20 + hour power failure

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KevinR

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Hi all

Yesterday morning I awoke to no power at my house. I am not sure what time the power went down but the temp in my tank had dropped to 20 deg. I did not have any backup but I did have an airpump that I put in the tank. I decided that I need a ups anyway and went out and got one and hooked it up to the tank. That was at 11 am. Then when I got home at 6pm there was still no power and the tank temp had dropped to 18. And my newly installed ups died. Not sure if it was not fully charged yet or what. I will check that. So I took the ups down the road to charge for 2 hours while we where out. Got home at 9 pm and still no power. Connected up the return to the ups. All my corals where looking weak and my yellow tang was not in a good way either. Eventually at about 12 last night the power came back on and I went and checked everything. The temp was down to 17 deg.

So after all this things are looking better this morning. The temp is back up to 22 and the corals are looking better and the tang is swimming better that last night.

What do you guys do to keep the temp of the tank up for longer?
It is unusual for the power to be off for so long but how long do you think a tank will survive with just an airstone?
 
Hi Kevin - OUCH! That is a very long power outage.
Here's what I do:
- have a generator (for those VERY long power outages)
- use battery operated airpumps with extra batteries - my batteries lasts +-8-9 hours
- In the case of the tank's temp - I have nod had MAJOR issues during power outages, but, I did loose all my corals during our house move - for this, I would suggest heating tank water using a metal (stainless steel, not brass) cooker - using your Cadac, and then pouring this into a container that would not melt - and very slowly release this in an area in your tank where you have SOME form of water flow - that the warmer water is dispersed slowly into your tank.

If you can keep your tank just above 20 degrees, it is good enough. You do not need to try and keep the tank at 24 or 25 degrees celsius....
 
Thanks Jacquesb

I was afraid that I might need to get a gennie for those longer ones. I have just spent a lot of money on the ups but I guess if I really want to be sure I am going to have to get one. (just not this month).

As for the water idea. That is a good idea. I will do that next time. Thanks.
 
just ensure u got battey powered pumps to stir/agitate the water surface and have a normal house heater(gas) for these cold winter days.keep the room temp warm will influence the tanks temp.

damn these power outages
 
Glad everything sounds like it's going to be ok. In desperate measures you could wrap blankets around the tank and sump to try and slow down the heat loss.
 
What UPS did you use? If its the normal PC ones then you got the max time out of them that they will give. They are WAY too small for a tank.
 
Turn your heaters down ASAP, the last think you want is to have the water temp climb to quickly, raise the temp back to normal over the next day or 2! you don't want to shock them anymore than what they have already had.
 
Thanks for the responses so far.
@mariuameyer it is a ups used for backup of a small office or a few appliences in the house. Or that is how it is advertised anyway. It is not a pc ups. It has a pure sine 1000w inverter and 12 batteries with a built in charger. Small batteries it seems. I can add on another 4 102 amp hour batteries but I will see about that. Might be worth getting the Gennie rather.

It is called a power trolley

http://www.sinetech.co.za/trolley8.htm
 
Just on 7k It is supposed to be used for more than just the tank. We will see when I have charged if fully how long it actually lasts for. I took it out the box and used it so I guess it was not at full power when I plugged it in. Well that is what I am hoping because I only connected 2 pumps and it lasted just on 8 hours. Not worth 7 k in my oppinion. There are much cheaper solutions out there that last just as long
 
greenie said:
I have also read that you can try to cover your tank (pending the size!) with a sleeping bag.
Click to expand...
That does work, i've done this before.
 
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