High Tide Aquatics

Power ... again

R

richiev

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Is it just me or did this storm come from nowhere? I didn't hear about it ahead of time, which is weird given how much I was hearing about the other ones.

I'm sorry to everyone that lost power, it's probably my fault, because we went out of town in Monday. I don't get how this only happens when I leave town. I got notifications that my controllers weren't responding, but assumed it was an internet blip. Heard from my neighbors an hour or so later that power was out.

I was able to walk them through plugging my aquariums into my electric car, and it was up and running about an hour after that. It's still out.

It's burning through my car battery very fast this time. I assume because it's cold and the heaters are running at full blast (the house has no heat).

Hoping it holds out. I asked them to pull the plug on all the lights and toss blankets over the tank(s). I'm hoping that'll extend the battery life.

Currently not supposed to get power back on until very late Thursday. We aren't back until Monday. Sucks, but could've been worse.

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I'm probably going to give in and just buy a generator now.

How's everyone else's situation?
 
I got the "we dont have power" call at 6:55pm yesterday. Floored it home and fired up my iGen 2200W. It ran from 7:15pm to 3:30pm today and didn't skip a beat. I would have lost all my tanks + pond if I didnt have my generator. I will trade $10 in gas and barely sleeping over losing my reef any day.
i'm now shopping for a 26kW natural gas generator + automatic transfer panel. I refuse to let PG&E kill my beloved pets.

As far as portable generators go, hondas are the gold standard. On the cheap end, most ~2000W generators are made in the same factory. An inverter generator is a must unless you enjoy 5500rpm operation. I'm not sure if you have my cell but feel free to bounce questions off of me.
 
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I’ve been without power for since yesterday at 12PM. Fortunately, my powerwall kicked in. I shut some items down and it lasted until 7am this morning. Then solar kicked on at 8am. The power for the tank was only down for an hour. It wasn’t so pretty the last few round of outage.

One time, I didn’t set “Storm Watch” and it discharged during peak hours. It only left me about an hour of backup when the power went out.

There has already been 11 outages this year. This one has the longest….

I am going to invest in a eco tech backup to backup my power walls. Those supposedly keep the power heads going for 3 days.
 
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alvarengadaniel8 said:
It’s been predicted since last month. However, the media didn’t announce it.
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It was all over the Chronicle but no one reads the news anymore.

@richiev let us know if you need any help transferring livestock or anything.

@rdriggett Fyi, Rich has described his automatic switching battery backup system on the Reef Beef podcast that's pretty reasonable and might be a thing you can model for your setup.
 
Cheap insurance is the silent air B-11 air pump. It’s battery powered and you plug it in the wall. When power cuts, they turn on and aerate your tank. A pair of d batteries can go for like 8 hours.
 
Krak256 said:
Which Reef Beef episode was that?
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I think 65. There's a great description on the Discord from this member about the LiFePO4 batteries (note this is the system that Telegraham recommends): https://discord.com/channels/1021962373218717847/1026108569000607747/1072156258121023518

Text for those not on Discord:

Still catching up on the back catalog, Rich talked about his battery backup system in this episode. He mentioned his cost around $2,500. You can do it for cheaper if you want. You'll basically need two things. First is a battery: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Battery-Marine-Off-grid-Applications/dp/B075RFXHYK - $190 Then, you need an inverter/charger (hereafter called "inverter" for brevity): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS9EI8Q/ - $300
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This will require minimal wiring. You'll need to wire the battery to the inverter. You'll also need to supply utility power to the inverter. This might require cutting wires, although it depends what supplies they give you. After that, you plug the inverter into the wall, and plug your equipment into it. The inverter passes along utility power to the stuff you plug into it when the power's on. When the power goes out, there's a built in transfer switch that will switch over to the battery automatically. When the power comes back on, the switch moves over to supply your equipment with utility power again. It also charges the battery backup with a built-in charger, so the battery is ready to go again in the event of an outage. There are a few differences between this and the system Rich uses. First, this one is not a solar charge controller, so you can't add solar panels. Second, this uses a lead acid battery, not lithium. This kind of battery is safe to use indoors because its completely sealed, but they have fewer charge cycles than lithium batteries. If your power only goes out once or twice a year, you'll need less than 50 charge cycles in a 10 year period. if your power goes out frequently, a lithium battery might be better. Be sure to check compatibility with the inverter/charger. The system above has 100A of power. So about 1,000w after inverter inefficiency (100A * 12V * 0.9 efficiency). This will power a single 25w return pump for about 40 hours. If you need more power, you can always add another (or bigger) battery
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The problem with transfer switches is that there is a short period with zero power. That will reset Apex and such.
Note that most equipment needs 24V, so you do not need an inverter for that, just a clean 24V output.
(The battery is not exactly 24V, it varies, quite a bit)

This is more of what I was thinking.

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Regarding batteries:
Lead Acid standard Car battery : Dangerous inside. Cannot deep-discharge at all.
Deep cycle sealed lead acid : Good for inside, but you still cannot deep-discharge them very often or they die.
Lithium-cobalt/nickel, like in laptops and cars : Expensive, high energy density, can catch fire.
Lithium-iron (Lipo4) : Lower energy density, still not cheap, but far safer.
 
Currently at 2 days without power and about 2 hours of car battery left. The only thing that would've saved me is a generator at this point. Also wish I'd of charged my car fully. I had it set to only charge to 80%.

Currently a race between PGE (they say it'll be back on by 11pm) and my car battery. My neighbor is hopefully going to go get it a bit of a charge to try and get everything working.

What a pita.
 
Alright it looks like my power at work may be out for 2 days! My 150G may be fucked. I have an eco flow and 1 smaller ups. What should be my priority to keep powered? Return pump (Cor20), powerheads (2 mp40, 1 mp60), or heater? My office might stay around 70 - interior room in building.

i can get in there early and it’s an eco flow
 
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wazzupmac said:
Alright it looks like my power at work may be out for 2 days! My 150G may be fucked. I have an eco flow and 1 smaller ups. What should be my priority to keep powered? Return pump (Cor20), powerheads (2 mp40, 1 mp60), or heater? My office might stay around 70 - interior room in building.
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Oxygen, so either add an airstone or vortech up near the surface to get O2 into the tank. Next would be heat.
 
wazzupmac said:
Alright it looks like my power at work may be out for 2 days! My 150G may be fucked. I have an eco flow and 1 smaller ups. What should be my priority to keep powered? Return pump (Cor20), powerheads (2 mp40, 1 mp60), or heater? My office might stay around 70 - interior room in building.

i can get in there early and it’s an eco flow
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VorTechs aren’t great at creating good surface agitation. I’d personally set my priority to run return pump, heater (somewhere between 70-72) and then vortechs. Try running your return pump lower than normal to conserve power.

I have around 5 battery powered air pumps, but I think I’m way out of your way. Hit me up if you want to make the trek to east bay.
 
I think I’m gonna lose some of my fish and corals. My tank is at 65 right now. My backup battery ran out sometime during the night and I have no way to recharge it. I have some small battery packs that are powering my heater right now and I’ll switch it to the pump in a bit but honestly I feel defeated. I’ve been trying everything I can but this power outage came out of nowhere and is lasting much longer than I thought it would…

Only thing that would have helped at this point is a gas generator.
 
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