eventful night

[CoryDude]

We got hit by a pretty bad lighting storm last night around 3am. The house behind us took a direct hit. They have a hole in the roof and ceiling in their living room. There's also a burn mark in the carpet in the middle of the room where the arc went into the floor!!!

It knocked out power to our street for 15 hrs. It literally just came back on. Thank you Mr. Edison!

Once the power was out for 4+ hours, i got worried about the tank. I pulled a McGyver and took my osmolator pump and hooked it up to a 9v battery to keep water moving across the top of the tank.

All fish are accounted for and healthy EXCEPT the mystery wrasse. He's laying on his side breathing pretty hard. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[txav8r]

Hope he makes it Cory. That is a cool fish!

Glad to hear y'all are okay.

[JimD]

Add an air pump with an airstone for more O2, sounds like he needs more air...

[CoryDude]

He's up and swimming now! Once the power came back on I redirected the outputs to splash the surface and get more o2 going. Believe me Jim, I was trying my darndest to get that tank oxygenated.

Here's what saved my tank:
http://i401.photobucket.com/albums/pp100/cpryor74/DSCF2342.jpg

[JimD]

Good deal! :thumbs_up:

[Kristy]

So glad everybody pulled through! Can you explain a little more about your Macgyver solution to help us all have a plan for the unexpected?

[Paul28]

Man thank god for that pump :) here is something to look into thay are life savers
http://www.apcguard.com/default.asp?source=google&keyword=APC

Keeps my return pump and skimmer and few Circ pumps running for hours :):)

[glennr1978]

I'm glad your tank pulled through, but feel sorry for your neighbors. I suppose it could have been alot worse.

I keep a power inverter in my truck for times like these. If the power were to go out for any length of time all I have to do is turn on my truck and run an extension cord into the house. I only had to use it once before I tore my tank down and it worked great. I powered my vortech, return pump, and skimmer. My tank never missed a beat.

[CoryDude]

The couple behind us are ok. They were asleep when it happened. The husband has already called their insurance co. They had just moved into the house.

The pic shows all the supplies I used. I took the DC pump off my Tunze Osmolator, split the wires, and taped the leads to the 9v battery terminals. I was able to get about 45mins of runtime from each battery. I laid the pump near the top of the tank and let it agitate the surface to help keep o2 levels from bottoming out.

I ran the pump 3 separate times throughout the day. Not the solution I'd recommend, but in a pinch, it worked.

[mabel_photo6]

Man, glad everything is still alive.
We had a blackout here at my house last week when a strong storm came along.
Light was out for an hour so we were lucky.
But I was just talking about buying a small generator or something battery operated to keep it moving.

[allan]

That was a close strike, glad everything worked out for you. The only thing I lost was a single T5 bulb... I was worried that I had lost the entire ballast.



Thank you Mr. Edison!



Might want to thank Tesla instead. Edison was more interested in pushing DC current through the grid. I imagine that if we were working in such a power system your electric woudn't have been that quick to return.

[Bill S]

Ever since I bought a small generator a couple of years ago, I haven't had to use it!