I HATE DTE!!!!

[Steve]

I swear to God here in NE Royal Oak if it even sprinkles we lost power. Now 8pm tonight we had a bried storm, and guess what, power go bye bye Thanks God I bought a generator just for my tanks last summer. Currently have the genny going and alternating power between all 6 tanks every hours with just the filters going. Plus the computer. Sucks sucks suck...I hate DTE!!!

[Steve]

Question....I have my show tanks at half filter power right now, they are both 55g with a pair of rena xp3 &xp4 on each (dual filters) and right now I just have one filter powering each tank on the generator. In the basement though I have a 29g with 40 dry to 2" and a 10g with 9 BNP to 3". The basement tanks are not on the genny because I don;t know if it will handle those as well as the main tanks plus the lights I have on and computer.
I am trying to go down every few hours and take my hand to swish the surface on the basement tanks. Is that enough or should I do something else for those?

[Saulosi77]

I'm not sure to answer your question.  I think you should be okay for a short period of time this time of year.  I'm planning on picking up a generator and a few battery back up air pumps to run my sponge filters if I loose power here.  Lost power for 9 days over Christmas last year and not going to deal with it this year.  How big of a generator are you running?

[fishandcards]

A generax whole house generator is the answer.  Automaticaly switches on, runs the whole house, and runs off natural gas.  Not sure how big of fish room it would run though........

[cranialdisturbance]

Filters dont use many watts of power. Neither do air pumps. Unless you have a 1000 watt generator 6 tanks should not be an issue. 

[Mission Man]

I have just talked to a couple of companies regarding whole house generators and was told by both that to install a natural gas generator (that will run everything, except the AC) would cost around $5500.  And to install a natural gas generator (that will run EVERYTHING) would cost approx. $8500.
But in the mean time, I'm running all hydrosponges in the tanks and recently just switched over to a ventless N.G. 30,000btu heater.  So if I loose power, the heater ignition is battery powered and it keeps running like normal and I'm using a linear piston pump to supply air to everything.  All I have to do is run an extension cord into my basement for the air pump and to my well and I'm still in business.

[jcunningham0295]

I ended up getting a whole house generator, coat me just over $8000 with install.

[Mission Man]

I ended up getting a whole house generator, coat me just over $8000 with install.

What size generator?

[auratus]

Just buy a gasoline power one , sure it dosent go on in an instant just start it up when powe gos out 200 vs 8000 no brainer to me . Had electrician make it to run whole house

[jcunningham0295]

I ended up getting a whole house generator, coat me just over $8000 with install.

What size generator?

I have a 20kw.  Will run everything including AC.

[Mission Man]

Just buy a gasoline power one , sure it do sent go on in an instant just start it up when powe gos out 200 vs 8000 no brainer to me . Had electrician make it to run whole house

All you got to be is...  Home when the power goes out.

[Saulosi77]

I'm a Generac rep and the whole house generators are amazing.  I'm currently renting a house so I'm looking at picking up a 7500e portable from them.  A smart switch with the whole house generator allows you to get whole house coverage with a little smaller generator.  Most of the time your not running every thing at the same time.  The smart switch allows you to set everything by priority so let's say if your number one priority heat/refrig/w.e needed to kick on it might limit power to whatever you have set as your least priority.  Or like you guys mentioned get a larger size and power everything. 

[Steve]

Power just came back on about 10 mins ago finally. No fish loses at all thankfully. Temps in the basement tanks did drop to about 72 but nothing too bad.

[Ron]

I can't sympathize with the DTE-specific problems, but I can with losing power. Nothing like trying to get home Friday night after a long week, having trouble finding a way home due to trees across the roads, then arriving home, flipping on the light, and then nothing ... Followed by a realization of an eerie silence ... no bubbling noises from the fishroom  = power is out. 

Power got restored last night ... luckily no fish losses.