Preparing for an Outage

[minekopanda]

Hello!

New here and to the fish world. Boyfriend and I have a 100g saltwater tank and 20g freshwater tank. Not too worried about the freshwater tank, but we're having a heart attack over the saltwater tank.

We have fish, cleaning crew, coral, etc. We're going to be out of town for 2 days and during one of those days, Edison has set up an outage that is estimated to last 7.5hrs but could go on longer. I live in SoCal and the temp here has gotten as high as 107. Inside of our home, with the AC off, the house can get up to 100 degrees. We're in a panic trying to figure out what to do to keep the saltwater tank safe.

I've read several threads/forums that talk about what people do but it's all very overwhelming, scenarios are different, etc.

Can someone please shed some light and guidance as to what we should do to prepare for this while we're gone?

 

[jenkinscrew2578]

Wow that's no good. So it is a planned outage? I would say you need a generator, window AC unit and a tank sitter during that outage. I would have the generator setup(ventilated area far away from tank, like garage or back porch) and full of gas and some extra. Then setup the window unit in the same room as the tank. Have all your cords ready to be run to the tank and AC. Keep your house as cold as you can before you leave. Then shut all doors in the house. When the electricity goes out, sitter will have to start generator, start AC unit and plug your power strips and equipment in and monitor fuel.

That's what I would do...maybe others have some better tricks!

Good luck!

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[daghostryder]

Just a suggestion but you might consider investing in some type of tank monitoring system, Apex Neptune, or something similar that can notify you in the case of any type failure. Second idea is to find a reputable company to check on the tank while you are away. Those are my two immediate suggestions based on bad experiences with asking friends and family to watch mine while away.

Good luck!!

 

[mikeatjac]

Apex is not going to do any good if the power is off.

1st you need flow. So a pump connected to a battery back. You could buy an MP40 with a battery back up or go to the DIY area here and make one.

Second you need to cool the water. I would fill 8 or so water bottles with water and freeze them. Find some one that can put them in your tank if needed.

 

[minekopanda]

Okay after mote digging, research, and reading what you guys have suggested I'm trying to figure out if this will work:
The powerhead is a Koralia, not sure on the exact model though Is there anyway I can connect the echotech backup battery to this or does it only work with that brand of pump?

Next, we'd like to connect the chiller to a ups that'll hopefully last at least 6hrs, though 8hrs would be great. This is probably my biggest confusion because I'm reading mixed info. Some say it'll last an hour and others get it to run for 8hrs or more...

Thanks everyone!

 

[Mortie31]

Okay after mote digging, research, and reading what you guys have suggested I'm trying to figure out if this will work:
The powerhead is a Koralia, not sure on the exact model though Is there anyway I can connect the echotech backup battery to this or does it only work with that brand of pump?

Next, we'd like to connect the chiller to a ups that'll hopefully last at least 6hrs, though 8hrs would be great. This is probably my biggest confusion because I'm reading mixed info. Some say it'll last an hour and others get it to run for 8hrs or more...

Thanks everyone!

Unfortunately you won't find a UPS To run a chiller for that long without spending a fortune, as previously suggested a generator is your best bet, but get one that is able to run sensitive equipment, I think it's called pure sine wave or something similar. This will be far cheaper and if you buy a big enough one you will be able to run most of your equipment as normal for a day. Vortech battery backups are great, but only run there pumps and for not much more money you will get a half decent gene..

 

[minekopanda]

Unfortunately we will not be in town during the scheduled outage. Have a VA appointment up north that cannot be missed so a generator is not an option for us.
Since the powerhead is a koralia and I can't use the echotech battery back up, would the UPS last long enough in this case?

 

[mikeatjac]

I agree that asking someone to come over a fire up a generator is asking a lot.

However asking some to stop by and put some frozen bottles of water in the tank is not asking much.

As far as the UPS, I would get one and test it out before and see how long it last. Maybe use it with a smaller pump that you have. If the UPS does not work you could always take it back and get a larger one after testing.

Remember a tank with out flow can go down hill very fast especially if you have sand.

 

[minekopanda]

So... as long as we keep the flow going the tank should survive? Even if the temperature spikes a little (or a lot depending how helpful the ice bags are)?

 

[heathlindner25]

Yes,Depending on how hot it gets

 

[mikeatjac]

So... as long as we keep the flow going the tank should survive? Even if the temperature spikes a little (or a lot depending how helpful the ice bags are)?

I have been there and yes.

 

[ThRoewer]

I have had power outages for 4 to 6h and everything was fine without UPS or generator. As long as your tank is not completely full of corals and crowded with fish a battery operated airpump with an airstone should be able to keep everything okay. There are some readily available that turn automatically on when the power goes out.
The heat is of greater concern. A couple of prepared ice bottles, like suggest, may actually do the trick of keeping the temperature in the safe zone. But for that you would need someone to help.

I would most definitely keep the lights off during the time you are gone and set the tank temperature to 24 or even 23 °C to start the temperature ramp-up from as low as possible. Same goes for the room/house. Water takes a good while to heat up from just room temperature. Most heat issues in the summer come actually from the heat pumps and lights release into the tank. The effect of the room temperature is more on reducing or impeding heat loss than actually heating up the tank.

There are also battery operated fans you could use for chilling the tank - evaporation chilling can work just fine (it's all I have on my tanks). It will run up the salinity, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue if it's just for a day or two. The only issue with those fans is that they usually not switch automatically on when the power goes out.

Keeping the lights off for those days also has the effect that the fish are calmer and consume less oxygen.

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