Lets talk disaster recovery including spare parts & supplies. How prepared are you??

[slief]

Lets talk disaster recovery including spare parts & supplies. How prepared are you??

Many of us have very large systems with lots of money invested in them and as such have factored in spares and disaster preparedness. Regardless of size or cost, our tanks are near and dear to us and as such, are priceless in most of our minds.

We always seem to see threads about what equipment to get but I've never seen a thread on this very important and overlooked subject.. Spare parts and disaster recovery preparedness.. A subject that is very easy to overlook and or not consider when building our reef tanks. Being in the computer industry for the last 27 years, disaster recovery is something I know all to well and it's something I take very seriously in my salt water aquarium/reef keeping hobby too.

I've been in this hobby for over 25 years and have had enough experience to know that I need to be prepared for almost any conceivable failure or disaster. Over the years I've been through massive earthquakes and other disasters and was always able to recover my system with relatively minimal losses. Most of these disasters have been covered in my tank thread. As such, I figured this often overlooked subject would be a good topic to start as it may help others be better prepared when things go wrong.

In my experience, there are two things we need to really be prepared for. First is equipment failure and second is disaster, be it a large crash or act of god like an earthquake, power outage, hurricane etc. I consider myself very well prepared for virtually anything.

I'd like this thread to be about spare parts and disaster preparedness so with that in mind, let's hear what you have and and how you are prepared for worst case scenario's be it critical hardware failure, tank crashes or acts of god. A brief description of your tank including size/volume and type of tank (SPS, Mixed Reef etc) would be relative as well.

I will start.
Main display 480G mixed reef with primarily soft corals and some LPS along with 70-80 fish.
Sump 90G
Refugium 90G
Display refugium 30G
Total water volume 600-650 gallon

I am probably forgetting some things but here is my list.

Spare parts:
Reeflo Hammerhead Return Pump (with unions installed for a fast and easy swap)
Reeflo Dart recirculation pump (with unions installed for a fast and easy swap)
Tunze 6205 motor block
Tunze 6205 impeller
Tunze 6105 motor block
Tunze 6105 impeller
Tunze power supply
Koralia 1200
Power supply for my Reeftech LED's
Neptune Apex brain
Neptune Apex EB8
Genesis Renew Brain for my automatic water changes
Litermeter III slave pump (backup for my ATO)
AquaMedic dosing pump (backup for my ATO)
1" SeaSwirl
Float Switches
SpectraPure RODI cartridges (I keep a couple of each cartridge on hand)

I need to add a spare pump for my new Bubble King Supermarin 250. I had spare a impeller and motor block for the red dragon pumps on my previous Alpha 300 skimmer which I just sold.

Disaster preparedness supplies
100 gallons of salt water on hand at all times
100 gallons of RODI on hand at all times
Several 200 gallon cases of mixing salt on hand at all times
Several pounds of lignite carbon
2 or 3 air pumps
2 gallons of MicroBacter which I keep on hand for emergency bacterial supplement.
1 gallon Amquel
1 gallon NovAqua
Erythromycin (antibiotic)
2 food grade 55 poly gallon drums
several each 10, 100, 200 micron 7" filter socks. I actually have a case of the 200 micron socks..
All sizes of spare unions, ball valves, union ball valves, PVC, Flex PVC, Glue, Primer etc.
Plugs for all my bulkheads so I can plug them up inside the tank if plumbing were to break or need to be repaired. This is handy in the event of an earthquake or if I am doing plumbing changes.
1 Honda EU1000 generator

 

[snorvich]

My first concern is power failures that are extensive. Solution is a whole house generator (yes that is expensive, but I have multiple tanks, a pond, and four refrigerators). Second line of defense (with no generator) are battery operated air pumps. My second concern would be pump failure so I have an spare that would work on any aquarium (all sumps in the basement). 200 gallons of RO/DI water is last emergency provision.

 

[ca1ore]

Wow, I don't do anything even close to all of that; impressive!

In terms of spares, my approach is that I need to have something 'on hand' only if my tank cannot survive its absence for the two days it takes to get a replacement shipped to me. Consequently I have an adequate temporary replacement main pump and a new heater on hand. Everything else can wait two days.

In terms of disasters, really it's either power failures or inadvertent tank contamination, and I'm better prepared for the former than for the latter. I have never been able to justify the cost of an automatic whole-house generator, but I do have a sizable portable, that will easily run the tank during the day. At night, when it is off, I have a pair of vortech battery backup units that keep things circulating. When bad weather is forecast, I stock up on gasoline. Tank contamination or some need for large amounts of pre-mixed salt water is a bit more problematic. I do routinely keep about 75 gallons pre-mixed, but were I to need more, it would be a problem.

Excellent topic to discuss though!

 

[Misled]

2 buckets of salt
30 gal of RO/DI
5 pkg of Pickling lime
Skimmer pump
Return pump
3 250w halides
4 24" vho's
Generator

 

[r-balljunkie]

try living half way around the world. at least you have next day air as a shipping option. for me to get something in three weeks is fast.

i keep a spare return pump on hand...spare MH lighting set. asides from that, everything else is workable.

 

[gogo7]

uh oh, the terrorists have won.

 

[Palting]

uh oh, the terrorists have won.

LOL!!! That made my day.

Anyhow, here's what I have should the terrorists strike :
1. Portable generator to power two aquariums, a refrigerator, a freezer, one window air conditioner (still boxed), one TV, and maybe several lights. Oh, and also power one radio with emergency frequencies
2. Spare return pump, used intermittently for mixing saltwater for water changes.
3. A spare powerhead. I actually rotate the powerheads, like rotating car tires, having one spare all the time.
4. Spare MH and T5 bulbs. Actually used bulbs that I had taken out. Spectrum may be wrong and they may be old, but will do in a pinch if the bulbs burn out. If the whole fixture blows for some reason, then I guess the tank has to pretend it is in a prolonged solar eclipsed or dark storm of several days.
5. Small wet-dry vac. Helps in the occasional accident. May help but likely get overwhelmed if a true catastrophe strikes.
6. I have stock of salt, usually restock when I am down to two weeks worth or one water change.
7. 55 gallon drum of RODI water

 

[Sinekal]

I keep a spare return, top off, and dosing pump. Skimmer can be down for a few days in my system so no back up pump there. I have extra heaters, power heads, air pumps, and keep a big fan that can exhaust my whole fish room since I use fans for evaporative cooling. I have a couple gfci power strips and some long extensions cords should I need to go elsewhere in the house for power. I live in Phoenix near multiple hospitals so my power doesn't really go out, but I'm seriously considering a portable generator just in case. Also have plans to add a chiller only for that day where the ac on that side of the house goes out(it's happened before and the other ac kept the temp low enough, but I prefer to plan for a serious of failures.

I keep 25 gallons of ro and 25 of salt on hand, and have two trash cans and an army of buckets on hand should I need to make a lot more.

Right now I have a back up controller, but that's likely going away.

I keep a stock pile of salt, other additives, carbon and gfo. I'm ussually covered for 6 months to a year.

I keep meticulous notes. Like how is my controller programmed. Referencing notes has helped me to recover multiple times.

 

[Reef Frog]

My biggest concern is a power outage or AC break down.

I have an AC power inverter & extension cord that can run off of my car, tractor or jump box. Plus 20 gallons of fuel on hand. This saved me during a 4 to 5 day outage durning the Sandy storm. It can run 300 watts of equipment so I can run the heater or chiller, 2 circulation pumps & a strip T8 light in the case of an outage running longer than about 3 days where my coral would be at risk.

I have a few blocks of ice in the freezer & large heavy duty zip lock bags as a back up for my chiller. Hopefully that would buy me a few hours if the chiller quit on a very hot day where my central AC broke at the same time. Odds are low but possible.

In the event a long winter power outage occurs & room temps drop to the point where 250 watts of heating can't produce a survivable tank temp, I will run a propane neater or even my gas grill in the living room. I am fully aware of the risks but will do it anyway as a last ditch effort (I would try my fireplace first) I have CO2 & carbon monoxide defectors and would sleep outside or I'm my truck. I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE ELSE TRY THIS - IT COULD BE FATAL! Also I'm the only one in the house. It would be incredibly irresponsible to risk your kids, wife or non aquarium pets with this scheme.

I am planning on getting a battery back up for my vortech pump soon so I have circulation during an outage. Now I must be home to hook things up but my bio load (fish ) is low so I believe I have about 6 hours of power off grace time before things start perishing. This is a big vulnerability as my power goes out all the time - it's 3rd world.

If I'm away on a trip or vacation, I have 3 neighbors who are home all day & they will call or text if there is a power outage that's expected to last a while. My utility web site is great & estimates accurately when power is expected to be restored. If it's a long time I have friends & family who know how to hook up my gear.

Not a perfect plan by an means but a whole house generator is not in the cards right now.

 

[GroktheCube]

I always have 30g of RO/DI on hand.I
I keep double spares for every part of my RO/DI, as it seems more failure prone than any other piece of equipment.
Big bottle of prime.
A few spare pumps and PHs.
Enough salt forE my whole tank and two QTs.
Most importantly, a whole house natural gas standby generator. Expensive, but much less expensive than everything it protects,

 

[slief]

Great feedback so far.. Lets keep this going!

 

[phillrodrigo]

I'm pretty new into the hobby but as I've bought new items I keep my old ones just for those reasons. I have my old power heads. I keep a case of salt. I've been buying things bigger than I used to for that reason. We also have a generator also have a marine battery with a invertor

 

[Rot26]

I've been looking at Disaster Recovery based on how much of an investment I have in the tank. Right now, most of the money is in the equipment and not in the livestock. Once that changes, I'll be adding more insurance to help protect them.

My biggest concern is a power outage, which we had last month that lasted 2 days. Fortunately it was in the high 70's outside, so temperature wasn't an issue at all. I used a power inverter from the truck to keep the pumps and small heater going for a while.

 

[ca1ore]

Addendum to prior post ....

My big vulnerability is if there is a protracted power outage while I am away. I just hope it doesn't happen (not the best mitigation strategy .... though it's worked for 25 years )

 

[slief]

Addendum to prior post ....

My big vulnerability is if there is a protracted power outage while I am away. I just hope it doesn't happen (not the best mitigation strategy .... though it's worked for 25 years )

You and I both. Fortunately, that has never been an issue for me but it is kind of scary with such a big power hungry system and I do travel a lot. I've long considered a whole house generator. My biggest issue is where I would have it installed. The best place is near my panel on the side of my house but the issue is that side of the house is used for RV/boat access. While I did sell my RV recently, I'd hate give up that potential space. I may have to think that one over in the future and if anything, I could have it installed next to my tank shed and have the electrician run the conduit up the wall and under the eaves to the circuit panel.

I may just have to do some research and revisit that although given my power usage, I have a feeling it could get VERY expensive!

 

[AcroporAddict]

I have a small generator, back up return pump, back up power supplies to the Vortechs etc, but I have to say, if the disaster is so bad that we have an extended power outage, I will probably have more important things to attend to than my corals, like family, etc. I have kids and an elderly parent living at my house.

The best overall solution to an extended outage, IMO, would be a whole house generator, or one powerful enough for the tank and necessary household systems, like freezers, fridges, etc.

 

[capecodder]

Once I got rid of my hang-on overflow siphon and got a predrilled tank, I stopped worrying so much about disaster scenarios, but that used to make me a nervous wreck that small bubbles would build up and kill the siphon or the purge valve would be faulty.
I got a 240g main display with a 100g sump with fish and LPS

Now I just make sure that there is enough room in my sump to handle the minimal back siphon that occurs. As my twin kids will be in kindergarten in 1 more year, I'll start to make upgrades and move into sps so I'll definitely need to be more prepared at that time.

I once lost power for a week!!! I was literally THE LAST house on my street and in the entire region to get power back. I kept most things alive by filling large metal pots with tank water and putting them in front of the fireplace. My brother was visiting at the time so we took turns....

 

[ca1ore]

I have a small generator, back up return pump, back up power supplies to the Vortechs etc, but I have to say, if the disaster is so bad that we have an extended power outage, I will probably have more important things to attend to than my corals, like family, etc. I have kids and an elderly parent living at my house.

Well, that's a good point ....

Up here in the wilds of CT the electrical grid was apparently installed by the Founding Fathers, so we have week-long outages with some frequency. No elderly parent, and my kids could do with a bit of 'roughing it', so I do end up worrying about my reef tank more than most.

 

[Kairus]

Unintentionally I have spares of a lot of stuff. Mostly because I've upgraded/changed tanks a bunch. I have extra tanks (20L, 20H, 40B, 72g, 90g), a lot of extra pumps, I keep about 50g of RODI on hand, extra rock, three spare skimmers, hang-on filters, carbon, extra lighting set ups (DIY LEDs, three t5 fixtures, and an extra D120), Seachem Safe, about 4 extra circulation pumps, and probably a bunch of other stuff I don't remember.

I need to buy a box of salt.

 

[gveng]

Scott,

I know who I'm calling in case I have an emergency!