Hurricane Season

Gabridge83

Gabridge83

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Hurricane Season is right around the corner. Winter isn’t the only time of the year we talk about preparing for power outages. Irma took our power out for 3 days in east Gwinnett and it was a cold hurricane. Our house temperature didn’t get above 65. Thankfully that was before I had any fish tanks.
David and I had a chance to look a Harbor Freights generators this past weekend.
What are doing to prepare your tanks now? For our experienced reefers what are some suggestions for our newer members?
 
I keep battery powered air pumps on hand and I also have a gas generator I bought used for $325. As far as tips go? If you do run a generator please don't run it in your garage or near a door/window, carbon monoxide poisoning is very real.
 
Two years ago I purchased a Honda eb2800i. Luckily I haven't needed it for the tanks yet. A few years ago we lost power for 9 hours. I was able to use my neighbors extra generator, a Honda eu2200i. It powered all of the pumps and heaters on the tanks but wouldn't run with the refrigerator plugged in as well.

I have two USB powered air pumps I can use in a pinch. I have heard of other members waiting about 30 mins before bringing the generator out just in case it ends up being a short outage.

I leave about 20 water bottles in my deep freezer. In case of a power outage during the summer I can drop them into the tank to keep Temps down.
 
That water bottles in the freezer is a great idea for summer outages. I have a generator that runs on propane or gas. Outages are rare here. When they do happen, the power is usually restored within 30 minutes. I used battery powered air pumps once when we lost power for about 15-20 minutes
 
I have a honda generator I have ready for the tank, and I also have a power inverter to use with my ryobi batteries so I can plug in some air pumps if needed. I can even run small power heads for a good amount of time thanks to the high number of batteries I own :D my tip is if you get a generator you cannot let it sit, you need to crank it once a month or so and let it run for a few minutes. If not things will start to go bad on it, like the carburetor. Also, using ethanol free gas is good to use in small motors, it keeps the fuel lines from going bad.
 
I have a propane generator. Keeps basic gear going. Love the propane.
 
Back in college I ran pumps and a heater off a car battery and an inverter. Don't even recall how or why i had an inverter but yeah good times. This was during the 08?? Flood that had six flags under water. We had no power for 3 days in our apartment in Lithia springs. We did have several cases of beer on hand though.

I need to get a generator for this setup. Getting to be quite a bit of money invested.
 
I also have a small $300-ish generator. This has been sufficient for running all my tanks in the past.

Its been 2-3 months since ive turned it on, so thanks for the reminder. I will ramp it up and run it for a bit this weekend.
 
After this weeks storms are you prepared? Thankfully we didn’t loose power but my neighbors were without power for over 8 hours.
New members read the comments above to prepare you for power outages and put your questions below on how we can help you prepare.
 
york1 said:
Ya good time to bump this post. My power went out for about an hour yesterday afternoon
Click to expand...
I have no clue how ours didn’t go out my electrical line goes down my drive way breaks off to theirs and continues down to my house plus we are out of town 😳 thankfully between our builds the neighbors and the house sitter everything is doing fine
 
Awesome reminder. Ours was out about 45 minutes and I have 0 power back up. It made me sweat a little.
Has anyone tried a pc power supply back up? They are inexpensive and operate at lower more consistent voltages maybe? Just trying to avoid passing a generator purchase through the finance comittee with the current state of the economy
 
Coraliscool said:
Awesome reminder. Ours was out about 45 minutes and I have 0 power back up. It made me sweat a little.
Has anyone tried a pc power supply back up? They are inexpensive and operate at lower more consistent voltages maybe? Just trying to avoid passing a generator purchase through the finance comittee with the current state of the economy
Click to expand...
On my small tank I have a UPS battery backup that my return pump is plugged into. It ran my return pump for ~45 mins during the last power outage.
 
Gabridge83 said:
Hurricane Season is right around the corner. Winter isn’t the only time of the year we talk about preparing for power outages. Irma took our power out for 3 days in east Gwinnett and it was a cold hurricane. Our house temperature didn’t get above 65. Thankfully that was before I had any fish tanks.
David and I had a chance to look a Harbor Freights generators this past weekend.
What are doing to prepare your tanks now? For our experienced reefers what are some suggestions for our newer members?
Click to expand...
We’ve had a generator for quite some time, it runs on gasoline. I’d love to upgrade to a duel fuel sometime though. I’d really also like a battery backup, we had bought a used one but it ended up not working and the seller was kind enough to refund us. How are you guys?
 
NanCrab said:
We’ve had a generator for quite some time, it runs on gasoline. I’d love to upgrade to a duel fuel sometime though. I’d really also like a battery backup, we had bought a used one but it ended up not working and the seller was kind enough to refund us. How are you guys?
Click to expand...

UPS battery backups are fairly simple to fix. Typically the problem is old batteries and they are relatively cheap to replace. I lucked out when my old company replaced one that wouldn't work. I paid $12 per battery and needed two. Now it works as good as new.
 
Doberman13 said:
UPS battery backups are fairly simple to fix. Typically the problem is old batteries and they are relatively cheap to replace. I lucked out when my old company replaced one that wouldn't work. I paid $12 per battery and needed two. Now it works as good as new.
Click to expand...
I will check into it, thanks. It’s just been sitting out in the garage
 
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