My Storm Experience

[sen5241b]

This nasty storm knocks my power out at 11pm Friday night but I was out of town. The next day we call a neighbor, she checks my house and no power and the tank don't look well at all.

 

So, I get in my car and drive 2.5 hours from Delaware back to Arlington VA. Get there about 24 hours after the power outage and miraculously only one fish is dead --my favorite of course the Midas Blenny.. The house is nightmarishly hot. At the top of my street an impassable, twisted tangle of power lines and trees. Search the house for my 100 watt power inverter and setup air pumps and stir tanks. Filled old car with gas at 1am to avoid the hour long gas lines and half the gas stations have no gas. The tank temperature was about 83 which isn't terribly bad. Mostly a sleepless night.

 

Next day, Sunday, I race to store and by a miracle they have distilled water. Also got bigger air pumps at Petsmart. Most stores are closed in my area. In the past I tried running my Rio 6hf off my power inverter but it did not work. I tried my new pump and by a miracle it works! A that point I had flow! I plug in fuge light too. Then I showered, combed my hair, put on clean shirt and go beg neighbors (who I barely know) at a nearby house who have power and they --very kindly-- let me run a series of extension cords. So now I got MHs! But the tank started over-heating. Do 50% change out on BC29 and 20G --equalizing water temperature without power is a feat. Used battery powered fan that I just happen to have to cool BC 29. 20Gs in basement stayed cool. I also -by luck- had 12 D cell batteries --the fan takes 6. (You couldn't find D cells in any store anywhere, nowhere!) Last night, my giant Sinularia that I paid $50 for but grew 10 fold in size was still drooped over after 48 hours but it was starting to slime and it had lesions. It might have made it but it also could have died in the middle of the night and killed everything. Tough decision --I tossed it but first I cut off a few little frags that still looked ok the next day. Last night my wife comes in from Delaware with more batteries, extensions cords and ice. If you ever have a major power outage you will NOT be able to find these things. My wife is a champ! Also, I had to take cold showers throughout the day because it so deathly hot.

 

I have not EVEN told you half of all I did to keep it going. I must have worked 10 hours on all of the above to keep it going. I'm back in Delaware and power is back on after 3 days.

 

DEAD: Midas Blenny in BC29, Giant Sinularia in BC29, Tail Spot Blenny in 20G, GPS looking quite bad. Looks like a lot of hitchhikers died too.

SURVIVED SO FAR in BC29 : 6 inch maxima clam, maroon clown, Pajama cardinal. yellow and pink zoas, some trumpets, 6 or so mushrooms, Big green hammer looks okay and better since light came on, Rics look okay but not near death. In 20G pair of clowns okay, green goby, shrimp all fine. In all tanks: emeralds, hermits and snails seem okay.

In my 3rd 20G only had a Fiji Blue devil and he survived -of course even though he hid the whole time and I thought he was dead. I was very lucky. Very interesting that in 2 tanks only the blennys died. High oxygen requirement?

 

Lessons learned:

 

1. 
    
   
2. Understocked tanks will last longer without power.
   
3. Get a generator. With all I spent on the air pumps, gas to drive home, water, extension cords, batteries, the livestock I lost etc., a $300 generator would have cost less!
   
4. At least get a power inverter. They are less than $40. I pulled my old 1999 junker down the driveway and had 100 watts of power in 15 minutes. Do not overload it and run the auto a/c on low to keep it cool. The inverter runs rather hot especially in a hot car! In 24 hours my car used an eighth of a tank of gas.
   
5. Have a power outage plan and test it ahead of time!
   
6. Have lots of flashlight power and batteries because when the power goes the stores may have none.
   
7. I found distilled water by luck. A filter, even a small one may enable you to do an emergency water change.
   

Edited July 3, 2012 by sen5241b

[icecool2]

Sounds like you did almost everything right. Next time, leave your lights off. Your tank will be fine and you won't be pumping even more heat into a hot room.

[sen5241b]

Sounds like you did almost everything right. Next time, leave your lights off. Your tank will be fine and you won't be pumping even more heat into a hot room.

 

How long can lights stay out?

 

I was lucky with temp. It never got real cold or too hot and the battery powered fan helped. There were some 3 or 4 degree fluctuations in less then 24 hours though. My 150 watt heater plus pumps won't run off my inverter. I think inverters can only supply up to 150 watts. So my real question is can you a tank heater run on anything besides a generator or regular outlet?

Edited July 3, 2012 by sen5241b

[Origami]

How long can lights stay out?

 

I was lucky with temp. It never got real cold or too hot and the battery powered fan helped. There were some 3 or 4 degree fluctuations in less then 24 hours though. My 150 watt heater plus pumps won't run off my inverter. I think inverters can only supply up to 150 watts. So my real question is can you a tank heater run on anything besides a generator or regular outlet?

A week or more.

 

Flow is most important for two reasons: To help oxygenate the water and to diffuse metabolic wasteproducts.

 

Next in line is temperature. It doesn't have to be tightly controlled. Just keep it out of the gutters - between 72 and 80 or so. I wouldn't want to go too far outside this range. A couple of options (besides powering heaters) include: a) running the tank at a higher temperature in the winter so that, when the power goes out, it has farther to drop before going out of range, or doing the opposite in the summer; and, b) finding some way of insulating the tank for less heat loss (I've never come up with a good solution for this.) By the way, aerating your tank with air taken from an air-conditioned house can drop the temperature of a tank, too. My tank dropped 2 degrees over 6 hours the other night.

[sen5241b]

A week or more.

 

Flow is most important for two reasons: To help oxygenate the water and to diffuse metabolic wasteproducts.

 

Next in line is temperature. It doesn't have to be tightly controlled. Just keep it out of the gutters - between 72 and 80 or so. I wouldn't want to go too far outside this range. A couple of options (besides powering heaters) include: a) running the tank at a higher temperature in the winter so that, when the power goes out, it has farther to drop before going out of range, or doing the opposite in the summer; and, b) finding some way of insulating the tank for less heat loss (I've never come up with a good solution for this.) By the way, aerating your tank with air taken from an air-conditioned house can drop the temperature of a tank, too. My tank dropped 2 degrees over 6 hours the other night.

 

Good info. I keep my tank at 81 in the summer and lower in the winter. I've tried running a heater off a computer battery backup and it did not work. Some devices like my Rio 6Hf just won't run off an inverter or battery. Its not just about power sources but also what happens if you are out of town or even gone for the day? The last big storm and power outage I had was Isabella and the power was out for 3 days --same as this one. If I had a battery backup that could run a modest fuge pump, heater and a small fan over the tank for just 2 or 3 days I would be fine. But batteries that auto-switch over when you are not home are very pricey.

 

Vortech has some amazing battery-backup powerheads IF you have the money.

 

vortech

 

cheaper vortech

Edited July 3, 2012 by sen5241b

[sen5241b]

This one looks even cheaper.

 

cheaper yet

[Hilary]

My 90 gallon did fine with one airstone in the display (one that turns on automatically when the power fails), a regular one in the sump and running the HOB fuge off a marine battery. In the future I'll have four airstones set up to turn on automatically in case of an outage - one in the sump, two in the display and one in the HOB fuge - and I think that will hold the tank until I can get back if I'm at the office or out of town. Of course, I didn't have anything hypersensitive like SPS in the display, but was very surprised by how well everything did with just the airstones. (My solution only costs about $80. )

[sen5241b]

My 90 gallon did fine with one airstone in the display (one that turns on automatically when the power fails), a regular one in the sump and running the HOB fuge off a marine battery. In the future I'll have four airstones set up to turn on automatically in case of an outage - one in the sump, two in the display and one in the HOB fuge - and I think that will hold the tank until I can get back if I'm at the office or out of town. Of course, I didn't have anything hypersensitive like SPS in the display, but was very surprised by how well everything did with just the airstones. (My solution only costs about $80. )

 

Good plan BUT is there a way to keep the tank warm if your gone when the power goes out?