earthquake

Isn't that why we use rubbermaid sumps.

>> "...cats and dogs living together..."

"I've worked in the private sector before....They expect results"

"GET HER!!!"

Good times!

one word ( GENERATOR)

Maybe you should trade your gun for a fire extinguisher......Nobody is going to mess with your house!

Speaking of Power Outages...Do I Have Any Options For Keeping My Tank Alive In The Event Of An Extended Power Outage?

Marcus! RCWilley,Dillards,Best Buy.....People won't go for used when they can have new! Not that your stuff isn't cool....

You can add air manually in a power outage. We have the power go out all the time in Riverton. There is a little bitty substation down the street that's older than Mick Jagger! You can tell the fish are suffocating when they start breathing fast....Depends on the bioload,
how long the O2 will last. Which is a great reason to have a fall harvest!

99% of tanks can survive a couple hours.
My opinion is that overpopulation, meaning an unbalanced environment, may be the biggest cause for problems during a power outage.
There are many in the WMAS that have survived a day without power while the tank sits stagnant. Manually siphoning and dumping water back in can be helpful. Let the water fall from the siphon hose into the bucket so it's gets well aerated.
If a battery back up is used, have it run a circulating pump only. This pump should be a pump that is always set to send water up to surface or pointed along the surface to agitate the water for good gas exchange. Also have it turn on one to two hours after the power goes out rather than immediately. If more energy needs to be saved, have it run for only 10-15 minutes each hour thereafter.
Tanks with closed hoods that require fans to circulate air would do best if the hood were either removed or at least blocked up to allow more air movement over the water.
The tank can handle the slow drop in temperature so long as temps don't go below 60-65.
These are just my ideas for surviving a power outage.

If you have overflows leading to a sump, it's good practice to turn off the power periodically to see what happens and fix problems before they occur.

And finally, talk to your fish and inverts. this will help them get through it

A generator is invaluable. I don't own one yet but it is defintetly on my list. I must agree with Suzy. The power in Riverton is out more than on. Joe across the street has a Reef and he fires up the generator evey time it goes out. Makes me very jealous.
The only thing that really scares me is an earthquake. I'm sure anyone of our tanks could tip over in the event of an earthquake. Not to mention the tank could break from the shockwaves. Any reefers move here from San Francisco? Maybe you could share some stories?

If you're thinking of running a gas powered $300 generator, why not spend $40 on a power converter from Target and idle your car instead. The power converter plugs into the lighter or hooks to the car battery. It could run a heater and a couple powerheads or large pump. The gas to idle a car for a few hours would be maybe $5. An extension cord and a quiet car idling is easier than an expensive noisy generator.

Alternatively, for my electric fishing boat moter I paid $60 for my marine battery and $30 for the charger. The $40 power converter ran my laptop computer for about 6 hours on a recent camping trip and afterward the marine battery still showed full power! My estimate is that the marine battery would run a heater and pump for 12 hours. Plus it would be absolutely quiet!

My 2 cents

Jake Pehrson wrote: Mark, Good idea unless you need your car to go somewhere.

... I wish I would have thought of that.  Thanks Jake.