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Power outages, have a plan.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by vikubz, Jun 9, 2016.

  1. Jun 9, 2016 #1
    vikubz Cedar Falls

    vikubz Well-Known ReefKeeper

    734
    Cedar Falls
    Ratings:
    +8 / 0 / -0
    Couple weeks ago we had a transformer blow in our neighborhood and had a brief power outage. When I got home I went to check that the pumps had started okay. I saw the powerheads were running again. I then noticed some water on the floor (tank is in the basement) and concluded that the topoff had stuck on and overflowed the sump. I pulled the float switch to soak in vinegar and got distracted, neglecting to check all the pumps. The return pump was not running, and I had forgotten with the way my skimmer and ATS are set up, if all pumps are off the sump will overflow a little. Bottom line, the return pump was still off and stayed off until the next night when I checked on the tank. There was insufficient aeration from the powerheads so I lost my two spot bristletooth, my lyretail anthias and nice royal gramma. The others are came through it okay and are doing fine.

    Moral of the story, have a recovery plan if there's a power outage.
     
    • Uh oh! Not good! Uh oh! Not good! x 1
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  2. Jun 9, 2016 #2
    xroads La Porte City, IA

    xroads Veteran Reefkeeper Vendor

    8,015
    La Porte City, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,014 / 6 / -0
    Man I am sorry to hear that.

    I usually bring this up around this time of year due to thunderstorms and forgot. It is not if it will happen to everyone but when.
     
  3. Jun 11, 2016 #3
    chromess 01

    chromess 01

    166
    Ratings:
    +10 / 0 / -0
    One of my returns Ive noticed when the power goes out or if the breaker trips it doesnt restart. I have it on a switched outlet and I have to turn it off and back on for it to restart. I had a routine power outage early morning this week and made sure to check everything. I have a generator and a slight plan, its trying to link 4 tanks through out the house to one generator.
     
  4. Jun 11, 2016 #4
    GoodGreef Clive, IA

    GoodGreef Well-Known ReefKeeper

    681
    Clive, IA
    Ratings:
    +239 / 2 / -0
    Lost power last night for about 10 minutes and everything went as planned for once when it started back up.
     
  5. Jun 12, 2016 #5
    Placid Norwalk, IA

    Placid

    280
    Norwalk, IA
    Ratings:
    +60 / 2 / -0
    Easiest way of a battery backup. 750Watt Power inverted. Just hook it to an old car or camper battery. Real easy on the pocket too...

    k2-_9b06e548-9ec0-4b19-98d3-cbbe9016d1a2.v1.jpg
     
  6. Jun 12, 2016 #6
    MadManMadrid Iowa City

    MadManMadrid Well-Known ReefKeeper

    440
    Iowa City
    Ratings:
    +158 / 4 / -0
    How long will a car battery last on a inverter like that? @Placid@Placid
     
  7. Jun 12, 2016 #7
    Waterrat41 Des moines

    Waterrat41 Addicted Reefer GIRS Member

    298
    Des moines
    Ratings:
    +147 / 1 / -0
    Some car and truck batteries are kinda small capacity anymore, part of ongoing effort of auto manufacturers keeping overall vehicle weight down (starting to produce vehicles without even a place for a spare tire!). Since '01 I've worn out several Ford trucks and vans at work, batteries in those were lucky to run 20 minutes with a load like that. Those batteries are also not designed to be deep cycled and survive well either. If you got a deep cycle battery like for a camper or trolling motor, they start at a group 24 which is about a 60 to 70 amp-hour rating so if you pulled a 750 watt load off of that it would run about an hour....half the load, twice the run time... You could always run it off the car and leave the car running.
    I have a 900watt UPS that I nabbed onto at the office that had bad batteries so they replaced the whole thing. It ran off of two smaller 12 volt batteries in series. Replacements for those were more than deep cycle camper batteries so I bought two camper batteries and extended the cables on the UPS out to them. It will run my 90gal system for 4 to 6 hours depending on how much the heaters are called for and it's totally automatic.
     

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