Hurricane preparation - Are you ready?

[ReefRunner]

Tomorrow starts the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season and we all know what that means.  So it’s time to think about preparing our tanks to survive a storm.  Are you ready?

[Ampresearch]

i know we are. or atleast i hope so .

15000 slab generator
2 1500 watt car inverters
10 battery/110 air pumps
several small power heads that dont use much power.
lots of 20 gallon rubbermaid movable containers in case i feel i need to pack up the tank and go
several NO strip lights with daylight and actinic bulbs to run atleast some light if i have no other choice.
it things get REALLY bad i have a 100 gallon tub that can go in the bed of my truck. pack everything up and drive to saftey.

have been ready for YEARS and never needed any of this crap but the second i get rid of some BAM i'll be sorry.

[mrferrit]

truck, gasoline, directions to Ampresearch's house good to go.

we normally dont really prepare exept with some food and extra water.

luckily i am one of the highest spots in st pete so i dont have to worry about flood waters (i would think) and hope but we will see.

[ReefRunner]

It's not the floodwaters that concern me.  It is being without power for an extended period of time and trying to keep everything alive.  We have a 6500 watt generator, about a dozen battery operated bubblers and two battery charged backups.  I think we may look into the car battery converters.

I think another thing to be sure of if a big storm approaches is having plenty of RO water and fresh saltwater ready for water changes.

Our house is prepped pretty well.  The large windows across our backroom are impact resistant hurricane windows and the rest of the windows, though not as strong as those, were replaced after Hurricane Andrew went through South Florida and the codes were first tightened.  We had our garage door replaced 4 years ago with a steel reinforced door rated for a category 4 storm.  Besides, the way we built our fish room ,it will be standing if the rest of the house is gone

[schudini]

Besides, the way we built our fish room ,it will be standing if the rest of the house is gone

In that case it should be called the "fish bunker" 

[Ampresearch]

when the first storm come the new is going to flash all the open shelters and largo will have " fish bunker"on the list lol

[schudini]

i know we are. or atleast i hope so .

15000 slab generator
2 1500 watt car inverters
10 battery/110 air pumps
several small power heads that dont use much power.

THANK YOU for this post. It saved my butt today. The power went out today (of course I was un-prepared) and I went to the nearest store (Petco) to buy a battery powered air pump but the power was out there too. I drove to Walmart and they didn't have any. While there, I remembered this post and that I had an inverter at home, so I bought a small 12v lawnmower battery (350Amps) and hooked it up to my system via the inverter. Ran great till the power came back on (a few hours later) and the battery voltage didn't significantly drop (was only running a 3.5watt nano-koralia for circulation and oxygenation). Now I'm set for hurricane season.

[ReefRunner]

Josh,

You might need to post a little DIY about how you hooked up the inverter - hint, hint

[Reefing Ray]

Does anyone know or have experience with back up battery's or manufactures? I have had two of them for the past 4 yrs. I tested them this weekend and they don't live up to what the original statement was. The most i got was 4 hrs running one wavemaker..Also which would you recommend..

Thank you
Ray

[ReefRunner]

Ray,

You don't need to run your wavemaker during a power outage.  The on/off action of the pump probably drained the backup quicker then if you were just running your main pump or a couple of internal pumps for circulation.  If "the big one" hits us I would not be concerned about the wavemaker.

What is the brand of the backup?

[Reefing Ray]

Ill have to check when I get home tonight Robin... It was purchased with the big screen TV as it also has a surge protector inside as well.   

[TCWayne]

Heres what I did last year. I have freshwater tanks at works and I have the reef at home. I bought 2 marine deep cycle full size batterys. I have several invertors and I bought 2 battery chargers. When a storm is coming I hook powerheads up to the invertors and let them run full time. The invertors are connected to the batterys and the charger is plugged in and connected and keeping the battery at full charge. You never know when your going to lose power during a storm, if at all. I live in St. Pete and work in Bradenton so I can't get home that fast. If power fails than that deep cycle battery will last a loooooooooooooong time with just a powerhead running. I'll get some pics up later. In reality I could keep this connected to the tank at all times but I keep the battery in the garage on the charger at all times so if a storm is coming I just put everything behind the tank. I think you should have at least a 400 watt invertor for this JMO. Bigger invertors like 2500 watts will work and you could run more stuff but obviously drain the battery much quicker. I hook up the bigger invertors to the cars and run the fridge, a fan and the TV. I think those battery backups are a waste of money and you'll never get as much run time out of one like you will with a deep cycle marine battery. Think about the guys that fish and run trolling motors for hours on a marine deep cycle battery. Makes sense HUH? No powerhead draws as much as a trolling motor

[Reefing Ray]

you have a point................ I am going to definitely look at getting a marine battery...