Power Outages

mono19

Reefing newb
We are getting to the times of big rain and thunderstorms where I live(Utah) and power outages while they don't happen often can sometimes last a pretty long time. We had one last year that lasted about 12 hours..with my freshwater tanks it wasn't a huge problem, but I would imagine with everything that is needed to maintain a saltwater tank, current and skimmers it could lead to a big problem in ones tank.

Is there anything one can do to prevent this? What is the time limit before things start going south? Anyone had any experience with this at all?

Thank you all in advance
 
You can always get a generator. Just every hour or so, take a cup and collect some tank water and dump it in the tank a few times. That will help keep the tank oxygen rich. If it is cold out, wrap the tank with blankets to retain the heat. If it is hot out, a few bags of ice cubes in the tank help the temp stay stable.
 
I think the biggest thing that I worry about it the fact of it going out while I'm at work. I work 9-5 Monday thru Friday.

Those ideas are great though! I wonder how much a small generator would cost me..
 
Couple hundred, but if you aren't there to start it, it won't do much good. Unless you spring for one that is directly tied to your electric panel and then automatically starts when there is a power outage.
 
Yeah that's true. Well hopefully I will be able to get things taken care of if that ever happens. Would hate to lose all I've worked on because of the power failing.
 
Generators are expensive. I have an inverter that hooks to my car battery. It cost $35 at Harbor Freight and has a spot for four plugs. Either way, you need to be home to start stuff up. There are battery operated powerheads you can buy too.

In a power outage, your main concerns are flow and temperature. Do what you can to keep temperature stable (wrap the tank in a blanket to keep it insulated, etc.) and if you have no way to get powerheads running, you will have to stir the tank manually. The tank will be fine for a few hours, but after that, things can go downhill very fast.
 
So haven't had any issues with power outages so far, but I was left a note on my door this morning letting us know that they are gonna be doing some testing on the lines and things in our area on friday and the power will be out from 9-2. I will be at work during this time, will 5 hours without power start to cause problems in a 56 gallon reef tank? I've been looking at some other options but all seem pretty expensive...anything cheap out there I could use?
 
The two concerns are temperature and flow. Your tank will be fine for that time period as long as the temperature stays stable and there is water movement. Temperature shouldn't be a big deal -- I assume your apartment/house would stay pretty constant for those hours. But flow is something you have to consider. There are battery operated powerheads available. Two should be able to do the job. You might want to look into buying a couple.
 
Well I live in a basement apartment so it stays pretty cool through the day. With the lights on the tank it only gets to about 80 degrees in the tank, at night it may drop a degree or two at night when it's lights out so i don't think that's an issue. I will have to look into the power heads you are talking about though and see if any lfs's around me have them. Then invest in a generator or something for future problems. Thanks for the help
 
+1 biff...normally we'd say to stir your tanks every now and then to circulate some oxygen. But with you being at work, a battery powered powerhead would be good.
 
So I came home one day and there was a note from the electric company saying that they were going to be turning off the power the next day for about 5 hours to do some test work on the lines. Since I had no way of keeping the tank running smoothly and I was going to be at work during the time the power would be off, I started to freak out some. Started looking online at a few places where I could maybe get some power back ups and such and came to the conclusion that a battery backup would be the best option. Headed down to best buy and picked up one for about 60 bucks. Plugged in one of my power heads and hoped for the best. The way it's rated for voltage it will keep a 10watt pump running for around 5 hours, which is what I needed. Also asked the fiance to go over and keep an eye to make sure it actually worked.

Well she went over the next day and they didn't actually turn off the power. So I freaked for nothing. Glad I bought the batter back up though cause about a week after when I was taking a nap the power went down for about 30 minutes. The back up worked great and everything came through just fine! So glad I got to test my power outage plan. Hope it works for longer outages though..
 
Hehehe...it's good to have for the times that the power actually does go out.

Usually the LFS's have the battery powered powerheads. One of my LFS's say they ran out of them quickly after the last big storm a few weeks ago.
 
It's funny wonton, not one of the lfs's that I have been to around here carries them. I took two of my pumps out and replaced them with a Vortech MP10 and those come with a battery backup, but it's an additional 165 bucks on top of the 220 that the pump was...gonna have to be on the next check lol
 
Mono, what type of battery back up did you get from Best Buy? How does it work? (does it kick in when power goes out, or do you have to plug things into it in advance and just use batteries to power those? I'm confused on these and need to get one in preparation for a planned 13h power outage next weekend.
 
Hi fishy! The link below will take you to the ones that I got mine from.

battery backups - Best Buy

Sorry the link is huge. I got the one on the top mainly because I only have one pump plugged into it, and then I'm gonna get the backup for my vortech this week.

The way they work is pretty simple, they have two sides of inlets i guess you call them. One side is the backup part and the other side is just regular outlets. You plug the whole system into the wall and the system charges, mine has a little green light that tells me when it's ready. I was unsure how they worked when the power went out, but luckily they cut the power like a week later out of the blue. Basically my system beeps while the power is out. So it lets me know it is working. And yes they will run everything just like a normal power strip will, but when the power goes out the side that is backed up will just continue working.

They are rated for how much power a computer uses, which is a ton more then our little pumps. My ten watt vortech pump will run for about 4 hours on the back up now. while when I plug in my Koralia it will run about 6 hours because it's only a 6 watt. If you get one, just tell the customer service person what you are using it for and how long you want it and they will get you the best one for the job, they are actually pretty dang cheap too. Mine was only like 50 bucks. The one that you probably want if you are planing on running a lot for those 13H is only like 130.
 
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