400 gallon project

[Jeff000]

The butterflys aren't just eating everything reef in your tank?

[untamed]

The butterflies peck at coral constantly... But there is so much coral that the aren't able to do any damage.

[untamed]

We lost power here for about 24 hours yesterday.

I was prepared...or so I thought. At the 12 hour mark, I unpacked my gas generator. I had purchased this many years ago for emergency use.

The generator fired right up and I connected my circulation pumps. After about 3 minutes, all the pumps overheated and shut down. By alternating one pump, then the next, then the next for 2 mins each I was able to get circulation for about 30 mins. I decided I would repeat this every hour or two until the power returned.

When I fired up the generator an hour later...it was dead. Motor runs fine...no electricity generated. It seems that I now own a gas powered noise maker!

When power finally returned, I had lost only 1 fish...my rusty angel. 6 or so frags have also died.

Another casualty may be my aquatronica controller. After several hours of trying, I cannot get it to recognize my pH probe, so I have limited control of my Ca reactor. I also cannot reconnect my computer, so getting the controller even functional at all was a major challenge.

A tough day...

[Jaws]

Wow, sorry to hear that. Why do you think the generator caused all that?

[hillegom]

I guess you would have checked the fuses on the generator.
Hopefully an electrician can chime in. I do know that some generators produce a modified sine wave that not all electrical devices can utilize.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by Jaws

Wow, sorry to hear that. Why do you think the generator caused all that?

Originally Posted by hillegom

I guess you would have checked the fuses on the generator.
Hopefully an electrician can chime in. I do know that some generators produce a modified sine wave that not all electrical devices can utilize.

Yes, I think that is what was causing the pumps to overheat. I've checked all the most obvious things with the generator. As it can't be used to drive my pumps anyway, I'm not inclined to spend much effort fixing it. I'll just give it away as is and someone else can deal with it.

[hillegom]

Brad, I would be interested in that
pm sent

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by untamed

We lost power here for about 24 hours yesterday.

I was prepared...or so I thought. At the 12 hour mark, I unpacked my gas generator. I had purchased this many years ago for emergency use.

The generator fired right up and I connected my circulation pumps. After about 3 minutes, all the pumps overheated and shut down. By alternating one pump, then the next, then the next for 2 mins each I was able to get circulation for about 30 mins. I decided I would repeat this every hour or two until the power returned.

When I fired up the generator an hour later...it was dead. Motor runs fine...no electricity generated. It seems that I now own a gas powered noise maker!

When power finally returned, I had lost only 1 fish...my rusty angel. 6 or so frags have also died.

Another casualty may be my aquatronica controller. After several hours of trying, I cannot get it to recognize my pH probe, so I have limited control of my Ca reactor. I also cannot reconnect my computer, so getting the controller even functional at all was a major challenge.

A tough day...

Electrician is here!!!
I bet is was a inverter generator right? Most inverter generators make a Suedo Signwave. A square wave. Good quality ones are Pulse Width Modulated which will smoothen the signwave. But cheap ones are like cheap UPS and car inverters where they make a square wave, just alternating DC 60 times a sec. This can and will overheat motors as they are not made to run on DC even a Alternating DC. Most likely played havok with the controller too. My other hobby, RC Heli's we have troubles with these cheap generators to run our power supplies for our chargers too.

Sorry for your loss. It REALLLY sux.

[untamed]

I knew somebody would know why the pumps overheated. Thanks!

I never connected the generator to anything else, so that can't explain why my controller is so messed up. Basically, the Aquatronica is sh*t...which is the main problem.

[lastlight]

sorry to hear brad. hope you don't suffer anymore losses.