- Location
- westbury, NY
I got a generator! Now to find gas tanks :/ fml
Emergency Measures to use NOW for Power Outages for your Saltwater Aquarium
- Thread starter KathyC
- Start date
- Location
- westbury, NY
It's a 3000w and I paid out the butt but w/e Hicksville, John Deere place, pre paid its comin in tonight or tmrw morning but I need gas containers lll
- Location
- Howell, NJ
good luck finding gas tanks lol the guy at home depot laughed at me when i asked if he had anymore. i got 4 gallons in my generator already a 5 gallon container full and a 2.5 gallon full as well. im ready :fight2:
- Location
- westbury, NY
Yeah same here haha, I ended up takin my friends cuz they use them for landscaping and stuff but dnt have a generator so they dnt need them lol
- Location
- Sound Beach,LI
+100000 Don't use any containers except those meant to hold gas
Please see this OSHA Fact sheet on Generator safety:
http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/portable_generator_safety.pdf
http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/portable_generator_safety.pdf
My power just went out. How much help will the battery powered airdrome help? 110 mixed reef
- Location
- westbury, NY
Power went out and generator never made it! Truck got stuck in storm! So yeah I'm stuck at work in the city cuz of the bridge so yeah I'm strewed!
- Location
- Wantagh, NY
I'm stuck working in Staten Island been here going on 40hrs!
My power went out at 4pm.
How long will 2 brand new D batteries last for in my air pump?
My power went out at 4pm.
How long will 2 brand new D batteries last for in my air pump?
- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
for heat you guys should try and find a bunch of hand warmers and tape them to the bottom of the tank. then wrap the tank up and leave a small gap behind the blanket so heat can rise all around it along with putting some hot water in the tank.
- Location
- New York Metro Area
My power just came back on after 36 hours. I have been worried sick for my tank and don't wish this on anyone. The folks that still have no power have my thoughts and prayers.
Here is what I did for my tank and status of livestock after power came back on:
I had the battery operated airstone (million-air) which required 2 D batteries. These last only 3 hours so after I was done with the batteries, I found out the entire area was sold out of D batteries. Lesson: Have lots of D batteries in stock.
I was manually oxygenating the tank, and heating the water on the stove (thank goodness for Gas), but even so, when the Apex came on line it recorded the temperature as 73. My glass thermometer and digital thermometer showed 75. When I was manually heating, I tried to keep the temperature around 77.
I had a UPS backup for my computers which I moved over tot he tank. I used it last night to run an airstone with a low powered pump. I knew it would have lasted all night without problems, probably should have put a heater on there too.
I had styrofoam on the sides of the tank and made the mistake to "cover" the tank with a blanket to insulate. You have to "wrap the tank". Lucky I fixed that before I had more problems than I did.
The best suggestion I got about manually oxygenating water was to take 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of tank water into an empty gallon container and shake it like it's going out of style. This actually fizzed up the water better than any pouring I was doing (which sometimes is hugely problematic as it can knock corals off and depending on the height splash your electricals and everything else.
I strongly recommend this method over anything else for oxygenating the tank manually. It worked wonder, I could hear the water fizzing, I could see it as a different viscosity or whatever the word is when I poured it back.
I would also suggest monitor the salinity because heating and pouring will mess that up.
I had to let the sump go. My sump is actually a display fuge, it is pretty and had vibrant macros, some corals and inverts. I was able to agitate the water and heat it like I was doing for the DT but I pretty much concentrated my efforts and worry on the DT.
I have 3 confirmed casualties so far (6 hours since power came back on) my cleaner shrimp, one sexy shrimp and a pocillopora colony that RTNd. I have yet to see all the inhabitants but the fish are accounted for.
At first, the cold seemed to have caused dementia in the Midas, Bangai, and Mandarin.
The Mandarin was breaking my heart, he came to the surface AFTER power was back on gasping and staying at the top. I made him a little perch with the magnet cleaner. But i was able to hold him in my hand, he was that out of it. Maybe the light suddenly coming in shocked him, i don't know. He stayed hyperventilating for a very long time before slowly sinking to the substrate. Then I watched his color begin to fade. He was still alive when I turned off the actinics. He is my favorite fish. I am happy to report he is still alive!
The clown fish, have been troopers the whole time, cuddling together in the zoanthids, never stressing.
Tank looked very cloudy when the lights came on. I thought it best not to do a water change till daylight to give the tank a chance to gradually get the temperature up and filtration to work on the buildup of organics. IT is still cloudy.
ALK is through the roof, Calcium is low. (I was travelling for a week with a doser on and it seems to have effed up the ALK). (any suggestions on how to lower ALK?)
No ammonia or nitrates, PH is 8.0.
All in all
1. Stock up on D batteries
2. Get the battery operated air stone
3. figure out how to heat the water if you have no gas
Here is what I did for my tank and status of livestock after power came back on:
I had the battery operated airstone (million-air) which required 2 D batteries. These last only 3 hours so after I was done with the batteries, I found out the entire area was sold out of D batteries. Lesson: Have lots of D batteries in stock.
I was manually oxygenating the tank, and heating the water on the stove (thank goodness for Gas), but even so, when the Apex came on line it recorded the temperature as 73. My glass thermometer and digital thermometer showed 75. When I was manually heating, I tried to keep the temperature around 77.
I had a UPS backup for my computers which I moved over tot he tank. I used it last night to run an airstone with a low powered pump. I knew it would have lasted all night without problems, probably should have put a heater on there too.
I had styrofoam on the sides of the tank and made the mistake to "cover" the tank with a blanket to insulate. You have to "wrap the tank". Lucky I fixed that before I had more problems than I did.
The best suggestion I got about manually oxygenating water was to take 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of tank water into an empty gallon container and shake it like it's going out of style. This actually fizzed up the water better than any pouring I was doing (which sometimes is hugely problematic as it can knock corals off and depending on the height splash your electricals and everything else.
I strongly recommend this method over anything else for oxygenating the tank manually. It worked wonder, I could hear the water fizzing, I could see it as a different viscosity or whatever the word is when I poured it back.
I would also suggest monitor the salinity because heating and pouring will mess that up.
I had to let the sump go. My sump is actually a display fuge, it is pretty and had vibrant macros, some corals and inverts. I was able to agitate the water and heat it like I was doing for the DT but I pretty much concentrated my efforts and worry on the DT.
I have 3 confirmed casualties so far (6 hours since power came back on) my cleaner shrimp, one sexy shrimp and a pocillopora colony that RTNd. I have yet to see all the inhabitants but the fish are accounted for.
At first, the cold seemed to have caused dementia in the Midas, Bangai, and Mandarin.
The Mandarin was breaking my heart, he came to the surface AFTER power was back on gasping and staying at the top. I made him a little perch with the magnet cleaner. But i was able to hold him in my hand, he was that out of it. Maybe the light suddenly coming in shocked him, i don't know. He stayed hyperventilating for a very long time before slowly sinking to the substrate. Then I watched his color begin to fade. He was still alive when I turned off the actinics. He is my favorite fish. I am happy to report he is still alive!
The clown fish, have been troopers the whole time, cuddling together in the zoanthids, never stressing.
Tank looked very cloudy when the lights came on. I thought it best not to do a water change till daylight to give the tank a chance to gradually get the temperature up and filtration to work on the buildup of organics. IT is still cloudy.
ALK is through the roof, Calcium is low. (I was travelling for a week with a doser on and it seems to have effed up the ALK). (any suggestions on how to lower ALK?)
No ammonia or nitrates, PH is 8.0.
All in all
1. Stock up on D batteries
2. Get the battery operated air stone
3. figure out how to heat the water if you have no gas
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Not sure what happened in your case, but 2 D batteries in an air pump should last a lot longer than 3 hours--- more like 24hrs. plus. Still, having a supply on hand is very sound advice.
- Location
- New York Metro Area
I would have hoped that was the case but I went through 6 in one night alone. brand new pack of batteries. If you can recommend which battery powered pump brand works for 24 hours I'm going to go and buy 2 of them this week.
- Location
- Rye Brook, NY
Their spec says 12 hours. My plan was to pull it off four to six hours at a time to recharge it at my office where there was power still. Luckily it never came to that. Goodluck.
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Just to follow up on this I decided to put one of my Via Aqua Millionaire D250's to the test. At 1:30 PM yesterday I replaced the batteries with a fresh set and turned it on. It is now 12:30 and the pump is still humming along. It is not attached to a tank so the lack of back pressure might extend battery life a bit ( not sure), but something was not right with your pump and/or your batteries for them to exhaust in 3 hrs. The roughly 24hr. run time is consistent with my experience with numerous brands of battery air pumps.
Anyone besides MetroKat find otherwise?
- Location
- New York Metro Area
Thank you for testing! Then indeed my pump is faulty. At the 3 hour mark, the pump starts to click instead of hum. Once D batteries are available again I can video the end of the cycle so you can see it. I don't remember what I paid for the thing, I got it from Kathy C at the December frag swap. But I suspect getting a new one might be cheaper than doing another test on this one.
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
