After checking on all three tank inhabitants I see that a couple of frags in the frag tank are looking pretty sad. This tank is in the basement and I had no access to it with the generator. Just two battery-run air stones. Aiptasia and Majanos came through in good shape though.

If you are worried about losing heat in the winter if this happens again you could always replace the Eheim with a Quiet One. They can go toe to toe with any heater! :razz:

Yeah I own one: Quiet One 4000HH. It was so terrible I reduced it to using it for pumping freshwater to the salt reservoir. Noisy and runs hot. Not one of my favourite pumps.

Any generator will work.

I have a cheap $125.00 made in China 2 stroke that I bought at Canadian Tire. Its a bit noisy but it works. My main system pump is an 3600 GPH Amp Master that runs on 143 W.

Tom R

Wow, that's pretty low wattage for a pump that size. The Barracuda draws about 500 watts at 6' head pressure.
I added up the wattage requirements for the two tanks: return pumps, and powerheads add up to less than 1000 watts so I could run the Barracuda on the generator as well. The generator is rated for 1300 watts but recommends to be run no higher than 1000 watts continuously. Good to know for next time. :biggrin:

Lance, according to the charts I am looking at the Barricuda max's out at about 250W at 16' head. At 6' head its drawing only 80W.

Oh. What chart did you find? The one I was looking at said 500W.

I found a better chart. One that I can understand. At 6' head, 242 watts.

My Amp Master uses approx 195 Watts to start and then the usage falls back to approx 143 Watts. All my tanks are plumbed together so the one pump completes my main circulation.

Look at the pump on JL website then click on the little link thinggy.