Backup generator??
 

Hey all

So with storm season on it's way and it's looking like we will take a pounding this weekend what kind of generator would be best used to run a full reef tank?
How many watts to run at least the min, heater and pumps etc...

Thoughts?

Cheap champion inverter from home-depot that's rated for 3000 w or spend the money and get a Honda eu3000is.

So something with 2000w let's say wouldn't work well?
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ch...0329p.html#srp

Add up the wattage of your heaters power heads and return that will tell yeah.

Good idea, I was planing on that tonight! :)

my 1200w works great.

before it, I used a 950 and would run heater, emergency powerhead x 2.

Your corals will be fine without lights.

Awesome, thanks :)

Battery operated air pumps, a supply of D cell batteries and some insulation/blankets to wrap up your tank in the event of a power outage will work as temporary options if you don't have access to a proper generator.

I have a 3000w Champion that we got from Costco. Will be a challenge this year as I have 3 large tanks as opposed to the single I had last year! With the amount our power goes out, I want to get a big diesel to power the whole house!!

I ran a 2100w gen . Ran tank , TV , stereo, etc . But really you have to add up wattage of demand !

If you're going to spend that kind of cash, consider getting a natural gas unit instead of diesel
Cleaner burning, quieter, no tank to refill, and no fuel conditioner
And spend the extra money to get a transfer switch installed
Then it's completely automated

Hey Andrew, we just had power out a couple of weekends ago here for 8 hours because of an mva taking out a poll. I wasn't prepared. We were able to borrow a generator from our neighbor and all I ran was one power head and a heater and everything was fine. I now have a backup battery that I bought for 200 bucks from best buy that I have a power head and heater plugged into so it will come on automatically if the power goes out. Since we go camping, I thought it was a good idea. Leanne

I'd be more inclined to have a sufficiently large generator to run my freezer in the event of a longer term power outage. I've been in Vernon now for 12 years & don't recall having an outage more than a day. Car batteries hooked up to an inverter, battery powered air pumps have kept my tank inhabitants alive & thriving for every short outage I've experienced so far. Maybe I'm lucky, tempting fate, complacency setting in due to the rarity of outages around here....

Folks on the coast typically get hit harder & more often by severe winds & storms that cause prolonged outages. Big city life has it's pros & cons. Hydro crews can get things back up & running a lot quicker in smaller communities here in the interior. Love 'em or hate 'em, the new smart meters help a great deal in aiding the hydro folks' response to outages, their extent & location.

This may be a dumb question...

I just hooked up my generator since it looks like my power will be out at least until tonight sometime. It runs my vortechs, T5's, return pump, heaters no prob. I have a large fresh tank as well and runs those Eheim filters and heaters too. It won't run my skimmer pump (Sicce). It runs and fills the chamber but it won't produce any air bubbles. I cleaned it out, same thing. I'm sure it's something with the generator and it's not actually broken, but any idea what? It just seems weird, maybe because it's a needle wheel or something?

Take the air line off the noise dampener, clean it, then blow hard into the air line (leading into your pump). This is what I do with my SWC skimmer which will still pump water but not bubbles after being turned off and restarted. Good luck.

You're the man! That was easy