FlyPenFly
Well-Known Member
I've recently been doing a lot more research into power outages as I stock my tanks with expensive torches. With severe weather events and fires only increasing where I live, I think it's prudent to prepare for when the lights go out for extended periods or if I need to evacuate for a number of days. I'm writing this out in the hope that it can help others save their livestock in case the very probable event of power outages strikes you. The most important thing is to have a plan and strategy of what you're going to do.
FLOW
I run the latest Ecotech MP10s on my main tank with Nemo wide flow adapters, they're positioned near the waterline on opposite ends. If main pump fails or stops, the MP10s are on Ecotech battery backup systems and will keep gas exchange going. You want to make sure your powerheads are positioned in such a way that if the power goes out, they can keep surface agitation vigorous. I've replaced the lead acid batteries with LiFePo4 (Lithium Phosphate) which will give them a few days of run time. There are plenty of options and guides here. IMO, Flow is the most important thing to keep running: bacterial action for the nitrate cycle, waste removal for coral, and oxygen exchange for fish cannot happen without flow. Lack of flow will kill a tank in a few hours.
TEMPERATURE
If the ambient temperature for where you live goes below 72F or above 80F at any point during the day or night, you need some sort of method for temperature control.
Cooling is a lot easier, as you can simply run fans on your tank. I do not recommend running chillers in an extended outage as they consume refrigerator amounts of power. An Inkbird temperature controller or similar is a fantastic way to temperature control your tank. I have my heaters and fans on tanks without an Apex. Keeping a tank cool with an inkbird and fans is very easy and low power, just plug into a backup power source and you can probably go days. (power sources at bottom)
Heating is a lot harder because no matter what, it's a lot of power or manual labor. If you live where it's very cold and the power is out, you can try wrapping your tank in a heat reflecting blanket to try to insulate and retain as much heat in the tank as possible. If you have a gas stove, a propane camping stove, etc you can also boil water, put it in a Nalgene or other heat compatible bottle and float it in the tank to act as a heating source. You will constantly have to cycle through bottles until the power is back. I wouldn't recommend it with ziplock bags or the sort as they will probably melt or release who knows what. The best option is to keep your heating going through one of the backup power sources. One thing to note, I have noticed that the newest Neotherm Pros and AquaEl heaters use a different possibly more efficient heating strategy. They don't go full blast to their power ratings but scale up and down in wattage depending on the demands of the tank. This may be a power saver.
POWER SOURCES
Aquarium specific batteries
Icecap (Coralbox) and Ecotech all offer ancient lead acid battery sources. These can last from a few hours to a day or two as the pumps go into low power mode automatically. You're much better off replacing the lead acid battery with a LiFePo4 battery as it has much higher energy density and is very tolerant of several deep cycles and service life longevity.
Generator
If you have a whole house generator running off natural gas piped into your home, it must be nice being God's favorite. If you're like the rest of us, I would invest in a propane or dual fuel generator because propane doesn't go bad nor do you have to do fuel shut off procedures and stabilize your gas. It's also very easy to find propane tanks pretty much anywhere. Since this is typically for emergency use, I would go with the one where you have to think about it the least. The newest generators are relatively quiet but if you have jerk face HOAs like I do, they might fine you for use and harass you about it. You might want to claim you need it for medical eqpt such as dialysis, CPAP machines, medical monitoring eqpt, etc. If they demand proof, cite HIPA or get kidney disease or get your fish labeled as specially trained service fish. I'm not a lawyer though. You can also build noise cancelling housings for a generator, just make sure whatever your do, don't let the carbon monoxide get into your dwelling, at least have an alarm. If you can't have a personal use small generator (apt/condo) then I would skip to high capacity batteries.
Computer UPS
Almost useless, even the biggest most expensive systems still use lead acid and will last you an hour to a couple hours. Some people do replace the batteries with LifePo batteries but it does require careful wiring and resoldering. If you already know how to do this, you don't need this guide, I hope you don't set your house on fire.
High Capacity LifePo4 Batteries (Solar Generators)
I cannot stress enough that if you go this route, you need to go with Lithium Iron Phosphate and not the much more common Lithium Cobalt Manganese chemistries. LiFePo4 batteries are slightly more expensive but they'll last you much longer in terms of service life and are generally more tolerant of abuse. They're also less likely to go critical and start a nearly un-extinguishable fire in your house. Personally, I have EcoFlow River 2 and Delta 2 batteries permanently hooked up to my tanks but I make sure to drain the batteries once a month to reset the BMS (battery management system) so that it keeps their state of charge accurate. All batteries are prone to drifting calibrations unless you reset the BMS in this way. For a 50 gallon tank, I would start with two 500wh rating batteries. If you only hook up heating/fans/flow to them, it should keep you going for at least half a day unless your heating demands are very high. You can charge these batteries in your car if you don't have a generator so keep 2 per tank so you can swap them out. Charging in the car is limited to around ~100w so make sure your socket and car allows for that. The more batteries the better and if you live somewhere with a lot of sunlight, you can get 200w panels online for less than $200 each and they hook in directly to the batteries. There are also extensive DIY battery bank systems you can build and many YT guides on how to get that done.
Personally, I use the batteries and have a generator that will recharge the battteries as needed. This gives me several hours to get the generator up and I do not need to constantly run the generator which saves on gas and noise. The batteries charge very fast. If you have enough battery capacity, you can also just run solar panels to charge during the day and the batteries can last through the night.
EVACUATION
If you have to evacuate by car due to a wild fire, tornado, riots, etc and want to save your precious corals or fish, one method I've been thinking of works pretty well that I used to move states. Get as many five gallon buckets from homedepot/lowes along with their lids. Drill a small air hole in the lids. Buy a USB powered air pump to keep the buckets oxygenated and provide some minimal amounts of flow. It would be preferable to have some live rock or bacteria media in there if you have fish. Keep the car's internal temperature around 75 or 78. Make sure to plug the USB into a high capacity power bank and plug that into car power. If you have delicate coral, I would try to protect the corals with cut out plastic cups like when coral shippers sent you coral. If you have to stay at a friend's or a hotel for several days, just pick up a cheap temporary tank at Petco or a rigid container at Homedepot and make sure you bringa pump and heater to keep things alive.
Whatever you do though, have a plan and be prepared with the items you need so you're not struggling to find things when the worst happens and the bomb timer starts for your livestock. If you're super strapped for cash, at a minimum, I would invest in:
FLOW
I run the latest Ecotech MP10s on my main tank with Nemo wide flow adapters, they're positioned near the waterline on opposite ends. If main pump fails or stops, the MP10s are on Ecotech battery backup systems and will keep gas exchange going. You want to make sure your powerheads are positioned in such a way that if the power goes out, they can keep surface agitation vigorous. I've replaced the lead acid batteries with LiFePo4 (Lithium Phosphate) which will give them a few days of run time. There are plenty of options and guides here. IMO, Flow is the most important thing to keep running: bacterial action for the nitrate cycle, waste removal for coral, and oxygen exchange for fish cannot happen without flow. Lack of flow will kill a tank in a few hours.
TEMPERATURE
If the ambient temperature for where you live goes below 72F or above 80F at any point during the day or night, you need some sort of method for temperature control.
Cooling is a lot easier, as you can simply run fans on your tank. I do not recommend running chillers in an extended outage as they consume refrigerator amounts of power. An Inkbird temperature controller or similar is a fantastic way to temperature control your tank. I have my heaters and fans on tanks without an Apex. Keeping a tank cool with an inkbird and fans is very easy and low power, just plug into a backup power source and you can probably go days. (power sources at bottom)
Heating is a lot harder because no matter what, it's a lot of power or manual labor. If you live where it's very cold and the power is out, you can try wrapping your tank in a heat reflecting blanket to try to insulate and retain as much heat in the tank as possible. If you have a gas stove, a propane camping stove, etc you can also boil water, put it in a Nalgene or other heat compatible bottle and float it in the tank to act as a heating source. You will constantly have to cycle through bottles until the power is back. I wouldn't recommend it with ziplock bags or the sort as they will probably melt or release who knows what. The best option is to keep your heating going through one of the backup power sources. One thing to note, I have noticed that the newest Neotherm Pros and AquaEl heaters use a different possibly more efficient heating strategy. They don't go full blast to their power ratings but scale up and down in wattage depending on the demands of the tank. This may be a power saver.
POWER SOURCES
Aquarium specific batteries
Icecap (Coralbox) and Ecotech all offer ancient lead acid battery sources. These can last from a few hours to a day or two as the pumps go into low power mode automatically. You're much better off replacing the lead acid battery with a LiFePo4 battery as it has much higher energy density and is very tolerant of several deep cycles and service life longevity.
Generator
If you have a whole house generator running off natural gas piped into your home, it must be nice being God's favorite. If you're like the rest of us, I would invest in a propane or dual fuel generator because propane doesn't go bad nor do you have to do fuel shut off procedures and stabilize your gas. It's also very easy to find propane tanks pretty much anywhere. Since this is typically for emergency use, I would go with the one where you have to think about it the least. The newest generators are relatively quiet but if you have jerk face HOAs like I do, they might fine you for use and harass you about it. You might want to claim you need it for medical eqpt such as dialysis, CPAP machines, medical monitoring eqpt, etc. If they demand proof, cite HIPA or get kidney disease or get your fish labeled as specially trained service fish. I'm not a lawyer though. You can also build noise cancelling housings for a generator, just make sure whatever your do, don't let the carbon monoxide get into your dwelling, at least have an alarm. If you can't have a personal use small generator (apt/condo) then I would skip to high capacity batteries.
Computer UPS
Almost useless, even the biggest most expensive systems still use lead acid and will last you an hour to a couple hours. Some people do replace the batteries with LifePo batteries but it does require careful wiring and resoldering. If you already know how to do this, you don't need this guide, I hope you don't set your house on fire.
High Capacity LifePo4 Batteries (Solar Generators)
I cannot stress enough that if you go this route, you need to go with Lithium Iron Phosphate and not the much more common Lithium Cobalt Manganese chemistries. LiFePo4 batteries are slightly more expensive but they'll last you much longer in terms of service life and are generally more tolerant of abuse. They're also less likely to go critical and start a nearly un-extinguishable fire in your house. Personally, I have EcoFlow River 2 and Delta 2 batteries permanently hooked up to my tanks but I make sure to drain the batteries once a month to reset the BMS (battery management system) so that it keeps their state of charge accurate. All batteries are prone to drifting calibrations unless you reset the BMS in this way. For a 50 gallon tank, I would start with two 500wh rating batteries. If you only hook up heating/fans/flow to them, it should keep you going for at least half a day unless your heating demands are very high. You can charge these batteries in your car if you don't have a generator so keep 2 per tank so you can swap them out. Charging in the car is limited to around ~100w so make sure your socket and car allows for that. The more batteries the better and if you live somewhere with a lot of sunlight, you can get 200w panels online for less than $200 each and they hook in directly to the batteries. There are also extensive DIY battery bank systems you can build and many YT guides on how to get that done.
Personally, I use the batteries and have a generator that will recharge the battteries as needed. This gives me several hours to get the generator up and I do not need to constantly run the generator which saves on gas and noise. The batteries charge very fast. If you have enough battery capacity, you can also just run solar panels to charge during the day and the batteries can last through the night.
EVACUATION
If you have to evacuate by car due to a wild fire, tornado, riots, etc and want to save your precious corals or fish, one method I've been thinking of works pretty well that I used to move states. Get as many five gallon buckets from homedepot/lowes along with their lids. Drill a small air hole in the lids. Buy a USB powered air pump to keep the buckets oxygenated and provide some minimal amounts of flow. It would be preferable to have some live rock or bacteria media in there if you have fish. Keep the car's internal temperature around 75 or 78. Make sure to plug the USB into a high capacity power bank and plug that into car power. If you have delicate coral, I would try to protect the corals with cut out plastic cups like when coral shippers sent you coral. If you have to stay at a friend's or a hotel for several days, just pick up a cheap temporary tank at Petco or a rigid container at Homedepot and make sure you bringa pump and heater to keep things alive.
Whatever you do though, have a plan and be prepared with the items you need so you're not struggling to find things when the worst happens and the bomb timer starts for your livestock. If you're super strapped for cash, at a minimum, I would invest in:
- Nalgene bottle
- camping stove + fuel
- USB powered air/water pump and power bank
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