup power during failure but also keep steady streams of power during surges and brown outs. You have now idea how inconsistant your power is until you get one. My backups for my servers kick in at least once a day due to brown outs. Something you'll never notice. I wouldn't even know if not for the logs that are created whenever it happens that I review.

[TWINPEAKS]

where can you get a backup that will run around 700 watts for several hours reasonable?

[opihi]

i'm sorry for your misfortune. i know how much this hurts.

[Gisho]

My condolences. My power went out for only about an hour the other night and it scared the bejezus out of me. When this happens it always makes me think about rigging some type of emergency gas generator or something, I'm just too lazy/broke to pursue it and as time passes without further power-outages, so does the urgency! ;-)


I am not sure how effective those battery powered air-pumps would be, especially in a large tank. I would think you would need SEVERAL, and I mean SEVERAL, to make a difference as air-pumps are not that efficient in oxygenating deep bodies of water IMO. Money/peace of mind would be better spent on an emergency gas power generator which could keep your pumps/powerheads running, especially if the outage lasted for several days.

I agree with pfan151. I don't think a few hours without pumps running would result in the terrible condition of your livestock as depicted in the pics. A 75 gallon tank should be able to have enough oxygen in reserve to last for AT LEAST a few hours.
(Unless you took the pictures much later of course...)

Those fish look to have been in that condition for at least a day or two. I imagine that the evidence of the 5pm shutdown was for a prior day's 5 pm, not the evening of your return....

Again, my condolences.

Take care,
Gisho

[andy4499]

Sorry to hear about your loss Same thing happen to me when Hurricane Ivan hit us last year

[deansreef]

g bless them

[Kelmen]

You can ask someone knowledgable and skilled in setup backup battery.
Here we have someone mod a backup battery with car battery. So if one sys need more power to sustain the pumps for long hours, just addon another car battery.

When black out, only need the important devides to keep running - the one provide aeration - the pumps.
You can skip those lightings.

[Morgandy]

Originally posted by Aayalan
I would say the cheapest way is a battery backup designed for computer systems. They will not only provide backup power during failure but also keep steady streams of power during surges and brown outs. You have now idea how inconsistant your power is until you get one. My backups for my servers kick in at least once a day due to brown outs. Something you'll never notice. I wouldn't even know if not for the logs that are created whenever it happens that I review.

I don't know the useage offhand of our barracuda pump, but how much would we get from an 'affordable' ups? (like, no more than $200-$300?)

In March during major icestorm we lost power for about 9hrs. The temp was plunging in the tank, and no movement. I spent the entire time, taking tank water, sitting it in boiled water, and dumping in, and also just dipping buckets in while more water was boiling, and just dumping over and over of the tank water itself to keep air/movement. It was exhausting beyond belief, and so stressful. We went out and got the last generator toward the end of the day. Got home and the power was back on.

But, my husband says we should'nt let it get wet in a storm. So, now I'm confused what good are these?

I've looked at the pics a couple of times as a reminder that we have to have a very quick, failsafe 'something' in place. I'm sure this summer more and more events like this we will sadly hear about.

[conda]

Originally posted by Aayalan
You have now idea how inconsistant your power is until you get one. My backups for my servers kick in at least once a day due to brown outs. Something you'll never notice.

Isn't that the truth. I have my backups for the tank and computers beep whenever there is an inconsistancy in power. They beep at least three times in a two day period. I was beginning to think something was wrong with my power.

It's a great investment for both computers and the aquariums.

[wahshk]

Thank you all for your kind support and help J. I had similar incident that cost me a fortune in live stock last year. Ever since, I decided to only go with cheap corals and fish until I get over the incident. Then I purchased a GE generator that works only if the local main power supply goes dead. The generator is built in a way that it will not bypass the main circuit breaker. I will definitely invest in buying 3 or 4 UPS for my whole setup after this. I haven’t lost any fish in my other tanks including the FW. That assured me that the power only went out for the 7 hours and not more. For the fast decay, my main tank is loaded with worms and it was about 90 degrees when I arrived. The bacteria are very active in my system I guess. I found 2 more dead fishes, 4 more missing. All my inverts except two turbo snail are OK!!!


“Pandora� very sorry for your loss.


Here are some more victims.





I loved this buffer.
Before


After


Fuzzy Before


Clown and Anemone

[wahshk]

Only survivor in the main tank.

[wahshk]

Missing.

[wahshk]

Sorry for the worm. Still I liked it. Its width is about an inch. It is HUGE....RIP.

[Blindmelonbob]

So sorry for your losses. That makes my 3-fish disaster a couple weeks ago seem like not so bad. Glad your snowflake made it through okay.

[sscherin]

I had a mechanical timer tank out my tank before..
We were gone for 5 days to buy a house in Colorado.
On day 1 the timer tripped the GFI..

If I'd known about RC at the time I would have probably given everything away.

We'd had all our fish for 5 years and they all died.
The only thing left was 2 hermet crabs.

Anyway.. For long power outages I have a small power inverter I can run off one of the cars or a battery.
it's only 400w but it's enough to run a heater and a few powerheads. It's good enough to keep things up while you go find a longer term solution.

a UPS will do the same job but they won't last more than a few hours.

[Fred_J]

AYALAN
A few pages pack you suggested using computer back-ups. Can you suggest a specific one that would run a mag drive 12 for a couple of days. Links to a good on-line store would also be appreciated.
Thanks
Fred

[Aayalan]

What is the wattage use for a mag drive 12? I know not very much about reefs and equipment!

[reef10]

In a stocked tank o2 depletion can happen quickly. My experience: I have moved my tank to a temporary location and removed the sump in order to do a room remodel. I was bleeding air into the intake of the closed loop circulation at night as a temporary measure but forgot to turn it on for one night. I lost everything except 2 fish and most of the coral. It is a combination of reduced o2 and ph shock. With more CO2 in the tank the water's ph lowers which I think is also signifant in killing the fish. When the tank is dark everything consumes o2 so this problem is made worse during the night. Note: Watch the turbos because all mine died a week or two after the event.

I have a battery backup on mine which is nice because it is automatic. It lasts about 1 hour. They just will not protect against long outage and they are pricey for the power. The only thing in it is a circulation pump. I will be adding a battery powered air pump so that when the backup dies the airpump kicks in. As far as getting through a long outage where temperature is a problem generator is the only way. They are not too costly but you mush be there to turn them on otherwise autotransfers are very costly. My battery backup will protect against outages when I am returning the same day - ONLY. The automatic airpumps are the best bang for the buck.

sorry for your tank.

[BRETT FULFORD]

sorry for your loss. i am VERY surprised at the amount of damage for 7 hours with out power!

[Cosper]

wow..thats what I call a "major malfunction"! Some realy intelligent guy needs to come up with a way to back up the power in these cases!

[Cosper]

Thats still a disaster.. however on the bright side, you and that snowflake will be tight now.

[lillibirdy]

Sorry for your loss. I just went online and bought me two automatic battery air pumps! We have a generator, but that won't do me any good if we are asleep when power goes off, or on vacation (2 coming up). We have someone coming in once a day to check on fish, if power went out right after they left would be 24 hrs till they came back, scary. Now I am trying to think about temp...if AC goes off......yikes! My neighbors said, you are leaving the AC on for 4 days for FISH! lol They just don't get it...

[mskohl]

aaylan,
How much do those run and how do you set them up?

[thrlride]

Sorry for your loss.