178 hours with no heat or electricity---here's how I got my tank through it.

[Sk8r]

If you can do nothing else, get one or more of the battery powered bubblers. That can help so much. Every one in our town was sold out. And get one (or more) that doesn't require odd, weird batteries or that relies on a recharge you have to do WITH the unit. The one I'm favoring uses common D batteries. In a marine tank, among other things, it'll help water turnover and gas exchange. You may still have to pour. And if you have one, beware of siphonage into your pump (which is not water proof) every time the battery runs down---put the pump higher than the tank or have a valve preventing siphon.

 

[CStrickland]

that sounds like no fun at all sk8er!
glad to hear your people family are ok, and the house is intact

 

[Sk8r]

Yep; we're still going to ask insurance to have a look at our roof---many in the area are very badly damaged. But at least we didn't have a tree fall on us. We're just really tired and sore, and electronics and plumbing are still giving us fits because of a week's shutdown.

 

[Sk8r]

I do hope, as a complete sidebar, that people notice that, despite just suffering about as much 'stress' as a marine fish can take---not one of my fish came down with ich. I call bogus on that old wives' tale, ipso facto demonstrato. A parasite does not and cannot manufacture itself in a tank that does not have it, stress or no stress. I'm not sure the poor chromis made it through the last night, but the threestripe is now out of the rockwork scarfing down ground krill along with the golden domino, and the corals are all looking good as well. I also happen to have some coral zooxanthellae refresher (Brightwell, I think) that I'm not sure does that much for the corals, but the fish go on the hunt for food every time I put it in. I'm putting it in.

 

[Irishman360]

Amazing story! I'm glad you shared your experience with us to learn from. Sorry for your marine loss! Again thanks for sharing with us!!

 

[Sk8r]

SOmething about horses and barn doors---but I was able to do a quick and pretty good study on generators. Here's the skinny.
1. if you have sensitive systems to power, like computers, routers, newer tellies and fridges, you will be better off with a generator with an inverter, which produces power about equal to the purity you get from your household sockets from the electric company.
2. if you want to power the whole house, a whole house generator can be rigged to turn on automatically whenever power goes out, to protect things when you're not home. This will be fine for most purposes, but not so good for really sensitive electronics.

I rely on a laptop for a living, and cannot heft a 170 lb full house generator, so this is our plan for future disasters. A Honda 2000 inverter generator, of the sort used in tailgate parties, 42 pounds, producing 'clean' power. I can keep laptop charged, bring the router up for the internet for specific jobs, unplug that and run the microwave to get coffee and hot meals, while using an ice chest for perishables, and meanwhile run the fishtanks and the heaters, running the lights intermittently. It's a bit of a merry-go-round of plugging and unplugging to stay within the 1500 watt running power of the generator, but it's way ahead of getting up every four hours to pour 50 gallons of water. And the generator-inverter is about the size of a small microwave.

I was able to get it for 100.00 off normal price on the Black Friday sale, and they are shipping it free. Home Depot.

 

[heathlindner25]

that's a great little generator and they're pretty quiet too

 

[ZeeSparrow]

That is exactly the generator I borrowed from my boss. You can also, if you find the need, buy a second one and link them together.

 

[Shawn O]

If you own your own home, and live in an area that gets down to freezing in winter, a coal or wood burning stove can also be a life-saver. Glad some of your stuff survived, sk8r.

 

[Sk8r]

Alas, I'm very allergic to wood smoke or charcoal. I do have a propane heater, however, which was a lifesaver, acquired part way through this. We now have a collection of empty 1 lb propane bottles which we have just found a recycler to take.