How did you come out of the outage?

[OldReefer]

I know some are still in the dark and the heat. Everybody will want to share their experiences as the power comes back up. Rather than just have another thread of anecdotes, I thought I would put a couple of basic questions out there so we might be able to see if there are correlations between the magnitude of the outage, the approaches taken, and the result.

Edited July 1, 2012 by OldReefer

[smallreef]

My power was out for 17hours..only have a 12g...actually had to wrap the tank to keep it warm enough. The room its in is kinda the basement but it stays about 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house...every 3 hours i was up pulling up and pouring in tank water for some aeration...im ordering my aps and battery powered air pumps today!

[OldReefer]

Let me contribute my own experiences and lessons. I do safety stuff for a living, and in classic fashion I was well equipped for the last disaster. After the big snow storm, I installed a generator and a transfer panel that would keep my house warm in the winter and my tank alive indefinitely. That was not a complete solution this time.

 

Fans turned out to be a big deal. They really helped keep the tank cool. Ice bags didn't do nearly as much as I had thought. I had to scramble to find ice, and 40 lbs of ice in the sump over 12 hours only took the temp down a degree or so total. If the power had not come back on, my tank would have died the next day. I may consider a chiller. ( I might go back to MH anyway).

 

I was able to hold my 150 gallon system to a max of 80.5 for 20 hours. The next day it would have been over 85 for sure.

 

The battery air pumps and vortech backup are still essential with a generator because you can't use a generator when it is raining, or when your neighbors want to sleep.

 

I almost wish I had a little quiet Honda generator that would just drive my tank, but then I would not have enough to keep the furnace going for a winter outage.

[OldReefer]

I just added a choice for manual aeration for many of you that may have not had an obsessive pile of tools waiting to go.

[Jan]

I haven't yet.

[magnetic1]

you can get 10kW standby whole house generators now for under $3k. Might be a worthy investment for future.

 

 

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=11671393&search=generator&Mo=19&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=generator&Ntt=generator&No=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

[Steve175]

My ongoing issue is the heat as well. We are 36h in with no power and have been told that it may not be repaired until Weds. I have a large automatic switching propane generator that has saved my tank multiple times in the past. I also have 2 chillers in the system which have been running 24/7. Obviously the central AC units for the house cannot be run on the generators. Despite both chillers running 24/7, all lights off, 5 fans, and as much ice as I can freeze, the tank temp peaked at 84.5 late yesterday and is only down to 84.2 this AM. A moment of silence for today. . .

[roni]

My ongoing issue is the heat as well. We are 36h in with no power and have been told that it may not be repaired until Weds. I have a large automatic switching propane generator that has saved my tank multiple times in the past. I also have 2 chillers in the system which have been running 24/7. Obviously the central AC units for the house cannot be run on the generators. Despite both chillers running 24/7, all lights off, 5 fans, and as much ice as I can freeze, the tank temp peaked at 84.5 late yesterday and is only down to 84.2 this AM. A moment of silence for today. . .

 

Steve,

 

Sorry to hear that. I actually didn't have any heat issues with my tanks. I wonder if it was due to my tank sitting on tile. We also bought a small portable AC for the room the tank was in from Lowes. It was a little pricey at $400 but helped to cool down the main tank room significantly. It was a Danby Premier portable 12K BTU unit.

[wvreef]

Our power came back on this morning

As far as running your generator at night go ahead and do it, we all have alot of money and attachment to our tanks so if the neighbor has to hear generator sorry will do all I can to save family, food and fish

 

My tank peaked at 81.5 kept 16# ice floating in main tank every few hours. Only kept one return pump going and skimmer, nothing else at all.

I had to learn the hard way and over time have learned what to do to keep tank and all other things good.

If anyone needs help give me a shout, I know I am far away but will help out as I can

[Steve175]

Steve,

 

Sorry to hear that. I actually didn't have any heat issues with my tanks. I wonder if it was due to my tank sitting on tile. We also bought a small portable AC for the room the tank was in from Lowes. It was a little pricey at $400 but helped to cool down the main tank room significantly. It was a Danby Premier portable 12K BTU unit.

 

Great minds (or obsessed minds think alike): I had just added a window unit to the living room. Just got back home with another 200# of ice. Temp is a bit lower at 83.9 (peaked at 84.5 overnight). Fingers crossed . . .

[MBVette]

I win worst off. Fish all died then one of the fans shorted out when the power came on and burnt my lobby up. Beat that crap *******.

[tightline]

deff NOT a contest i want to win or even come close SOOO sorry i have a 55 u are welcome to have if you would like

[chucelli]

Very glad to hear some of you got your power back.

We're in Montgomery Village.

We still don't have power and they're saying it could take up to a week! The most worrying part is that we don't see any utility crews anywhere, even at the downed power line down the street.

Have the generator running to keep the water moving, but the challenge now is to keep the water temp from rising too high. Got 2 1 liter frozen water bottles alternating in the sump.

Fingers crossed.

-Robert

[gws3]

Finally got one phase of power back after 36+ hours. Fortunately the tanks are on that phase. Hopefully the other phase gets turned back on so the AC kicks on.

 

Vortech back up only lasted for about 4 hours for 2 MP40s. Inverters running off 2 deep cycle marine optima batteries kept the vortechs and other powerheads going through out the night. In the morning I picked up gas and ice and hooked up my small inverter generator to run the controller, main circulation pump, powerheads, two part doser and fans. Ice helped knock the temp down when the fans weren't cutting it.

 

Hopefully nothing is too negatively effected. I was able to keep the temp between 78 and 80, but did notice a bit of an alk swing due to the two part doser being off for about 12 hours. Very glad I invested in a few forms of power outage equipment.

 

I can lend out my 2kW generator to anyone that is in desperate need as long as my power stays on.

[wogga]

Very glad to hear some of you got your power back.

We're in Montgomery Village.

We still don't have power and they're saying it could take up to a week! The most worrying part is that we don't see any utility crews anywhere, even at the downed power line down the street.

Have the generator running to keep the water moving, but the challenge now is to keep the water temp from rising too high. Got 2 1 liter frozen water bottles alternating in the sump.

Fingers crossed.

-Robert

 

Sorry to hear that. POTOMAC-epco clearly states their number one priority in the first letter of their acronymic name...

 

Am i the only one who DIDNT lose power???

[icecool2]

I have power up here in Towson, there are a lot of outages in Baltimore county around us though.

[hlem]

Sorry to hear that. POTOMAC-epco clearly states their number one priority in the first letter of their acronymic name...

 

Am i the only one who DIDNT lose power???

 

Mine never went down. Hope everyone is ok now.

[OldReefer]

My ongoing issue is the heat as well. We are 36h in with no power and have been told that it may not be repaired until Weds. I have a large automatic switching propane generator that has saved my tank multiple times in the past. I also have 2 chillers in the system which have been running 24/7. Obviously the central AC units for the house cannot be run on the generators. Despite both chillers running 24/7, all lights off, 5 fans, and as much ice as I can freeze, the tank temp peaked at 84.5 late yesterday and is only down to 84.2 this AM. A moment of silence for today. . .

 

 

Steve,

 

Try fans. Lots of fans blowing at the surface of the water did more for me than ice.

 

God Speed.

[mogurnda]

Very sorry, MBVette. Mine are still running on battery pumps, and I am far away with poor internet and no phone. Luckily I have a friend to help out. My wife says things are unhappy but not dead.

 

MUST FIX FUEL LINE ON GENERATOR!!!

[Der ABT]

Just got back power little while ago....lost my tangs and anthias.......only one frag lost though

 

Had a generator but freaking ethanol killed it, had to rebuild the carb and that only gave us about 20 min run time before the problem continues...(guessing a sticking float but may need a new jet too)

 

vortech backup worked on one pump but the other stalled at somepoint in the main tank of course so they sat for about 8 hours no movement (i was sleeping then tried to fix the generator and then helping around the house etc till ihad time to deal with the tank)

so more or less my own fault for not dealing with the tank earlier....freaking sux but what can ya do.

 

still hear others generators running so i guess im lucky to have power.

Edited July 1, 2012 by Der ABT

[dipg]

Got the power back two hours ago. First night the only thing running in the tank was vortech mp10 on battery backup. Bought a generator 5am in the morning on saturday and had the whole tank running on the generator i.e.

Return Pump

Skimmer

Chiller

Vortech mp10

ATO

 

Everything survived and I am glad i decided to go and get the generator from walmart at 5 in the morning. Its a cheap generator but it did the job of running the tank, Refrigerator, couple of fans and last but not the least a TV. So best $500 spent because i added quite a few expensive corals about a month ago and i would have definitely lost some of them w/o the generator.

[schudini]

Very glad to hear some of you got your power back.

We're in Montgomery Village.

We still don't have power and they're saying it could take up to a week! The most worrying part is that we don't see any utility crews anywhere, even at the downed power line down the street.

Have the generator running to keep the water moving, but the challenge now is to keep the water temp from rising too high. Got 2 1 liter frozen water bottles alternating in the sump.

Fingers crossed.

-Robert

 

I'm right down the road and have power back on.

 

Message me if you need ice, an inverter, or freshly-mixed water for a water change.

[Jan]

I still have no power in Falls Church . Generator is keeping eveying alive. But it's too HOT!!!!!

[nbgen12]

Still have no power and tank crashed unfortunately. I was going to do my tank transfer this weekend but looks like ill be going for a fresh start which isn't totally a bad thing...sucks for everything I had though.

 

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

Edited July 1, 2012 by nbgen12

[bill stine]

lost all the fish, verdict still out on the corals and rgbt's, they are all closed up tight at the moment.

guess it's time to take on that reaquascaping project I've been thinking about.