I've been thinking of trying to set some sort of protection for the frequent rural outages I get. I've been thinking this over and wanted opinions on my plan.....
I run co2 pressurized for 8 hours a day, lighting 8 hours that starts 1 hour after my co2 starts. I am thinking of adding sponge filters and have them run for the other 16 hours per day. Sponge filter airline would be attached to a tee, then a check valve on either side of the tee, then one to an AC pump on a timer, the other on a DC backup pump plugged into a power bar that is powered 24/7. This should take care of firing up the DC air pump at outages only.
I realize I would be completely gassing off any extra co2 each night, but how much would we be talking? Next question is would the bacteria on the sponges stay healthy on a 16h on / 8h off per day cycle? I'm hoping this would also give me access to seeded filters all the time for emergency hospital/QT tanks. Extra O2 at night can't hurt either I figure.
Not sure but I think the cycle time of your sponge filters should be OK. They are not going to be allowed to dry out so the BB should survive during the off period
I have been looking to add two sponge filters to my 20 gallon for the same reason. I have a few small UPS boxes with about three plugs. Was going to have them run the one air pump during an outage. But I have the replace the batteries. If it will be to costly then I was going to purchase a rechargeable air pump from Amazon
The heater, canister filter, and lighting will stay off. So I am not too worried about anything but circulation and aeration.
This is not a cheap way to go, but I live in a area that is prone to hurricanes, nasty snowstorms that can dump amounts of snow in feet, ect... so these were worth the investment. APC Power Saving Back-UPS XS 1500 Black BX1500G - Best Buy. We also have a generator for long term power outages as the battery backups are not meant to be used for extended periods of time. Just plugging a heater into them would drain them way too fast, so they are used to keep a filter going for circulation and to keep bio-media alive.
Joey from The King of DIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNMok7ft1U has a excellent video on what to do in the event of a power outage. The one linked is for winter, but it is simple enough to modify to any type of climate.
I do not recommend APS as a backup. I find they are really limited in their use and terribly expensive compared to other methods. When in storm/power problem areas, I keep a small generator.
It has several advantages if the situation is right. One is that they are cheaper than APS of adequate size. They can also be used for much longer and for doing other things beside just the simple tank use. Sizing and using correctly are always important but a generator can be sized to do a number of the things we may want/need during a long term power outage.
I modify my electrical system to make it easy and use the generator to alternate between the important function of living in the house during outages.
The tank, yes. But then I also don't want the frig full of food to spoil and I also find it makes a lot of difference in my life to have heat in the house during a winter storm. After a couple days of no power/ no heat, you either have to look sharp and go to all the trouble of draining pipes or look at a big repair.
And then most of us are spoiled enough to want at least one light or two when hunkered down. https://jet.com/product/detail/0ae8...15&gclid=CMjjjOby888CFRRVfgodsQEMug&gclsrc=ds
I heat with wood and electricity, not a problem heating the house to 80+ during an outage when I'm home. Generator is on the list.
Luckily I was out of the hobby during the 1998 Quebec ice storm, lots of friends lost everything. Some big reefkeepers I know were hit hard.
Give Quebec ice storm 98 a hit on google. It was pretty brutal.
That is one of those times when we may have to just bite the bullet and do the best we can. No matter where I've lived there is always some type of crisis that might happen so we all have to look at what is prone to happen where we are and what we can do to make it work some better. They all have some good and mostly bad points. Ice storms are brutal because it is often cold after and that makes it tough on pipes. But for tops of what I've seen, hurricanes are the worst as they tend to wipe out both overhead lines as well as much of the buried equipment is gone. Sometimes it isn't the actual facility that can't be repaired but it may take rebuilding the roads to get the stuff in to do the repair.
The mud snakes and smell are big bummers. When you get out of the truck, you never know if that bad smell is a dog, cow, or human laying somewhere and it just makes my skin crawl.
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