Power Outage--What to do ?

[Paintguy]

I am at the end of a long road so most everyone out here has a generator. My wife says since we now have one that we have kept the power from going out for more than a few hours to actually use it.

Note to keep a generator healthy you should start it up at least once every 3 months.. not just run it a little, but put a load on it. My brother works for the city and has to maintain all their generators like this.

 

[Kianna]

Wow!!, what a niice son!
I bet that generator wasn't cheap!

Yes he is a wonderful son. Didn't share what he spent though. Just said not to worry about it. I have 3 boys and they're all fantastic! I feel very lucky!!


The funny thing is we were out to dinner on Monday nite for his birthday and we were inside having dinner laughing and joking away while all this storming was going on outside. We were in there like 3 hours. When we went to leave we realized we had been totally oblivious to what was going on outside. We had been talking about a storm coming and possible power outages......and he was saying I needed a small generator. Then we started talking about all the heaters and wattages etc which lead to a conversation about power bills....LOL Never got back to the generator conversation.

So going home there was heavy winds, big tree branches down all over the roads (a few slamming the car too), no traffic lights/street lights anywhere. I guess the only place that had power was the restaurant we were in...lol Got home realized the electric garage opener wouldn't work--duh no power. Thats when I realized we were locked out of the house. I had locked the screen door in the front from the inside and put a stick in the sliding glass door in the back before leaving. We ended up having to break in to get in.

Well so much for our Happy Birthday good times.......it was nice while it lasted :cry:

 

[Kianna]

I am at the end of a long road so most everyone out here has a generator. My wife says since we now have one that we have kept the power from going out for more than a few hours to actually use it.

Note to keep a generator healthy you should start it up at least once every 3 months.. not just run it a little, but put a load on it. My brother works for the city and has to maintain all their generators like this.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to remember that!

 

[protocl]

to be off topic.

this is a clear indication on how we all depend soo much on power!!!

 

[Kianna]

to be off topic.

this is a clear indication on how we all depend soo much on power!!!

Oh boy isn't that the truth! My other 2 boys were like frantic cuz their cellphones and ipods were dying.....let alone no computers and cable TV! OMG..you would have thought the world was coming to an end! I just wanted to be warm and keep my fishies alive!

 

[Betty]

Note to keep a generator healthy you should start it up at least once every 3 months.. not just run it a little, but put a load on it. My brother works for the city and has to maintain all their generators like this.

We run ours, but I did not know about putting a load on it. Thanks for that info.

Glad it all worked out for you Kianna. We bought a 7000w/12000 after that storm a few winters ago took the power out for a couple of days. We lost a lot of stuff in our freezers (husband is a hunter) and can't let that ever happen again! And of course the fish are important too.

It's amazing how quiet the house is when my tank filters aren't running.

 

[Fern]

to be off topic.

this is a clear indication on how we all depend soo much on power!!!

Really makes you think about having a few naturally planted tanks don't it : Then all you would have to worry about would be heat

 

[icer711]

It's amazing how quiet the house is when my tank filters aren't running.

well betty thats no fun

 

[Kianna]

Well I got 75% of the w/c's done yesterday. Found only 1 doa and that was a male guppy. He was an older guppy so maybe it was just a little too much for him.

Decided to do some water testing today (I usually don't test my water unless I suspect a problem). Didn't test all 19 but the ones I did Ammonia and Nitrite were 0. Nitrates were higher than I like 20-30. I know its probably because the filters were in need of maintenance before the power outage and I opted to not mess with any filters yesterday.

The tanks I didn't worry as much about doing a w/c on yesterday were the planted tanks cuz I figured if there was any ammonia the plants would be soaking it up. I tested a couple of those and ammonia/nitrite were 0 but the interesting thing was the nitrates were also 0 :shock: I'm telling you I NEVER test unless I think theres a problem. These planted tanks are over due for a w/c too (I know bad fish mommy) and I haven't touched the filters in a long time. It really showed me how plants really help with our water quality!!!!

So in summary the non planted tanks had a 50-75% w/c yesterday & 24 hours later tested ammonia/nitrite 0 nitrate 20-30 and the planted tanks with no water changes in 2 1/2 weeks tested ammonia/nitrite 0 nitrate 0. Boy my vote now rest with planted tanks all the way!!