Power loss

[H20doctor]

I lost my whole reef tank.. 5 days no power.. Everything gone..

 

[Guerry]

Power outage had been one of my greatest fears, living on the east coast hurricains late summer and fall. This year we bought a 20kw propain hole house gen. with autotransfer switch and 500 gal tank which gives us 26 days of back up power at full load and longer if we cut back on what we run in the house

 

[jaymz69]

Someone told me to get a battery back u, like a UPS for computers.
I am going to look into that!

 

[NC2WA]

h20doctor,

sorry to hear that...how large a tank was it?

 

[H20doctor]

30 gallon bow , glass.. With corals and sps from 2001.. All gone..

 

[y2says]

I learned a huge lesson a few years back when I lost everything due to a power outage. Since then, I have invested in a 4000w gas generator and I had to put it to use for the first time the other day. The only thing I hooked up to the generator was the heater and pump in my biocube. Before this, I used my 800w invertor hooked up to my boat batteries which powered a small air pump and heater. Luckily I had three batteries to go through cause I needed them. Now if you don't have either, throw a blanket over the tank to keep the heat in and invest in a battery-powered airpump for oxygen. If the temp is falling and power is not up yet, I like the idea of heating up the water (if you have natural gas).

It's funny how we can spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on corals, fish, equipment, but won't spend $300-$500 for a small generator. It took me a tank crash and total loss for me to learn that lesson.

 

[NC2WA]

It's funny how we can spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on corals, fish, equipment, but won't spend $300-$500 for a small generator. It took me a tank crash and total loss for me to learn that lesson.

+1. Total agree.

 

[H20doctor]

We have a generator, but it wouldn't start, and I tried working on it for 2 days, but its a no go

 

[mcoomer]

I hooked up my scuba tank and purged air in my tanks at times to oxygenate the water and hoped the cheap gas fireplace kept enough heat.

Look at MacGyver over here...:clap2:

My tank is back up to temp and everyone looks happy. Looks like I dodged a bullet here. Got to get my generator fixed.

Mike

 

[mcoomer]

We have a generator, but it wouldn't start, and I tried working on it for 2 days, but its a no go

If the generator has been sitting and won't start it could be bad gas or a gummed up carb. I'd drain all the gas from the tank, remove the fuel line from the carb and drain that gas, and then flush the carb. If you're mechanically inclined and can get the carb off the generator, I'd go that route and flush the heck out of it with a good carb cleaner. If you're not then I'd spray a small amount of cleaner directly into the port that the fuel line was connected. Whichever method you choose, let the carb cleaner soak for 15-20 minutes then blow out the carb with compressed or canned air. While you're at it, pull the spark plug and soak the electrode in carb cleaner then brush it lightly with a tooth brush or brass brush if you have one. Put it all back together, put fresh gas in it and give it a shot. These are essentially lawn mower engines so no annoying ECU's or smog gear like a car. If you spend some time on it you should be able to get it running. Unfortunately it won't help you now but you'll be prepared for the future. Once you do get it running you should start it every month or so. When you cut your grass pull the generator out and run it for 15-20 minutes.

Mike

 

[mojoreef]

Still no power day 4 now and yep its getting old. Generator good for about 8 hours and then needs the Carb cleaned. Pita. Tank is clearing up a. Bit and I can see some fish swimming around.



Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[mojoreef]

Well the power finally came back on last night at exactly 12 midnight!! kind of weird?? I can see at least 10 to 15 fish so I know a bunch survived but hard to tell if all did. The tank is a mess, the powerhead must have fallen right into the sand and stirred up a huge mess with some life size sand dunes, lol I thank at of all of it I am worse for wear then the fish, lol Rolled my ankle twice humping gas to the generator and took a head shot from a chunk of ice falling from a tree. Will nurse the wounds and clean up the mess today.

Mojo

 

[NC2WA]

mike,


so sorry to hear this..wow...sounds like your area got a lot of ice(?)

 

[mojoreef]

Yea it was the ice that did us in. Pulled down about 7 trees around the house and then a 10 foot pile of ten foot or longer branches from the big trees. No damage to the house which is a good thing as the last big wind storm brought a tree down like a lawn dart through the wifes car, lol. I would say i total we got about 8 inches of snow and then 3 to 4 inches of solid ice on top of it. We had small branches that were about a 1/2 inch thick with 2 to 3 inches of ice surrounding them, looked nice but the end result was not pretty.

Mojo

 

[TJL]

Wow! Good to here you are all alright there bud, I'm glad we skipped the ice thing up here just lots of snow (for the west side of state)


Cheers, Todd

 

[tamarindthai]

17 hours no power on sammamish plateau too ,,lucky i don't have the big reef tank in garage anymore,,just Oum 40bdr in the house is bad enough ,she covered her tank with the blanket,,still 60 degree when the power come back on.

Oum lost half of Fire Engine and small colony of sunset,and Xenia die yeah,,,luckily she still have some left ,,,wow!! watched it peel right off at 56 degree,all fishes still alive but RIP Antius sunburst(we have her for 10 years),she wrapped the tank with blanket ,buy it is cold s@#$% in Sahalee was 26 degree outside ,,glad that we do not have big reef system in garage any more,,Rolaid

 

[seattlereef]

Finally got power back. I hooked up a power inverter to my car to run a Powerhead and air-stone but didn't have enough AMP's to run a heater. My sump and refugium in the garage got down to ~50 so I've lost any cleanup crew I got in there. Convinced my SO to get a generator and happened to be in HD when they got a shipment in so got that running yesterday. Got the entire system up and running again yesterday. With the power back on I'm warming back up my water change barrel and will do a change tonight when its at temp. Besides a few snails I don't think anything died in my system. I think I'm going to get a transfer switch installed so that I can run the system w/o a ton of extension cords and rewiring next time.

 

[Aquanaut]

We got by here with power out for nearly 24hrs. Had to drive around awhile to locate a gas station w/power for our colman to not run dry. Never had power gone so long before and always got buy w/ a tankful, but knew we were in for a long haul after passing 8hrs and no phone or power. All 5 systems were bundled in blankets to retain their temp and not overwork the heaters in the systems when the house temp dipped into the low 50's. Everything made it with the exception of several of our big trees that were crushed by the ice storm.

 

[1guydude]

After going to about 10 stores, i finally found a geni at shucks o rielleys for $700! I bought it LOL!
I lost a tri color trachy but thats it! Stupid power outage and stupid ice with stupid snow! Sounds like u had a hell of a time Mojo!