Our area in poco was usually untouched when others had issues.
But i have never seen bchydro take this long to get power back.
The backups i had in place are failing because its been too long. They werent designed to last days....
They havent even bothered to remove the tree from the lines in the area....
If the worlds ending thats 1 thing but this is ridiculous...
I just watched 6 hydro trucks all pull in behind the building next to where i work here so they can go for coffee and the public wont notice.... their hiding!
I work on the island while my parents manage my tanks for me.... so im kind of screwed sitting here hoping the fish survive and i cant even be there to stay up all night stiring the tanks.
Stores were sold out of battery airpumps so fast this morning.
Im pretty sure the gas stations are still toast in the area. We dont own a gas generator and familys we can borrow wont run much with stuff in the fridge and freezer warming up....
Foods going bad. Fish are gonna die. Yippee!

Oi, I feel so bad for you guys! Thankfully it's not the dead of winter, but still!

My tank seems to have leveled out at 74. Got a gas fireplace if it drops further.

Power just came back on in south poco. Hope everyone else's is on soon!!!

This morning half the Hydro crews that are based here in Prince George were dispatched to the lower mainland to help with repair efforts.

The one of the toughest parts for a lot of people in this hobby is power outages and are generally unprepared for it especially in larger centres where power outages are rare and generally localized and rarely last longer than a few hours even here in PG outages are localized and power is rarely out more than a few hours now.

basically we are supposed to be prepared yet most of us are not because service interruptions are not common now and we've gotten used to it and being prepared for service interruptions are low on our lists of readiness for tank issues now because we don't expect it to happen anymore

Hurroh power back in Poco.
Temps in the low 70s or something "The green area" yeah that tells me lots....
Only 1 fish missing so far, but the melanus wrasse likes to hide anyway so I'm sure he's fine. Think the goldfish and tropical made it all right.
Corals seems to do okay as well. Was worried they would all expand with a lack of flow and slime up and sting each other and what not... appearently all was fine.

I've got some battery powered airpumps on order from Aliexpress. Still cheaper them petsmart and if I have a few extras it cant hurt....
Cheapest ones were just under $5, will test that out to see how it works in comparison, the Top Fin petsmart lookalike is $7 or so, I imagine it probably is the topfin one with out the logo...
I'm still searching for a good computer battery backup to run the powerhead incase the power goes out while my familys at work or asleep.
And I think this has been a kick in the ass for my dad as my moms been telling him for years to get a real generator for the fridge and what not.

+1. You're damn sure I'll be picking up a 1000-2000 W Gen set soon. What with the changes in our weather over the last few years, this is just a taste of things to come. Also just shows you how ill prepared our infastructure is during an event of this nature. I know the peeps at BCHydro are working hard... but damn!

Just got back online a couple hours ago,... power was back early this morning. Lost 4 fish due O2 deprivation.

Normally don't get theses types of storms until late fall and winter. So still had the battery power packs at our cabin where they are also used with our solar system there. Hence, was totally unprepared this time.

And to complicate matters, just had shoulder surgery (rotator cuff) a week and a half ago. Was no joy manually stirring the water with just my left arm and a ladle. Late last night I could see I was losing the battle when some fish were hanging out near the surface breathing rapidly. And sure enough this morning some of them didn't make it. Once the power came back on, rest of the fish recovered quickly and corals all seem OK, too.

Tough lesson to learn...

Ended up loaning my 880 Watt portable generator to my bro who's power still hasn't come back on and he's in South Van (41st & Knight area).

Picked up another 860W APC UPS today as a backup but its now on loan to the OP of this thread. Gotta get my wife to find my other UPS before the next emergency. I also gave an 880W gen to my father-in-law so if necessary, I have 2 gens and 2 UPS if my power ever goes out.

Anthony

I think I lost flame angel. I can't see him... it had to be my favorite fish that is the only victim.. ordering battery powered air pumps.. good news is there is no death on all other fishes in 4 other tanks..

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Im still in the dark! 32 hours in.

This is a lesson learned. Thank God I picked up a generator a few months back which has been running non stop since the outage.

Power still out in coquitlam area, it's been 30 plus hours, I sure hope it comes back on soon.....

Super disappointed at BCHYDRO.... Keep giving us hope on when will power be restore but at the end the power never came back and now it's pass 8pm which was their last update on when power will restore for Burnaby but it's still not here.

Thanks Anthony for your power bank, unfortunately it didn't last long. Will have it charge at a friends place for use tomorrow

Thank you

My guess is with all the damage down there getting power on is more of a chore and like snow removal Hydro has its own priority list for getting power back on often at the cost of residential being last on the list.

Not sure how many power outages any of you have been through before but I've been through my fair share and whenever hydro gives us a time frame we generally add depending how big the outage was 4-9 hrs on but obviously because this was a major outage it's very dependant on how many wires were downed, how many line transformers were damaged and whether any substations took damage it all adds time onto it

Just got my power back. I'm not home to see if any casualties. Gotta hope for the best. Hope the rest of you get yours soon.

Guilford area in surrey has power since yesterday, I live less than a km away and still no power since 12:30 yesterday, hydro keep bumping the time , last update was midnight , but is not promising ATM ....


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OMG... Power came back for 20 seconds then went out again! WTH?

This probably means your power will be on soon for good (hopefully).

Well, you guys have convinced me that this is the year to pick up a generator. My fish wouldn't last 4 hours without power, so this week they're on sale, going to grab a 3000w machine.

My god I still don't have power, what are the chances of survival now? I'm at 45 hours now!!!

That was a rough go at 32 hours without power. Was able to save some of my fish and corals look ok. Lost 5 Anthias and a Flame Angel and came up with an idea to get an auxiliary type plug to hook up to my cigarette lighter in my car and run an extension cord to the tank to run a power head.
If anyone else is without power still this may save some fish if possible to set up. Canadian tire has the adaptor for around $35.

I use a 1200 watt generator that I paid 100 bucks for at princess auto.

Can run a heater and a couple of pumps, no problem.

If I was gonna buy a generator for back up power once a year or less I'd go with propane. With the unleaded/ethanol gas we use nowadays odds of having moisture or gum in the carb a year later when you really need it is highly likely. Not sure of the price difference but just something to look into

I feel really sorry to those without power for so long and casualties. I hope all works out for you guys and gals :(

I've never seen a propane gen. But a fuel conditioner (same as weed wacker) would take care of carb plugging.

Power back on! Fingers crossed, my daughters says the fish are swimming around and she doesn't see any dead, hope they stay that way...

I have imported and sold propane generators....they are quite common.

We use one for back up at our office/warehouse.

They are the best if you don't want to prep your generator before putting it away.

I need to empty and clean my 1200 watt 2 stroke gen every time I put it away.

I did a quick search, there's one on homedepot.com, 7000w for 799us and another on Costco.ca 6000w for 1099.99. Doesn't look like they're nearly as cheap as you can pick up a gas one for but depends on the budget I guess.
Sta-bil lasts for up to 15 months as a fuel conditioner
Every year I start up the weed wacker and outboard engines they run like garbage, always need the carbs cleaned. Have never used a fuel stabilizer though so might be worth a shot if you go gas

I have a couple of battery powered air pumps that worked very well for tank aeration thru the night, I have a 3500 watt generator that I use thru the day time.
Too noisy to run all night, although some people in the area did.

My small engine mechanic suggested I use Shell Premium gas in the lawnmower/weedwacker as I could never get the damn things to start at the beginning of the season. No problems starting this year. The Shell V-Power gas has zero Ethenol.

Good to know, thanks :thumb:

I had to get gas to fill up the generator and could only get premium Shell at the station I go to, so maybe it's going to save me putting stabilizer in the tank. I suppose using stabilizer can't hurt though. Thoughts anyone?

I run prem in all my toys gen,dirt bikes ,rhino, lawn mower it's better fuel I get longer run times and better power

Finally power! 59 hours with nothing. If one windstorm had hydro so lost and unprepared I fear our chances of ever getting power back after a natural disaster is 0. Back to caveman times we shall go. I love their news reel of how prepared for this storm they were. If this was prepared then I don't know.

Other than losing everything in my fridge, my tank made it through, mostly thanks to super light bioload, had to move some fish out of QT a week early though as the smaller tank would'nt have been able to keep them going. And I had an old battery air pump, hubby rigged it to accept AA as we didn't have the big batteries lying around.

Glad every ones tank made it through okay except for Joe's tank, I think everything is done. Joe if you need anything just let me know. I can help you restock, no charge.

Can I get in on that action? :lol:

J/K, what a generous offer, good guy Rich.

I'm shocked that my fish and coral are all fine. I'm sure it was the battery powered air pump that kept them happy. Everyone, get one of these asap! Also if it was November and the temp in the house dropped I would have been in trouble but being august my place stayed pretty warm.

Could reef tanks be more of a pain in the ass? lol Vacations, pain.....power outage....pain, pocket book.......nuff said...lol

We love them though don't we...


Side note, I had 4 acro tips that were above the water line when my tank drained into the sump. They were exposed for 48 hours and look fine!

Don't you have enough already? :lol:

Thanks for the offer Rich. Power was off for 58 hours at my place. Lost all my fish and looks like most of my sps has turned a nice white colour. Cant find any shrimp so they are most likely all gone as well. The only thing that looks like it might come back are the zoas.

Not sure what I am going to do with the tank at the moment I have to get it cleaned up and go from there.

Glad to see everyone else faired better then me.

That is rough :(