generators

[Instar]

Are your Tunzes on a wave maker? You need to add up all the start up watt draws and running watt draws and then get a good brand generator that exceeds your start up and run draw. you may only have running draws on your literature. If thats the case a safe guess is to add 25% to 30% more for the startup draw. Its easy to find and move a startup 6550 watt with run of 5000 watts generator as their frames have castors on them. They normally have about 4 20 amp plugs and a couple 30 amp ones. That size will also run your refer and a couple lights. Refers usually draw 1500-1800 start up and 1200 to 1500 running. (thats a ball park, it depends on sizes) A maxijet 1200 draws just 20 watts. Larger pumps can draw maybe up to 150 watts. Just look at the ratings in the product lit that came with the tunzes. Add all of your equipment to be on the generator together, then add about 30 percent and over size your generator as much as is practical. The cost to oversize is not that much per watt comparitively. If you are just going to run your tank pumps only, a very small generator should do it. But don't guess, add up the draws so you oversize correctly.

[pickle311]

I bought a Coleman generator from home depot last year for $300. It's rated for 3500 watts. I've had to use it twice since I bought it. I fugured that $300 is nothing in comparrison to what I have in the tank. Only problem with the coleman is it uses a briggs motor and it is loud. If you have the money, buy a Honda, they are as close to silent as you will get.

[z28pwr]

GreenMako, my emergency plan is to only run what I need to keep the fish alive, with that said in case of a power outage I would run my Tunze 6100 and an air pump which would be around 50 watts, I could also run a 300 watt heater for a total of 350 watts which I could run off a power inverter from my car.

[alexwolf]

$300 sounds like a reasonable alternative to losing all of your livestock. Especially if you live in an area prone to power outages.

[Someone]

Would it be easier and cheaper to buy a ups (i think thats what they are called, they are backups for computers...) instead of a generator? or are those just not worth it?

[alexwolf]

IIRC, they only last something like 10 mins.

[C.Mydas]

[quote="Instar"]Are your Tunzes on a wave maker?
yea they are on the new 7095 multicontroller, I'll have to look into running and starting wattage of it also.
Thanks everyone!

[GaryP]

Z28 makes a good point. You don't need to run all your equipment to keep your tank going. A few maxijets and a air pump should do in most cases. However, you need to take temp. control into account too. Obviously you don't need lights in an emergency outage situation so that helps on cooling. However, take into account an outage in the middle of the summer of perhaps an ice storm in the winter that may result in a extended outage.

I live in the Carolinas during a 2 week outage resulting from an ice storm. I was lucky because we had underground utilites. Other reefers weren't as lucky. I was given my 75 by one that simply gave up on the hobby. It had totally crashed as a result of no flow and low temps. While we rarely get ice storms here like they do in Dallas, think about a hurricane scenario. We are overdue for one in the SA area. Now that I think about it, we are overdue for a severe ice storm too.

[RobertG]

I have two 6100's that I run on a ups thaey have run well over 6 hrs when my power went out last. The tunzes onlyl pull like max 43 watts. I dont think the controller pulls much if any.

A Generator does sound good for the days of WTF do I do. Watch it all die. No run to Home Depot get me a generator. A quit Honda sounds good, then we can take it to the lake too. ( Making my gameplan already) :skeezy

I know I am covered on flow, just the temp. does worry me. especially if it were for an extended time.

Let us know what you find?

[mathias]

and if noone is home when the power goes out?

[JimD]

Get an electric start, you can integrate it into your household electrical system using a magnetic switch so it will automaticly kick on in case youre not home to fire it up... Talk about piece of mind!

[Snausages01]

Honda is quite and if you have the money I'd say go for it. I have used the Briggs and Stratton generators before and they seem to be a pretty solid unit; however, as others have mentioned they can be loud, but if they are outside it shouldn’t be too bad (we use on at the LSU football games). Plus I think I could deal with the loud noise opposed to no power. :) Also, a good thing to plan to run off of a generator is a nice size fan if you buying one in preparation for hurricane season.

I am in the same situation as you are right now and am just starting to look for one, but I don’t want to buy one that is no good and won’t last; therefore, I am planning to go with what I have used in the past, the Briggs and Stratton most likely.

If you are just looking to run your tank I’d say you’d be able to get by with a 1000 watt generator. Also, you could just use a deep cycle batter and a power inverter. With a 120 amp hour deep cycle you can run a single Tunze 6060 for about 30-40 hours, and at a cost of about only $70 its hard to beat when you don’t have a generator.

[GaryP]

Gator's talking about getting a big diesel generator. I guess I know who the go to guy will be in case their is a power failure at the SBC center during the play offs.

Remember, in reference to the start up power requirements, that you don't have to start everything at the same time. This will cut down your overall power requirements. In the case of an automated system, the impellors might still be spinning (???) to some degree when the back up power kicks in and won't have as much of a power requirement as if they were completely shut down.

[bprewit]

Military surplus generators can be found at good prices as well and are built to pretty tight specs so usually trouble free for extended periods of time!
http://www.galleria-e.com/cgi-bin/Colemans.storefront/en/product/240101