IKE devastation and a hard lesson learned on Vortech battery backup

[DJREEF]

Sorry to hear of your losses Quoc. It seems that everyone had a bad time last week.

I was able to save my system by using a voltage invertor hooked up to my truck, run on 3 hour cycles. It was a PIA running back and forth through the storm to start my truck (yea, I really luv my animals), but everything survived.

DJ

[fishcraze2002]

Thanks guys. After several water changes, my corals look good now - at least I can be happy that my corals made it and doing well now.

[Klix]

I learned my lesson too.
Few years ago, I lost everything due to a tornado.

With our house, I am rebuilding a stand and going to do it right.
I even have a (2) 5000W generators, for our house. One for the house and one for my tank. That way, in event of pwer poss. I can run my filtration and lights.

Good thing, because we were without power here, for a week.

[Klix]

btw..a Generator, IMHO is a MUST for any serious reefer.

[MeuserReef]

Sorry to hear about your negative experience with the Vortech's Quoc. I am glad, however, to hear about your corals. I lost a sixline wrasse and a rose mille, but other than that, I was pretty lucky.

Im in the process of building a new system from the ground up and one thing that Ike reminded me of is the need to have a battery backup system to run all of the critical life support systems. Being an avid "DIY'er", I plan on building my life support systems backup from 2 deep cycle marine batteries, a true sine wave inverter, a float charger, and a DIY automatic transfer switch. All of the "critical" items that would need to be run in the event of a power outage would be on a seperate circuit that would remain energized should the utility power become unavailable. My goal is to design a system that would run my tank for a week. Perhaps this is realistic, perhaps not. We shall soon see. I do have a generator, but would like to be able to cycle it off (to save the precious gasoline) without shutting down the reef.

Most importantly, Im glad to hear that you and your (human) family are OK.

[DJREEF]

Originally posted by fishcraze2002
Thanks guys. After several water changes, my corals look good now - at least I can be happy that my corals made it and doing well now.

Quoc, are you still without power?

DJ

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by DJREEF
Quoc, are you still without power?

DJ

no, power was back since Sat!

[Aj Flip]

awwt that sucks you tank was well grown in too

and that clown is a she or should be

[DJREEF]

Originally posted by fishcraze2002
no, power was back since Sat!

That's good to hear. Good luck my friend with the rest of your system. Lemme know if you need help. The next couple of weeks are going to be critical.

DJ

[reefsafe]

Do you think the vortech kept the corals alive? If so, the BB would be worth it for that reason alone.

[OceanDweller]

Originally posted by Klix
btw..a Generator, IMHO is a MUST for any serious reefer.

He had a generator, it had to be routed outside to exhaust it and the winds were strong. Sorry to hear about you loosing everything due to a tornado, those things are really scary.

The fork lift battery would most certainly work I would think for a large tank, those things are insanely huge and can power a forklift for a really long time.

Hows the tank coming along? Finding any fish replacements?