Procrastinating Long Enough

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Redfish
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My SetUp: AGA 150g 48x30x25, Reef Octopus Skimmer, Bio Pellet, Phosphate, Carbon reactor. Mostly a SPS coral tank with a few zoas a Green Polyp Toadstool, a Chalice or two and a couple of Scollys thrown in there. Top Off System and dosing pump system for Calcium and Alk.
Location: D'Iberville Mississippi

Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Redfish » Wed Aug 08, 2012 5:23 am

I have been putting it off to long, but finally pulled the trigger yesterday. The wife called me on the job Saturday afternoon and told me the power to the house had been off for 25 min. during a storm we were having over our way and she wanted to know what to do. What I wanted to tell her was " Drag the generator :lol: out (that I haven't started since last winter :roll: ) fire it up, figure out :crazy: which power cords run to the MP 40's and plug them into generator and all will be good " What I actually told her was " Well I hope the power comes back on before the fish die" I went to our favorite LFS yesterday and picked up a VorTech Battery Backup. This post is just to remind everyone, Hurricane season is here, get your power needs for your tank taken care of. I know the Battery Backups aren't cheap, but the price is small in comparison to what we have invested in our tanks. I read some where the other day, don't know how true it is and I am sure the amount of Live Stock you have in your tank will make this number go up and down, your fish and corals will start to die in four hours without oxygen being put into your tank, I bet they start to die way before that 4 hours though. I went to the EcoTech web site to see how long the Battery Backup will run a power head, the number they give on their web site is 30 hours for one MP40. That number I am sure can change depending on how you have your EcoTech power heads set up.

Dragont
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Location: Ocean Springs, MS

Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Dragont » Wed Aug 08, 2012 2:43 pm

I'm sorry Pete I still can't make myself do it. Everything I have has either come from trades, coral sales or it was given to me. Lol... But with my new setup I'm gonna try to fit in 5 vortechs just because... So I might invest in 1 or 2 of those battery backups. I have a backup right now but it's not from ecotech.

Shadow1
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My SetUp: 300DD Reef, 30 Nuvo Breeding Clowns, 30 QT/Grow out.
Location: Hattiesburg, MS

Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Shadow1 » Wed Aug 08, 2012 5:29 pm

We came home from work yesterday power company was replacing the pole in front of our house power was off close to 6 hours, my vortec back up never missed a beat keeping 2 mp60's churning. My next investment is going to be a 20kw propane gen set that will run the whole house ac and all. We lost power in Hattiesburg for 9 days after Katrina do not want to deal with that again.

Redfish
Discus Member
Posts: 983
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:49 am
My SetUp: AGA 150g 48x30x25, Reef Octopus Skimmer, Bio Pellet, Phosphate, Carbon reactor. Mostly a SPS coral tank with a few zoas a Green Polyp Toadstool, a Chalice or two and a couple of Scollys thrown in there. Top Off System and dosing pump system for Calcium and Alk.
Location: D'Iberville Mississippi

Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Redfish » Wed Aug 08, 2012 7:30 pm

Shadow1 wrote:We came home from work yesterday power company was replacing the pole in front of our house power was off close to 6 hours, my vortec back up never missed a beat keeping 2 mp60's churning. My next investment is going to be a 20kw propane gen set that will run the whole house ac and all. We lost power in Hattiesburg for 9 days after Katrina do not want to deal with that again.
Thats good to know :D Bet you felt like that VorTeck Backup was the best money you ever spent.

Archie
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Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Archie » Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:28 am

Shadow1 wrote:We came home from work yesterday power company was replacing the pole in front of our house power was off close to 6 hours, my vortec back up never missed a beat keeping 2 mp60's churning. My next investment is going to be a 20kw propane gen set that will run the whole house ac and all. We lost power in Hattiesburg for 9 days after Katrina do not want to deal with that again.

i installed a 15kw generac generator shortly after katrina. well worth the money :D :D

Shadow1
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My SetUp: 300DD Reef, 30 Nuvo Breeding Clowns, 30 QT/Grow out.
Location: Hattiesburg, MS

Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Shadow1 » Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:22 pm

Propane or NG? and do you have any idea on fuel consumption. I will have to go propane so tank size will be a consideration unfortunatly I cannot fill this one up with salt water.

Archie
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Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Archie » Sat Aug 11, 2012 6:31 am

i am using natural gas. i did fuel consumption calculations between the two fuels. need to see if i can dig up documents.
do believe cost between the two is very close.

Scott Allen
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Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Scott Allen » Sat Aug 11, 2012 11:55 pm

How many things can you run on 15kw, fridge aquarium and some lights/fans? Or the whole house?

Archie
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Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Archie » Sun Aug 12, 2012 6:28 am

have just about whole house wired in, except for main ac. pond is tied into along with part of workshop.
i do have a window unit in living room that is tied in to generator. i am able to block off part of house with two doors. so we are able to stay cool during power outages, along with fish tanks.

if i was to do it again, i would have stepped up to the 20k to handle main ac

Shadow1
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Posts: 257
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:59 pm
My SetUp: 300DD Reef, 30 Nuvo Breeding Clowns, 30 QT/Grow out.
Location: Hattiesburg, MS

Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Shadow1 » Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:19 am

We calculated the 20k to run everything but the 2 ton unit on our 2 nd floor. Tanks ac pool hot water everything can't let everything hit at once like ac fridge and freezer compressors other than that should be no problem I have been told to expect fuel consumption of 2 3 gallons an hour of propane. So I have to invest in a 400 gallon tank for about 10 days worth of power. Wish we had NG here but country life has it's costs and benefits.
Would really like to get real world consumption for one though would help in making decisions.

Archie
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Re: Procrastinating Long Enough

Post by Archie » Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:31 pm

i would imagine that ten days is if you ran it for 24 hours. in reality you could stretch that to twenty days.

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