Power issue (1 Viewer)

[ModAquatics]

On Monday, My son called me after I left work and he said, "Dad I cannot get into the house, it looks like the power is off". I called Centerpoint and they said a transformer blew and they were in the process of replacing it. They said the power has been down since 1PM which means the tanks have been without power for 4 hours.

I told my son to break into the house and get the generator going (which reminds me, I need to find out where he learned to break into a house without breaking any glass). I arrived home about 5:30PM and we got the generator plugged in. The fish were in distress, mostly laying still rapidly breathing. Everything appeared to be fine about an hour after the generator got running. However today I noticed an explosive growth of pink cotton candy type algae in the frag tank. I had it before and it was almost gone. Now it is worse than ever....

Centerpoint replaced the transformer and had the power up by 8PM. Even though I had a generator, it is a manual connection. I looked into standby power but I don't want to shell out that much cash. So I suppose I need to reduce the number of tanks and put essential pumps on battery backup. A battery should be able to buy me a few hours so I can setup alternate power. It could have been worse.

So I will post a couple tanks and several corals and critters shortly. I will throw in the Pink algae for free.

 

[fishcraze_1]

Sorry to hear.

I just got back from Chicago late last night and first thing I did was check on my tanks.

Everything doing well , at least I didn't see any issues.

Tanks were not fed for 5 days I was away

 

[reeftopia]

Fostersmith has a battery backup aireater, it will keep everything alive the whole day definitly a must have item.

 

[ModAquatics]

Fostersmith has a battery backup aireater, it will keep everything alive the whole day definitly a must have item.

I forgot I had one of these.

I got it for free when I bought the BC29 from ADG.

 

[reeftopia]

Yea there great but there kinda like lights, they only worked when there plugged in.

 

[trb]

I saw some of the larger APC power supplies at Staples a few weeks ago that might be a good idea to run a few powerheads and maybe a small return pump for a while. The one I saw said 1300va, 780w runs up to 140 min for $161 online at Amazon. I wonder how long it would run some powerheads.

 

[KyleH]

I have a 300 va (or whatever they measure them) for about $25 after rebate/sales a few years back. It kept my 10 watt pump running for about 1.5-2hrs last time I had a long term outage.

You'll have to do the math. They are great, but if only you can pulse your pumps to run every 5-10 minutes and break. That may stretch them out. Keep in mind that computer battery's usually have to be replaced after 5+ years because the battery stop being able to hold a charge.

Unfortunately, I was out of power for about 10 hrs, but I have very little demands in my nano's.

You may want to look into the battery units for the the MP pumps instead. Someone posted a while back that they are rated to run for 1 day.

-KyleH