Electricity Outtage

No point in stopping now :)

It's comming, sooner than later :

http://news.yahoo.com/snow-smacks-northeast-power-could-days-122810201.html

What is your back up plan? I'm thinking everyone
will benefit from tid bits shared in this one.... as always -peace JT

generator

battery backups, when that runs out generator.

Generator is the only real way to go for a bunch of tanks. I can get away with not powering the heaters in the fish room as long as I can power my main air pump and a few canisters all will be well. 4x50watt canisters+1x45 watt air pump to maintain all fish stock.

Ideally I want to have a large generator ('whole house') with a switch over panel. When the lights go out I flip a few breakers and can bring up the outlets I need. This way I don't need to run extension cords all over the place and can just conserve power as needed. It is more expensive to setup but makes a power outage a breeze.

Generators seem to be it..

Are ya'll familiar with the 'filters' that are
supposed to keep the electricity 'fluid'...

I'm not an electrician so I don't know
common terms..

I picked up a small generator, definatly bargin
but rated at easily twice what I'd need for the tank..

Well, I plugged a small light, and a glass heater in a
5 gal bucket of water outside, and ran it off the generator
for about a tank of gas, as a test... 4-5 hours..

All the levels were good while I was using it, but..
the heater I was using, I use to heat up W/C water and since
I used it with the generator, it is full bore.... always on!!!

It never cuts off now, so I'm thinking the lack of a 'in line electrical
filter' may have burnt it out......

Are ya'll familiar? peace -JT

Yes, some generators lack power regulators. In a sense the regulator acts to keep a constant power level, and cycle.
Generators that don't have this can have power surges /spikes and overtime damage equipment that does not have circuits to protect themselves.

For a more in depth explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_regulator

I have a Generator tied into the main panel . When the power goes out , I throw a few switches , turn a key , and presto ! I have power to my house . Can run the whole house , minus the electric water heater for showers. All 40 some odd tanks , tv , computer , lights , everything. The only female dog is , I have to get a neighbor to call me when the power comes back on .
It only took one power outage and the loss of hundreds of dollars in fish to purchase and set up this system.
Ray

this brings up a good question..is there another mechanical way,,besides a space heater to heat your tanks?

Keep the house temp up ? LOL
Just pretend you are in the tropics ,,,,Hot and humid !

Either a space heater or have a plan to quickly insulate the tanks and try to retain as much heat as possible.

i dont need to pretend life i live in it..lol its always 63f in the house all day long

63f is rather cool . Tropics are 80° +

outside 80+ weather

I have thought of many back up plans for power outages ,and went thru one during Irene. There are things you can do but keeping the house at a constant helps. Of course if power is out there is no temperature control. I keep the house at 72 and run one heater in the 12 tanks, only because the tank is in front of a 5' window. Other then that the tankd stay at 77 through the winter with just the two filters on each tank.

It can get a bit tough without a generator that's for sure.

If you anticipate being in a prolonged outage, here are some good pointers for those of us that don't have them:

- Don't feed fishies
- Remove the filter media and place it in the tank
- If in winter time, wrap tanks in heavy blankets
- If in summer time, use ice if available and if needed. Higher temps need more O2 saturation so keep that in mind.
- To introduce fresh O2 in the tank, using a clean 1g jug, draw out about 1/2g of tank water into the jug, cap, shake vigorously and immediately pour back into the tank.
- If you have a fireplace and use it for heat, draw out some water from the tank and set near the fire place to warm it up. Not too close of course. ;o) Swap out water hourly if possible by drawing out 1g and then pour in the one you had warming.

I'm very familiar with this unfortunately. I only lost a few fish the three days we were out of power during that last big snow storm a couple years back.

Some less expensive options are:
- battery operated air pumps
- power inverter for car batteries

STM-Good looking out with that link,
seems I have much learning to do..

James-Good looking out with that info.
I didn't think about shaking the water,
I was more trying to rig up a bottle
with a 1way valve like they use to 'breath'
for people.... I guess I kind of overthought it.. :)

I appreciate everyone speaking up... peace -JT