Lost Power - Fish Gone

[vamaro]

Last night my surge protector shut off and I lost all power. Most of the fish are dead including an 8 inch pair of cross-hatch triggers. I had been planning to set-up a battery backup system for the last few months but have been traveling for work, etc. At this point, I think I am considering running my return directly into the wall. I had a GFI that did this last year, but I was home when it happened and I removed the GFI and just kept the surge protector which took a dump last night.

At this point I feel like just tearing down the tank, but the stand is made out of stone rock and it would probably cost me more to remove the stand than to buy a backup and some new fish.

All I have left is one stingray and a chromas. The stingray is starting to swim and I got her to eat, but she still looks likes she is in recovery mode.

This hobby has its days for sure………

[NVTE]

sorry to hear your loss Vince.

[EmDy]

Dude, I'm sorry to hear that. This hobby has too many unpredictables.

[Flippers4pups]

Sorry for your loss! How many hours was it down? What was the tank temperature when you found it down?

[gumbii]

sucks man... my tank just did 18hrs with no power, but i didn't lose any fish... i just stressed out a whole bunch...

[MammothReefer]

I've have a different GFI I use for a few key things, it costs a bit more but it self resets on power outages. It looks like they changed the design since I got mine, but it's one of these. (I believe the first one)


http://www.doitbest.com/Electric+out...sku-532525.dib

http://www.doitbest.com/Extension+Co...sku-544035.dib

[MammothReefer]

xx (double post please delete me)

[vamaro]

Thanks.

The tank must have lost power shortly after going to bed. The water was about 74. My tank runs between 78 and 79. In a 220 gallon acrylic tank, that is a big temp. swing.

My family and I were really attached to the fish. In addition the cross-hatch pair, we lost a h-tusk, threadfin snapper, spiny puffer, and two rays. I am sure all of you know how that goes. I am heading to some LFS in the morning to try and replace some live stock. However, the fish I am looking for usually need to be ordered or I wait to find them. I am ordering the parts for a battery backup as well. I am not making this mistake again. I plan on setting it up with two large batteries.

[Blinding Reef]

sorry to hear about your loss...yeah, losing fish is one of the worse (if not worst) part of our hobby.

[vamaro]

I almost made another expensive fish purchase last week. So glad I didn't now. I just discovered a chromas and 3 blue/yellow damsels alive. I guess they were hiding.

[Tryx]

ouch that sucks. I have a battery backup on my setup. I need to reorganize but it runs the entire tank for about an hour. I get I could it up to about 5 hours if I cut it down to just the essentials. Just used an extra APC power supply from my computer setup. I got a spare if you're interested.

[vamaro]

How big is that APC to run your tank?

[gumbii]

why didn't all of my fish die then...? my tank dropped from 78° to 65° or so and was 18hrs with no power...? is this a FOWLR tank, or a reef tank...? my tank was only a 90g tank... i would think 220g tank wouldn't have such huge casualties....

[Tryx]

i have an RS1500 i think it's like 900watts.
keep in mind that i have a tiny tank. its only a 36g with a 5g sump

[letsgofishin]

sorry for your loss

I strongly urge the battery powered air pump.. it clicks on when power fails and it will keep your tank oxygenated and give you a ton of extra time to get things going

plus they make a little noise when they go onto batter power so it will wake you up if you are home and asleep

cost is about $20 or so if i recall correctly

[Flippers4pups]

Originally Posted by gumbii

why didn't all of my fish die then...? my tank dropped from 78° to 65° or so and was 18hrs with no power...? is this a FOWLR tank, or a reef tank...? my tank was only a 90g tank... i would think 220g tank wouldn't have such huge casualties....

Large fish + numbers= Large amounts of dissolved oxygen needed to sustain.
Temp is important, but just think when in shipment, a drop of 5 degrees shouldn't kill.

[cthetoy]

If your Battery Backup is going to run your return pump even an APC 1500 wont run your return pump for more than an hour. What you want is to run your power heads instead. The goal is to oxygenate your tank. I won't worry about running your heater since your fish should survive temps down to 68 degrees with no problems. You should be able to run powerheads for over 8 hours. Another note when running powerheads on a battery backup is the backup needs to be a true sine wave. Cheaper backups wont spin your powerheads because of the power sine wave.

Vortechs and Tunze can run off of cheaper backup batteries.

[Tryx]

any cheap powerhead can be run on any cheap power supply weather its stepped sine approximation or true sine wave. at worst, it will run the powerhead a little hotter and it might be reducing its lifespan a little. a backup power supply is just a BACKUP. in an emergency, wouldn't any of us do whatever it takes to keep the tank running? whats a few hours taken off the lifespan of a powerhead compared to the years of constant use they endure? Just saying that its not that big of a deal. it will work.

[cthetoy]

Originally Posted by Tryx

any cheap powerhead can be run on any cheap power supply weather its stepped sine approximation or true sine wave. at worst, it will run the powerhead a little hotter and it might be reducing its lifespan a little. a backup power supply is just a BACKUP. in an emergency, wouldn't any of us do whatever it takes to keep the tank running? whats a few hours taken off the lifespan of a powerhead compared to the years of constant use they endure? Just saying that its not that big of a deal. it will work.

I tried a Maxijet and a Koralia on a APC BX-1500 and a Triplite 750 and both powerheads on both UPS would just chatter and wont spin. The same powerheads were then tested on a APC Smart-UPS (True sine wave) and the powerheads ran normally with no chatter. Let me know if I did something wrong because I have a few spare non-true sine wave UPS laying around I want to use for my other powerheads

[Tryx]

I have a RS1500. not sure of the differences without looking it up, but i'm sure both run a stepped sine wave. I have 2 Koralia 1's and a Mag7 for return. i figured it would bea problem with the AC pumps but when i first set mine up, i killed the power and everything kept running. I shut everything down, plugged the main powerstrip into the power supply and started everything up again without a problem. That's how its running now since i haven't found time to redo all the powercables to run just the essentials of the backup. I've had one blackout since setting it up and everything worked as planned. Maybe i'm the lucky one and my setup breaks the laws of physics.

[RandyFolds]

One word: Airstone. About a million hours of aeration and circulation on the crappiest backup you can find, sinusoidal or not.

[bullitr]

Sorry to hear
And trust me I know the feeling....

But you get back up for the better!

[RandyFolds]

Originally Posted by bullitr

Sorry to hear
And trust me I know the feeling....

But you get back up for the better!

You just love posting that picture Lawrence.

[vamaro]

Has anyone tried the battery backup for the Tunze controller?

[vamaro]

I just ordered an Tripp Lite APS-750. It should be here tomorrow. I will run this off of a marine battery and have my Tunze on it. Its an expensive set-up, but I lost 3 times that in live stock.