Sad Sad Day Without Power - Page 2

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #11 11-17-2006, 05:32 AM

Kris,

Give me a call when you're back in town. Sorry to hear about your losses man. I have 2 battery back ups, so if things go wrong, I'll plug in the powerheads on one & bring the other to my in-laws or my parents to keep it charged & just keep switching them out. Hopefully it won't ever come to that, but we lucked out in Burnaby & didn't have any outages here.

Anthony

Johnny Reefer · #12 11-17-2006, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

.... I have 2 battery back ups, so if things go wrong, I'll plug in the powerheads ....

Speaking of UPS's, ...and sorry for the hijack...., but where? can one get a simple UPS to plug, just that, a powerhead into....oh and a heater would be good too. All I seem to find are computer oriented UPS's that have unecessary fax, modem and USB port plug-ins. Anyone know where to get just a basic UPS?

EDIT: Oh...and my condolences on your losses. In my mind this is one of those things that we don't like to think about or don't prepare for. (I'm not). The "It'll never happen to me syndrome". Stories like these make me rethink that. Thanx for sharing.

Thanx much,

goby1 · #13 11-17-2006, 02:11 PM

Sorry for your losses, that really sucks. I'm in Langley too and went without power for over 16 hours. It was a sleepless night and I thought I'd get up to a crashed system and all my fish dead but I got lucky and didn't lose anything. Any longer and it probably wouldn't have been pretty, it was cold in here. I guess I just got lucky.

Reefer Rob · #14 11-17-2006, 03:19 PM

Luckily, my power was only off for about 8 hours. After about 7 hours I plugged an inverter into the van and ran a powerhead and a 100 w heater. By this point I was probably getting pretty tough to live with

Seems to be no end to the stuff I have to buy for this hobby!! Now I have to buy a generator.

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #15 11-17-2006, 04:54 PM

I bought my battery packs from Canadian Tire. Its the ones you can use to jumpstart your car. Works great for that too

Tom R · #16 11-17-2006, 05:24 PM

Hi Anthony

Have you tested the back on your system to see how long it would run a pump and heater for.

Tom R

Diana · #17 11-17-2006, 07:53 PM

Yikes, we had a some client's tanks with no power but luckily two of them had a generator to hook up to. We are not sure how long the power was out on the other tank, but everything seems to have pulled through with only minor stress. Its a good reason to stock the tanks lightly!

If people cant afford one of those back-up power supplies, I suggest hunting down some battery-powered air pumps. I know you can get them at Petcetra. They are noisy as hell but will provide airation and flow to a tank in time of need.

-Diana

Chad · #18 11-17-2006, 08:39 PM

I bought the big Battery pack from Canadian tire as well, the one with the wheels, unfortunately I cannot find it on their website. Anyways.. I was running a Tunze 6060 on it for over 12 hrs and it only dropped 1 notch on the power scale. So.. it was a beauty! I didn't use it for the heater as the heater just sucks up the juice. Instead I swapped out 3 large zip lock bags of hot hot water every 1 hr or so. Kept my temp at 80 the entire 48 hrs of this mess.

My regards to those that lost stuff. My tank seems good.. a few stressed corals maybe.. but my tank is doing crappy as it is.

Good news is I fixed my TV and the DVD players seems to be just a fuse. I tested the generator at work today with a volt meter, was producing over 220volts at one point. So, needless to say.. stay away from the D & J power - DJ950 generators.. They say there is a regulator on it, but if there is its not working.

Hopefuly the guy I bought it from pulls through and gives my money back.. Looking to get a Honda Generator now.

Johnny Reefer · #19 11-17-2006, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad

I bought the big Battery pack from Canadian tire as well, the one with the wheels, unfortunately I cannot find it on their website. .....

Is this it?

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...romSearch=true

It's not a UPS however, is it? In other words....one has to be there to "fire" it up, correct? It's not an automatic reserve that is otherwise passive to the house circuitry?

Thanx much,

Chin_Lee · #20 11-17-2006, 10:14 PM

OK Chad and Anthony
I propose each of you conduct tests with your respective Canadian Tire bought units and use your most efficient powerhead in terms of power consumption and water movement (aka Tunze) and give everyone an approximate time that the charge lasted to keep the powerhead running. Things to note should be something like as follows:
Power Unit - model and make
Powerhead used - model, make, watts rating
Length of time - hours and minutes

If you could do the test for us and let us know the results.
I also know the battery pack unit that Anthony has can be recharged by plugging into the cigarette lighter. If you could let us know how long it takes to charge it up with the cigarette lighter.