WEEKLY DISCUSSION : Disaster Plans (hurricane, earthquake..)

[jman785]

How do you plan on keeping your tanks alive, and striving throughout a disaster? (Hurricane, earthquake, etc.)

What items have you stocked up on as far as for 'Just In Case' goes?

Do you have a generator?




This is a weekly discussion, and will be added to a weekly discussion archive

[cich1]

What items have you stocked up on as far as for 'Just In Case' goes?
Do you have a generator?

I haven't stocked up on anything but i do have access to a generator, when i wired the outlet for my sw tank i did make provisions to plug it into a generator

[Sugar Magnolia]

When Isabelle threatened last year I bought a spare car battery and an inverter from Radio Shack. Just recently I bought two battery powered air pumps and a bunch of "D" batteries for them. I'd love to have a generator, but the $$ just isn't there.

[Aquaman]

I live in central California and we have had a couple decent earthquakes over the past two weeks, Nothing major. I barely felt either of them but I did consider what I should do to protect my fish. I'm going to anchor my stand to the wall studs in my house. I figure if we get a strong enough earthquake to destroy my house, The fish would perish along with everything else. Atleast if I anchor the stand I will have less of a chance of the thing tipping over. It would take one hell of an earthquake to knock over that much weight though. I'm more concerned about power outages than anything. Sometimes in the winter we will lose power a few times. I think I will put my filtration system on a battery backup unit.

[Condiman]

I live in Wisconsin so all I have to really worry about is ice on the powerlines or some fool driving into a powerpole.

I just wrap a blanket around my tank to keep it warm and use a battery operated pump to oxygenate the water for the fish. I have used this methood for a consecutive 5 days and didn't loose a thing.

I got 4 Marine 8D batteries, a 120 watt solar pannel to trickle charge them and an inverter. This should be enough to run the pumps and heaters and minimal lights for a good couple of days or so.

Thats the best I can do in my apartment for the moment with out making the landlord angry. I am hoping to move into a house before too long and I will try to set up a solar system to hopefully handle all of my power needs for my tanks. Thats a bit ambitious and the area hear aint the best for solar power but the state will provide lots of incentives such as property tax breaks, reimbersement for a portion of the equipment and installation, and the power company has to buy back any excess that gets produced. So this might be something for others to consider even though you dont live in the south west. Batteries last about 5-6 years, pannels last 20-30 years before requuiring replacement. Wind power is another option if you live in an area that recieves wind speeds of around 10 mph about half the time. This is actually a better deal than solar for those in areas like that. A 403 in 10 mph of wind will generate a lot of power for a battery bank in a 24 hour period and it cost about 500.00 bucks. Somewheres on my computer I have plans that allow you to convert a old lawn mower engine( a dime a dozen litterly at garage sales and estate sales) into a Genset with the addition of a car altinator for a budget genset. Just some options out there to get people thinking...

Growing up in Tornado Ally and living for 5 years on my boat taught me a lot of valuable lessons about how to cover your six...

[Telco Guy]

It would take one hell of an earthquake to knock over that much weight though.

This is a common mistake that people make when thinking about earthquakes. Weight really doesn't matter. Think about it. The earth is moving under the building. The weight of the tank is insignificant compaired to that! :wink:

I agree with the anchoring to the studs in the wall. That is my plan. I just haven't gotten to it yet, but the recent quakes, although not felt here in Irvine, have gotten me thinking about it again.

[Frick-n-Frags]

Nothing exciting really happens in ho-hum-hio except maybe an occasional tornado or power outage. And if you get chosen by a tornado: cya (we keep a fake trailer park nearby to trick the tornadoes :D)

At least my tanks are in the basement and I have access to a generator.

One thing I recommend regarding brief power outages, like a day or less is to power down your system and see what happens after like 6 hours of no power. See what the temp does and if the fish are gasping or whatever.

Some heavily stocked DSB systems cannot survive as long as a lightly stocked BB system.

I have gone through as long as 14hrs without power(and freaking out the whole way) and the temps dropped to the lower 70's. Fortunately it was during summer, but now I know that if that happened in cooler weather, I would have to heat my tanks or they would die from cold. So my battle plan is to run the main pump and a heater as bare minimum survival mode.

[bigfoot]

never worried about it im in a part of a denver suburb but i live on an overlapping power grid so all i gotta do is run an extension cord across my drive way at worst and up here everything is underground so unless there is a volcano i dont see how itll really affect me anywho longest ive been w/o power in the last 4 ytears i 2 hrs

[funkybozu]

the only real danger at the moment fr me is earth quecks....
if one happens ,and is strong enough to knock out the power, then
i wont have any tanks left :(
if my tanks do somehow servive then i will rig my car for battery suply
and i have kerosen heater to warm the place up for 2 weeks.
though if it laststhat long till power comes back then ,i dont think the fish would make it

[BoldAsBrass]

Even though I have a full house generator for hurricanes, I keep a battery operated air pump handy. That way I have water movement just in case I run out of LP for the generator. The airbubbles have done me well in the past before I could afford a whole house generator ;-).

[jman785]

BoldAsBrass,

Good idea.

[Ocean Singer]

my only threat is a tital wave, and there's nothing I can do to stop that :P

[stpetehxc]

i live in fl, where all the hurricanes seem to love. we bought a generator before last summer, and it still in the box :laugh: , our power is routed underground.

[tim_coville_]

our houses power is underground.

but my area is 100% pure bedrock. about 0 chance of a earthquake effecting us to the point where the power goes out or the house breaks in two...

[Matt.D]

Here in Arkansas sometimes Tornados can really wreck house's. Theres nothing you can do to protect your tanks from a tornado. If it hits your house, and it flattens your house, well everything is flattened. During the winter and stuff we might have power go out because of all the snow and ice but we have a generator so its all good. Its pretty big since it can handle our 2 story 3,000 sq. foot house easly when its below freezeing outside.

[douglas]

hey I have a generator salvaged from an old boat.
not pretty but it works.