Close Call Last Night

[hark]

Where I live we had power problems last night starting around 8pm. Nothing too serious so I went out for some wobbly pops and was home by 11. Well th power went out then and stayed off. I figure it would come by so I went to sleep for a bit, remember I had a few beers. I woke up at 4 am in a panic the power had not come back so race to the tank. Everything was OK but I could tell things were getting bad. I spent the next two hours dumping buckets of salt water into the tank to add oxygen. By 530 all my fish were laying sideways on on tank floor so I fig they were all goners. My manual tank thermometer read It had dropped under 70 as well.
Thinking it was over for my poor fish I turned my attention to my sump pump issues and water coming in the basement.

After fighting the sump pump for 2 hours the power came back. I couldn't get the courage to look at the tank so I instead was using the shop vac to suck up water for the next 30 minutes. My wife came down to see how it was going and looked in in tank and yelled for me. Me thinking she was going to tell me my fish are dead I told he ' I already know, we will go buy new fish tomorrow '. She then told me all the fish were slowly coming off the bottom of the tank.

Sure enough they were cold, but alive. Haven't found a single causality yet aside from snails I think the cold did them in.

So tomorrow I'm going to go to lower an pick up a generac 8000 generator. Also going going order a whole house generator and h that installed later this spring. Need to pour a concrete pad for that first though. . Will bring the portable generator to the cottage and hook it up to my beer fridge and satellite

So disaster averted. The worst part is I have 6 really powerful battery backup units from server racks, I had no charged any of them so what what a waste! They are charging now an will ta 24 hours to fully charge.

 

[heath]

OMG, thank god that they are (fish) ok... I am always concerned when my power goes out to the point that I went out and bought blankets for the tanks.. if mine is out more than an hour they get wrapped...I don't have the option of having a generator...yesterday was hell on hydro, mine went out 5 times...

 

[zoomster]

Hey hark,
Really glad to hear you only lost a few snail!
I know how it can feel when you see all your money and time and work circling the drain.
Hope all is well long term!

 

[TORX]

This all of our fears. You definitely did the right thing in aerating the water. For others reading, most of us have natural gas hot water heaters. Meaning in a power outage, you will not run out of hot water. I fill bottles with hot water and float them. I also wrap the tank. This turned out on the better side for you and that is great to hear.

 

[heath]

I fill bottles with hot water and float them

that is awesome information...never thought of that...thanks for sharing...

 

[shamous113]

Even if you have an electric hot water tank you should be able to get enough hot water to tide you over until you can get a generator.

 

[hark]

To be honest I wasn't as worried about the temperature as I was oxygen in the water, that's why it got all my attention. I've had 3 major tank failures over 20 years in the hobby, twice I lost fish to oxygen issues (the other was a front panel blow out). The first time was a similar power issue but it was back when we lost power for a few days in the summer 13 or so years ago...the major outage. The second time was an overloaded breaker while I was away and now this time. I do have 3 aerators that are hooked up to my massive battery backups that will run for days, but they need to be charged to work (big dummy me, I would have been really pissed if my fish died because I forgot to charge my batteries).

So since I thought I was down 5000 bucks in lost fish, corals and live rock that means tomorrow I can go spend at least half of that money on new corals .

 

[Nighthawk26]

This all of our fears. You definitely did the right thing in aerating the water. For others reading, most of us have natural gas hot water heaters. Meaning in a power outage, you will not run out of hot water. I fill bottles with hot water and float them. I also wrap the tank. This turned out on the better side for you and that is great to hear.

Most newer homes, and many homes that have replaced furnaces, would now be on a power vented hot water tank. So sadly in that case, sort of our of luck there. Really only Direct vent tanks will benefit as they are the only ones that don't require power.

 

[Nighthawk26]

To be honest I wasn't as worried about the temperature as I was oxygen in the water, that's why it got all my attention. I've had 3 major tank failures over 20 years in the hobby, twice I lost fish to oxygen issues (the other was a front panel blow out). The first time was a similar power issue but it was back when we lost power for a few days in the summer 13 or so years ago...the major outage. The second time was an overloaded breaker while I was away and now this time. I do have 3 aerators that are hooked up to my massive battery backups that will run for days, but they need to be charged to work (big dummy me, I would have been really pissed if my fish died because I forgot to charge my batteries).

So since I thought I was down 5000 bucks in lost fish, corals and live rock that means tomorrow I can go spend at least half of that money on new corals .

Really, you're saving money! Love it! Next house for me, will have a Generator too.

 

[shamous113]

I'm interested in the Tesla Powerwall For home use and light back up they have a 7kwh model and you can use more then 1.

https://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/POWERWALL

 

[EricTMah]

This is a good lesson for everyone.
Think of all the money we have invested in out tanks. A small generator to run the bare essentials of the system will easily cost less than $500.
Imo it's a very small investment for your tank to save the thousands of dollars you have in livestock. You don't need to buy one big enough to run everything in the house. Most can get away with 500w to run the essentials.

I purchased a 1500w generator once I moved into my house. It's enough to run my tank or my furnace. I switch back and forth every hr or so to keep the tank healthy and the house warm. I've already had to use it twice over the years

@hark glad you didn't lose anything. It could've been much worse.

Sony Xperia Z3

 

[hark]

I just ordered a 13,000 watt whole house unit from Lowe's. .now I need a gas fitter and an electrician

 

[derrick orosz]

I'm interested in the Tesla Powerwall For home use and light back up they have a 7kwh model and you can use more then 1.

https://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/POWERWALL

Wow..so $3500 for the unit but how.much for the solar pannals ? Aren't those like 30k?

 

[shamous113]

yea the solar panels are really pricey, at least 15k for a 7kwh setup. The power wall can be set up to charge during the night when electricity is cheep and switch when its peek hours too.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

got to love living in the middle of nowhere when there is hydro problems, we heat with a wood furnace which also heats hot water, we use hydro for backup heat, and I have a computer backup supply that powers my main pump 15 min on and 15min off cycles will last about 3 hours before I have to get the generator.

 

[scubasteve]

got to love living in the middle of nowhere when there is hydro problems, we heat with a wood furnace which also heats hot water, we use hydro for backup heat, and I have a computer backup supply that powers my main pump 15 min on and 15min off cycles will last about 3 hours before I have to get the generator.

he had backup but forgot to charge the backups lol..... man hark that generator must be pretty impressive.

 

[heath]

got to love living in the middle of nowhere when there is hydro problems, we heat with a wood furnace which also heats hot water, we use hydro for backup heat, and I have a computer backup supply that powers my main pump 15 min on and 15min off cycles will last about 3 hours before I have to get the generator.

if you are out in the middle of nowhere, what is your water source.. when I lived in the country and when the hydro went out so did the pump that pumps the water from the well...living in the country does pose its own challenges...

 

[Sewerat]

Yup


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[sLAsh]

Cheap battery powered bait aerator.
http://t.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Aerator/product/74343/?cmCat=CROSSSELL_PRODUCT.
I find they live longer than ones meant for aquariums because people user them for a full day at a time and don't just store them in case of an emergency.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

when power goes out we have a 20 gal pressure tank on the well, for drinking, for my aquarium I have a 10 gal pressure tank on my ro system, and my tank is only 29 gal, I could theoretically do a 30% water change in a power outage without starting the gen, reality is I would just go out and start the gen, it will run for 9 hour on a tank of fuel and I keep enough fuel to run for 3 days on hand, there is a gas station 5km up the road that actually has a manual crank they can pump gas with