# bored today- who has a back up plan ..



## tom g

well sitting around today I was mucking around so I dug out my 1000 watt crappy tire inverter and put it to the test ....
1-1000 watt inverter ( cant remember what I paid was on sale under 100 I believe .
1- 12 volt car battery .free has been hanging around from my old car 69.00 -120.00 
1 - smart charger from crappy tire ( 19.99 ) 
in process still trying to source out a reliable source for 100 watt solar panels .

charged up battery using smart charger . plugged in invertor and hooked up two koralias one 100 watt heater . 
I know guys this isn't the ideal test but so far the battery is still running the two koralias and heater since 4 pm it is now 7:30 .
wanted to gauge how long I had to run pumps and water moving device on one battery after charge . I am not running a vehicle to charge battery . the idea here is to always have on hand one fully charged battery with the solar panel hooked into the smart charger I wont have to have the smart charger plugged into the house power . anyways that has not happened so smart charger has charged battery . removed charger and hooked up two koralias and one heater in a large pail .

the question arises again how many of u have a back up plan and I just wanted to see for myself how much time I could get off of one battery sitting around the house .
anyways feel free to chime in I will post how long the koralias and heaters continue to run for .


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## tom g

*results*

well battery dropped to 10. 7 volts inverter was beeping , but still going wife was complaining about the beeping so I shut it down 
so 4.5 hours on just a battery with no smart charger hooked up to re charge battery with solar panel . so straight battery 4.5 hours

up to u guys now to see what u have or if u are interested in getting a back up system going


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## tom g

*so whos prepared*

me .............


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## goldfish

great tests Tom.

would like to get some more details on the solar panels.

Thanks.


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## tom g

*solar panels*

thanks paul I did use the cables I made for u .. they worked great .
the solar panels will be for the battery charger so I don't have to keep that plugged into the house also there will be extra panels. which i will be helping my friend install on his 43 foot boat to always keep power when he anchors and to charge up his bow thruster . we just have not sourced anyone out yet .


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## zenins

Does Crappy Tire have solar panels ?

Where else can I look ?


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## tom g

*solar panels*

crappy tire princess auto have them they are super expensive I have been looking on kijjii just have not had time to go chk the places out . 100w at about 130.00.

if u are looking for smaller then Canadian tire and princess auto are prob your best bet .


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## goldfish

tom g said:


> thanks paul I did use the cables I made for u .. they worked great .
> the solar panels will be for the battery charger so I don't have to keep that plugged into the house also there will be extra panels. which i will be helping my friend install on his 43 foot boat to always keep power when he anchors and to charge up his bow thruster . we just have not sourced anyone out yet .


Thanks Tom - let me know when we can test the cables.


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## fury165

Great stuff Tom, post some pics of your setup when you get a chance. I've got Vortech batteries on my tanks. I've had them kick in twice last year due to hydro doing maintenance on the grid in our neighbourhood so I decided to let them run till they drained. I can tell you they run as advertised ~72 hrs for 2 Mp10s.


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## tom g

*back up*

im glad u got a back up roger I wasn't sure if u ended up getting something figured out .would love to research a diy ecotech set up and see what they are using for bats and such .my set up is just plain car batteries . maybe a set of deep cycle marine batteries would be better .I have three batteries I fig if I can wire them up I should get 12 hours .idealy if they were hooked up to the solar panels and charger they should do the job for longer .I know your place has no room for batteries or a solar panel from what we discussed only thing I would think of is maybe a solar panel in a window when needed .

heres a good read for anyone interested in a diy back up....
http://www.bayoureefkeeping.com/topic/5054-diy-ecotech-backup-battery-pack/


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## tom g

*test #2*

very very bored today .............

ok while my battery is charging i decided to do another test on battery # 2 just to see if it is a good battery .....
so this time no heater just two koralias going since noon 
till now and still going at 8 hours ... battery still at 12.2 volts 
again this is running just off the invertor and a charged reg battery from a left over car .

8.0 hours and still going will update when batts drop down to under 10 volts

10.5 hours still could prob go more but we are down to one koralia and the beeping again is pissing my wife off .....

hopefully this is of interest to people out there so they have an idea 
anyways cheers


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## tom g

*whos ready*

time to revive whos ready .....


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## tom g

*whos ready ............its been a year*

so whos ready .... winters here and anything is poss... 
is it just me who thinks of this ....
mocked up my wiring for the furnace yesterday and will install this week .. 
furnace will be able to run off of generator ... cant put a transfer switch in .. so next best bet for me is straight to furnace .... 
generators started and topped up ....
air pumps ,ac50 and extra heaters are in binns ...
what u guys got.....

heres what im planning to do something similar anyways ....


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## tom g

*plans*

wow so no one has a back up plan or has any interest in sharing what they have in place ... wow ... just figured after the ice storm people would be all over this .... I know some running an inverter off a car is there fix but a car running at idle for 24 hours is not exactly a great idea ... that's how camshafts get wiped out ... I have way too much invested in time and money to loose over a 400 generator ... now most of u who live in appts u do have the options of battery back ups ... or solar panels to charge up batteries .... 
hope u guys are thinking about it ..


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## solarz

My backup plan is to hope for the best and restart the tank if that fails.


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## tom g

*really*

Really!!!! Wow.....i guess money is flowing for u...


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## solarz

tom g said:


> Really!!!! Wow.....i guess money is flowing for u...


No, just that any backup plan would cost more than what I have in the tank.

Errr... to be more accurate, it's:

<Value of livestock> * <probability of power failure resulting in loss> is less (likely a lot less) than the cost of a UPS or generator.


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## cica

APC Pro 1500 UPS with extra battery pack for main tank. It can run the tank with lights, return pump (dc 6000), skimmer and power head for 90+ minutes. Without light, just the rest, about 4 hours.
5 kW old generator for extra long power outage. Not a stand by, just a manual one.
Hope I'll never have to use them, but just in case.


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## tom g

*awesome*

joe Im super glad u have a plan sounds like u had a thought about it and u are ready just in case . no one wants to have to use them and some may think its a waste of time and money .now that I am thinking about it I have had many of my fish for 4 + years would be such a shame ....
cheers


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## tom g

*back up plan*

its gonna be cold this weekend ..........

well general consensus is not many of u would like to talk about your back up plans ..
A. no one has one or does not want to mention it 
B. has one but doesn't want to reveal what they have ..I can understand that


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## altcharacter

I have a 900w inverter for the car and it has a 100w already built in so I usually run the car as long as I need. 

The problem with inverters is that they don't run heaters or any type of heating device very well since they draw too much energy. 

When my power went out my 200w eheim heater would barely keep the tank at 70 degrees running overnight and my house was nice and warm so I'm thinking the house was keeping the tank warm more than the heater itself was keeping it warm.

You can also ask Alex about this. His generator couldn't keep up with his heaters and all his tanks were low. Someone needs to figure out a propane heater you can stick in the tank


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## tom g

*inverter*

hey dude long time no chat ...im glad and know u have a inverter , the problem I have with them is the car idleing for hours , in the auto trade this was known to wipe camshafts the steady idling would wipe out a campshaft 
been out of the car trade for a few years now but that's always been a known fact .. glad u have a back up . just keep that in mind that's all ...
as for heaters my genny ran and kept my heat on in my tanks no prob for the ice storm . im also in process of getting my furnace wired so I can have furnace on when and if ... just don't want to see anyone loose there precious tanks we have too much invested ...
cheers


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## fury165

Speaking of car running on driveway for hours...the police just busted s big car theft ring of high end vehicles - most of stolen vehicles were taken on cold days while owners left the key in the ignition as the car warmed up. 

Me, I've got the vortex battery back ups for water movement. From past experience, my place is on the warm side, so the temp only drops about 3 degrees after 6 hours of no power in the dead of winter. We live in a loft so no way for me to have a generator.


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## tom g

*back up*

yes roger I I agree with about the cars running and the easy target for people to smash and grab.. u and I already talked about this only thing I would recc on your end would be to grab a solar panel to throw in the window , to charge up the vortech as it slows down to charge up , simple fix with sayal or online .


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## altcharacter

I own a 2004 Pontiac vibe. Nobody wants to steal my car. Not even the homeless guys looking for a place to sleep.

As for the possible damage to the engine. I'm almost certain that was on older cars...

Anyways, my car has 410,000km on it and still running healthy so far (fingers crossed) only problem with it is the A/C went out so not so fun in the summer


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## tom g

*Inverter*

U prob are right alt.. on the engine me thinks thereally is no different from older ends to new engines.like u say
Let's cross your fingers and in this case toes...


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## fury165

A bit late, but yesterday parts of Etobicoke, east York and downtown lost power until 5pm. I was driving in east of Jarvis St. and a number of the traffic lights were out. Can't tell you how many people drove right through the intersections without stopping


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## tom g

*summers here*

who has what in place .....


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## tom g

*Bored*

Bump her up just cause it's a perfect day...


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## nc208082

I think everyone should have a battery powered air pump. It's the cheapest insurance policy for our tanks that no one has a reason not to. I mean it's going to cost you total 30$ for air pump, air tubing and air stone. Grab a pair of d batteries from dollarama and you are good to go.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk


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## tom g

*back up plan*

all right guys and gals ... Christmas has come and gone another year and wiser we are ..a few yars ago around this time we were dealing with an ice storm ... so who has gotten them selves ready for a storm .. no power no water whats your next step...my guess is not many have moved forward 
we put so much money in out tanks , it sucks to watch it melt away .
not asking u to divulge what u have so I can knock on your door with my prized austraian hammer ... or my flame hawk who is my most favorite fish of all ...

just saying guys whos ready ...


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## tom g

*Holly crap*

What's wrong with u guys !!!!!!! Lol


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## cica

Hi Tom,
I have 2 APC UPS 1500. One for the main tank with extra battery pack and one for the frag tank. These are for short power outages.
For the long outages, There is a 5000 W generator already wired in up to the main electric panel. Hope I'll have enough time soon to install the generator panel next to the main.
I hope I'll never have to actually use them.

Joe


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## tom g

*awesome*

that's great joe.... theres two gta tanks that will be safe .... 
that's the only thing I would like to do is have my genny wired to the house 
the ups are a great idea for short power outages .


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## tom g

*yesterdays ice storm*

so I know its a day late but who was prepared for yesterday , for power interuptions it was a pretty sketchy nite , I came home to trees and street covered in ice , I was totally expecting some power lines down , got thru the nite with just a few flickers ,
had heaters and fuel , power cords and candles of course , but didn't get to put into action 
cheers 
tom


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## tom g

*lets wake this puppy up .....*

whos got what planned ,,, lets hear from the newbies .... freshies or saltwater ..whats your game plan or equipment u got in place ... 
lets hear from the people with under 100 posts .... come on wake this site up ....


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## Crayon

Hey Tom,
Maybe you better remind the new members here of the disaster a few years ago when the power went out for 4 days and people lost everything......


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## tom g

*I'm trying*

Just seems it's not important ... invertor.. chk....battery trickle charger and charged batteries ... chk .... air bubbles for both tanks ... chk ..... frozen bags in freezer to cool off overheated tanks .. chk .... bottle of prime .. chk ....generator ....chk ...extension cords.. chk ...fuel ...chk......just saying


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## tom g

*back up*

so I'm watching news and apparently the weather networks has says there may be a ice storm ,lol I don't really follow weather reports I really think its a crock of crap but shit they have called stuff bang on ... as Cheryl says remember the last ice storm , good luck ladies and gents


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## DaFishMan

That big ice storm 4 yrs ago I lost a school of discus and angelfish. It was wrenching. Between that and a move I downsized alot. Realized my new apt is an old house with flaky power, in an old power grid surrounded by tons of trees. Forget it. My larger tank in position sits empty. My smaller endler tank was relocated to my gf's place before I moved. Stable power. Never brought it home. 

During this storm I had 1 hour outage, then in middle of the night a 3 hour outage. My solution worked. Offsite Storage.


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## tom g

*Greaat*

Long time no see man.... well I am glad u had something fig out.. not much responses on here so it tells me not many have a back up ...lol sucks to be them


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## Crayon

The tanks survived the freezing rain storm and the 14” of snow we got on the weekend. No power outages, whew!
Car wasn’t as lucky. Got hit by a snow chunk on the 400 Monday morning and took out the grille and some sensors. We were fine, so all in all, the weekend ok.


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