Flood Insurance?

[NaCl_H2O]

Ok reefers - a question from my wife!

You have read the posts for my new project, which will eventualy hold approx. 600g of saltwater in my living/dining room. Will my normal homeowners insurance cover me if something drastic occured and a few hundred gallons of water went washing out the front door :o

Granted, I probably need to bump the $ limit up on my content value, but is a saltwater disaster covered by typical homeowners insurance?

Second question regarding emergency equipment: Does anyone use a UPS as a power source backup for the main water circulation system of their tanks? How would I size a UPS for my system?

Thx - Steve

[Ram_Puppy]

I can't remember for sure, and of course every policy is different. I know that MY insurance will not cover the livestock, but it will cover what is damaged, i.e. carpet and so on... I have renters.

What is an interesting question, is, if I putt a 115 gallon tank on a second story, added a sump and all that and after it all gave way and crushed the old man sitting in his barca lounger on the first floor... would my insurance cover that? :) lol...

Seriously, call your insurance company and find out, if the tank is built into your house, that may even change the way it is seen by the company, as a permenant improvement, it becomes part of the homeowners insurance I think, and not part of your personal articles floater.

[z28pwr]

Call your insurance company, since I heard a rumor that "Allstate" specifically excluded Aquarium blowouts. This sounds far fetched but I guess somebody who has AllState insurance should call.

[RobertG]

I have State Farm, they informed me nothing in front of the tank, like personal property would be covered. The tank itself would be covered if there was a sudden displacement of water. A Blowout! Anything structual would be included... I have to say they did'nt like it. My agent went to the underwriter to find out!
I would put in a call to your agent just to be sure!!

[captexas]

Not sure how that would work. It is simply personal property, not part of the house. I believe personal property is covered under theft, fire, storm damage, certain acts of nature and things like that. I don't see how they would cover the tank itself. If your tv blows up and damages your entertainment center, I don't think they are going to pay for a new tv or entertainment center. Now if it starts a fire and burns down your house, then they pay for the house repairs and cost of personal items up to a certain amount.

It would be nice to know though. Especially with the big ordeal over mold coverage the past several years. LOL, Call your agent and ask how would having hundreds of gallons of water sitting in a glass box with only silicone holding it together in your living room affect your rates? :-)

[NaCl_H2O]

Call your agent and ask how would having hundreds of gallons of water sitting in a glass box with only silicone holding it together in your living room affect your rates? :-)

And this glass held together with silicone has a few hundred pounds of rock siting in it ...

Call my agent ... don't call ... call ... don't call ...

........ Never Mind!

[RobertG]

Call your agent and ask how would having hundreds of gallons of water sitting in a glass box with only silicone holding it together in your living room affect your rates? :-)

And this glass held together with silicone has a few hundred pounds of rock siting in it ...

Call my agent ... don't call ... call ... don't call ...

........ Never Mind!

I felt the same way after asking..

[Ram_Puppy]

guys, I am going to be searching for a new renters insurance policy in the coming months, nothing right away, but as someone who is 'shopping' the company can't make a note on my account and then run off and raise my rates at renewal... as long as the list is not to long here, throw up the companies you would like to know about and I'll see what I can find out in my process of hunting.

I already know I will probably go with the armed forces network insurance agency (they are what a certain large insurance company in san antonio was a couple decades ago (when they still cared)) but it never hurts to have another guys price.

[NaCl_H2O]

I am with "that certain large insurance company in san antonio" aka USAA!

[Salty]

I did a search in my policy with USAA and found no mention of the word "aquarium" either included or excluded. It does state that "fish" are not covered. In general the type of homeowners policy written by USAA covers everything that is not speciffically excluded, there are exceptions and can be interpretational differences. If I remember correctly (yea right ) one of the questions they ask when giving a quote is whether or not there will be an aquarium on the property.

The policies offered by State Farm and Allstate are very different from USAA.

Bottom line is I would call and ask your agent or insurer.

-Daniel

[SaltyJim]

I am with "that certain large insurance company in san antonio" aka USAA!

Just so you know, from personal experience with a tank flood, my USAA policy did not cover ANYTHING damaged as it was a failure of the tank itself. If my failure had been a result of *inspected* plumbing, then it would have been covered.

As a result, I still have a bare concrete floor waiting for staining.

J

[mathias]

and to part 2 about a UPS most ups systems that are afforcable may run a system max for another 15 minutes.... now if your think huge unit it all depends how much $$$$$ you want to spin....

in ups math $$$$$$=RUN TIME

[NaCl_H2O]

in ups math $$$$$$=RUN TIME

Let's say I wanted to keep my main circulation/sump pump and Skimmer (pumps) running for say 30-45mins during an extended power outage.

First, is it worth worrying about unless I'm without power for 2+ hours (in which case It's a whole different problem);
Second, knowing watts/amps of devices to keep runing, what's the formula to equate this to UPS VA ratings?

[SaltyJim]

Second, knowing watts/amps of devices to keep runing, what's the formula to equate this to UPS VA ratings?

http://www.apc.com/template/size/express/index.cfm

Use this calculator from APC since you know the load.

J

[TexasState]

I'm on the third floor with several tanks (55,75,10,29,5,6.) I'm kind of scared about setting up my 75G and are looking at renter's insurance. Some of my flooring had already sagged without help from the tank. :o
One the UPS issue, I would say it's a waste of money if you wants it to run for 30 to 45 minutes. By the time you need help from your UPS, the battery is probably long dead. You can try looking into a gas power generator from Home Depot or Lowes.

[brewercm]

I found one good use for UPS on my system. Recently had a short power outage and my chiller didn't come back online with the settings that were previously set. Normally not a major issue either except my house A/C unit was out all weekend waiting to be repaired so the house was already hot. Came home that night to a tank that was 89.5 degrees and a chiller that was just beeping. :x

The ups won't run a chiller for long but the actual compressor shouldn't be on for much longer than a minute or so since the water won't be flowing through, just sitting until power comes back on. This should at least keep the settings in place if your chiller is like mine and doesn't auto reset upon power outage.