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Orange Crush
11-21-2015, 08:21 PM
Hi all, it's been awhile since I have been on the forum. I have completed school and my internship and have been working as a counselor since May of this year. Anyways, we had a power outage Tuesday evening after a big wind storm and remained without power until Friday evening. All of my discus and other fish died so all I have now are empty tanks which is very sad for my to look at. I want to replace them but I am hesitant since this is the second power outage that we have had so far this fall. Fortunately the last one was only for about 12 hours. I have already spent a bunch of money restocking all of the food in the refrigerator and freezer as well as staying in a hotel so it might be awhile before I can afford another school of discus. In the meantime what can you folks tell me about generators because I know nothing about them. How many watts do you need to provide electricity for 4 tanks (55-75 gal each), a refrigerator/freezer, heating the house and a tv/dvr? How much do they cost? Is propane or gas powered better? Portable or non? Thanks so much.

Second Hand Pat
11-21-2015, 08:24 PM
Welcome back OC and so sorry to hear that you lost your discus. :(
Pat

Keith Perkins
11-21-2015, 08:27 PM
Can't tell you much about generators, but very sorry to hear about your troubles and very glad to see you back among us.

Driftwood Mike
11-21-2015, 09:52 PM
Standby or "non portable" are ultimately more convenient, if, you have a constant source of fuel. There are plenty of portable units available now for a fraction of the cost of a standby unit. You would most likely be looking at 10KW or 10,000 watts starting 8000-8500 continuous that run on gasoline. Will run about 10 hours on 8 gallons of gas at 50% load. You want to go to your house with a 50 amp plug. Generators with just 15 or 20 amp outlets will run you tanks but won't help much with anything else on you list. Purchase a box for outside the house and wire it to your panel. Connect the genny to the box with a good quality cable and 50 amp plug and you will be in good shape

Boyd Luth
11-22-2015, 07:34 AM
Sorry to hear of your loss. We live in Florida, have outages, etc. I purchased a stand-by gas gen. years ago. Depending on your location ( somewhere on Earth :-) and $$$ If we had natural gas, I would go standby Generator. Google them, they are dropping in price. Good fortune. I recall reading when a Hurricane came through, where Jack Wattley, actually just continuously dipped, and poured tank water...that's love of our Fish :-)....years ago, of course.

Orange Crush
11-22-2015, 01:06 PM
Thanks for your responses. I do have air pumps that have a back up so when the power goes out it switches to the batteries. So when I have short-term power outages the fish have no problems. However, when is long power outage like this week, the temperature got very cold. Are there any small battery backup things that you can plug tank heaters into other than generators so it would just provide power to the heaters?

rickztahone
11-23-2015, 01:05 PM
I'm sorry for your loss. This thread that Al started may be of some help to you:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?115751-Lets-Talk-Generators

Orange Crush
11-24-2015, 02:24 AM
I'm sorry for your loss. This thread that Al started may be of some help to you:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?115751-Lets-Talk-Generators

Thank you.

Disgirl
11-24-2015, 03:20 PM
Hi, so sorry you lost your fish. Years ago, when we had no generator, we lived where we had frequent ice storms in winter that took out the power for a few days. I was always able to keep my fish alive and fairly warm by covering up the tanks with blankets, sleeping bags, quilts, throw rugs or even winter coats one time. No air pumps or filters running. Just fish in the dark with lots of layers of stuff over the tanks. Never lost a fish. When the power came back on, did big water changes and fed lightly for awhile.
Barb

Rudustin
11-24-2015, 05:15 PM
OC, Wow I am really sorry to hear about your losses. I live in an apartment so I can't really help in anyway. The fortunate thing for me it is a condo and when the power goes out the common hallways have powers so I can if I need to plug in some extension cords to the power outlets in the hallway and just run my pumps and of course we don't have a cold issue here in Miami Beach. I hope you get a generator and that you can restart soon. Take care. Rufus