Storms!!! What do you do?

[rams]

Everyone has read and talked about what has happened and what they have had happen to their system after and maybe during a storm. What kind of things do you do here in the midwest to prepare for a storm?

For example: I usually kick off my ballasts and main pump during the severe parts of a storm going thru. Power surges can do damage to your lighting systems and basically anything plugged in. I kill power on my main pump to safe guard the impeller shaft from snapping on my mag drive.

I have always thought what else do people do. We have had a bad string of storm last week. It is that time of year...

 

[zt444a]

Yes please... any advice to help me avert disaster would be greatly appreciated.

 

[stlouisguy]

I bought a generator. Has saved my tank three times so far when electricity was out for over 2 days

Neighbors think im nuts with just my frig, freezer and aquariums hooked up LOL

 

[DARKSILENTTYPE]

I have surge protectors on all the plugins . The only thing I make sure of is that the water level in the sump down stairs is low enough to handle the tank water that will siphon out of the tank and the water that will siphon out of the skimmer .So I don't have a wet floor and pumps when the power comes back on .

 

[Dert42]

i dont' have my tank set up yet, but i'm going to get at least a 600v battery backup/surge protector.

http://www.refurbups.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.4/it.A/id.556/.f
something like that. (not an edorsement of that site)

i have no idea how long that will power anything, but it should for a bit. my power hasn't been out more then 5 minutes at my current house as long as i've lived there. i figured i will plug 1 heater and 1 powerhead into the battery back up.
so if the power dies, the water will move and stay warm for at least a bit.

 

[beaker77]

With your heater alone plugged into a 600va UPS you'll get about 5 minutes of runtime depending on the wattage.

I use a 2200va UPS to run one 18w Seio for about four hours.

 

[DrBDC]

I need to get a battery backup for my aquacontroller but I just run the main pump and powerheads off of a power inverter plugged into a car and a couple long extension cords.

 

[Fade]

Cross my fingers and pray to the power Gods.

 

[chadscamaro]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6968521#post6968521 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fade32
Cross my fingers and pray to the power Gods.

Hey thats the same method I use ! Also keep a small underrated generator that will probably only power 1/2 my pumps ! :eek1:

 

[Nanook]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6968521#post6968521 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fade32
Cross my fingers and pray to the power Gods.

Ditto what John said

 

[tetra9999]

For those of us with boats there are extra batteries that could be used, (I've got three in mine) but not sure what I could hook them up to to use, some kind of inverter but would have to hook directly up to the batteries? any thoughts?

 

[DrBDC]

Power inverters come with a cigarette lighter connector. If you wanted to hook directly to a battery just cut the plug off and make a wiring harness.

 

[Im Lon 2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6968278#post6968278 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DrBDC
but I just run the main pump and powerheads off of a power inverter plugged into a car and a couple long extension cords.

This is what I plan on doing too!! do you have to start the Car often, or does it not use that much power from the battery?

 

[DrBDC]

Was it last fall that the power went out all over? Anyway I kept going out and starting the car about every half hour, but it started up so easy and the alt. gauge didn't show a heavy charge, switched to an hour, same thing. But I'd say start every 45min to an hour for 15 min and keep an eye out on the gauges and if it's slow to start. Maybe switch vehicles if possible. We had company coming over for a bbq so I even ran some of those clip on lights off of it with those little 14w=65w energy savers and we could see no problem.

 

[Lost His Marbles Name]

If you live in MO. you can call your gas utility CO. and finance a generator. My company and two other companys wires them for you and the generator runs off the natural gas "lp". Or buy one from someware and put it in. The automaticly transfer when power goes out then when power turns back on they transfer back to the utility power. Now you can go on vacation with out worry's.

 

[Lost His Marbles Name]

I did use an inverter one night when we didn't have power. just on the Tunze though.