Close Call

[danny zubot]

I've dodged a bullet in a big way today.

Last night around 10pm I was watching Lost in Space (ya I know but nothing else was on TV) and I noticed the living room was more silent than usual, and darker. The power didn't go out but a noticeable reduction in the light output of our lamps indicated to me that we weren't getting full power to out home.

I quickly turned off the TV and all but one lamp which was flickering by now and barely emitting any light what so ever. The tank was silent. I looked under the stand to see what was going on. All of the components were getting power, but not enough to actually run them. So I turned each one off one by one to just in the off chance that I might get one pump to work, nothing doing. My solution was to find an outlet somewhere else in the house that was running full power, and re-route the entire tank to it. I found one outlet thankfully, problem solved? I think not.

After an hour or so of speaking with other neighbors I found out that there was a power box behind our complex that exploded causing this strange power shortage. I didn't hear it because I had the movie cranked through my stereo of course. City worker were there working on it so I proceeded to go to bed, thinking that all would be well by morning. Wrong!
I'm not sure what time last night but I estimate around 1am they cut the power to the entire complex, leaving my half powered condo lifeless. I can tell you that it was the silence that woke me up around 2am, to discover my tank was again silent, and there was nothing I could do about it.

By the time I'd left for work this morning the power was still out, but thankfully there were no signs of death by either fish or corals, yet. Well. I got the phone call from my wife (meaning the power came back on) at around 10 am this morning. She isn't quite the expert on corals that we all are, but she knows what bleaching is. And she saw none, no dead fish either.

I guess the reef gods were shinning on me today.

Just thought I'd share.

[andrewsk]

Man, that is scary.

I just bought 2 of those air pumps that come on when the power goes out and keep meaning to pull out my UPS to run on of my TUNZE streams off of as well.

Think ill do that tonight.

Thanks

[Joe Reefer]

Thats good to hear.
Did you stay up the rest of the night stirring your tank with a spoon?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I was just reading in a fish magazine that if you have a cordless drill & a clean paint stirring attachment, you can also use that in an emergency to aggitate the water. I bought a powerpack from Canadian Tire for emergencies like this, but with 5 display tanks, I doubt it'll be enough.

Good to hear Danny that things worked out as good as they could have.

Anthony

[Moogled]

Right on, Danny.

Sometimes things go wrong, but I'm glad you got through it okay. I always freak out whenever there's a power outage in my neighborhood. Thankfully, the power always comes back on within a couple of hours.

[danny zubot]

Thats good to hear.
Did you stay up the rest of the night stirring your tank with a spoon?

No, I haven't got the energy right now, life's been too busy. Although, I could have because woke up every hour worried about being late for work.

I have read about the various things people do when the lights go out, but never though I'd need it. In my 29 years living in Calgary the powere has never gone out for this long, usually a few minutes to a couple hours at the most.

[danny zubot]

Just got word that the power wnet out again! Oh boy!

[Murminator]

Sounds like your on the old 4 phase power grid

[Ruth]

Man I hate it when the power goes out! I live in a rural area and we get periodic outages that can last for a couple of days. I bought a Honda generator so I don't have to worry about it so much - still have to have someone home to start the generator but at least I have enough power and the generator is very quiet so I can sleep as well.
Hope your power comes back on soon!

[Chad]

Those honda generators are nice.. I've been looking keeping my eye open for a used one around here..

Currently for power outtages I have 2 power packs that last upwards of 24 hrs.. this is running a heater and one pump. So, I feel relatively secure when the power goes out.