duck Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 in the apartment where i live, the building management will shut down the power for the whole building for around 10hrs on the 16 nov for some maintenance issues. im not planning to buy one as this doesnt happen regularly, so my option would be to hire one that can supply enough power for my fish tanks. can anyone kindly point me to the right directly of where to hire this and what sort of money would i be looking at. how long will a battery operated airpump last. if i cant hire generator this would be my only option but im not sure if it will run for 10hrs and i cant get into the building while there is no power (total evacuation) thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 ring kenards. they'll have one. How many tanks have yo got? and how big are they? Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katanaone Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 i'm pretty sure your local kennards hire or similar would either have some for hire or be able to point you in the right direction, as for battery operated pumps i have used mine for about 1 year for fishing trips and for transportation. on average i go fishing about once a month where it runs constantly to keep my live bait etc. alive so maybe around 6hours each time and i'm pretty sure that i can push that. hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 7, 2004 Author Share Posted November 7, 2004 the tanks are -4x2x2 with 2 canister eheim 2215 & 2217 + 2x 300w heater housing 9 adult discus + 11 cory - 4' with 8 discus with homemade trickle filter + 2 sponge filters +200W heater - 3' with 7 young discus +aquaclear 300 + 200W heater - 2' with 4 peppermints, 4 bn 4-6cm with sponge and internal filter + 150w heater will try to ring kennards tomorrow hope they have one suit my need ...otherwise i will have to rely on airpump although i dont like the idea of turning off all filters as i have cycle them again thanks for the replies ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mianos Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 Bunnngs have 750 W generators for 85 bucks at the moment. Seemed too cheap so I'd call them first. But 750W should be good for a few pumps and a few heaters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mianos Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 p.s. the bacterias don't just up and die in such a short time (10hours). There will be some loss of biofilter capacity but the tank will catch up quickly once it's all started up. You may see a spike but it would be unlikely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 9, 2004 Author Share Posted November 9, 2004 rang kennards today, they have 2kva small generator for $72 for 24hrs hire which according to the guy should do the job. but if the battery operated airpump will do the job, i rather save the money on hire then get some of these pumps. havent looked into bunnings generator though...might give them a call tmr. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katanaone Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 keep the battery pump idea as a backup plan my advice would be to use the generator and save all the stuffing around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barramundi Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 The Bunnings ones are GMC brand & not bad. They're certainly no industrial job, but for a backup are ok, pretty noisy though. But they are $85, so if you're gonna hire one for $75, I personally would go the extra $10 & have a permanent back-up, IMO. That's if the battery pumps don't solve your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 9, 2004 Author Share Posted November 9, 2004 i prefer to keep the cost as low as possible rather to spend the money for more fish hehe my only concern with airpump it can only provide oxygen and air movement. i normally keep my discus tank temp around 30c, without heater it drops to around 23-25c which is quite cold for them ... as much as possible i dont want to stress them ... if the gmc from bunnings will do the job ie run all the equipment for 10-12hrs, i guess i'll just have to bite the bullet and buy it. i dont care about the noise as the whole building will be evacuated..... as long as my my fish happy ....im happy thanks for your help guys -duck- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 with the whole "building evacuation" thing, will the managing body let you use a generator? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 9, 2004 Author Share Posted November 9, 2004 not mention on the letter apart "...will not provide generator..." i dont see any harm using the generator ..... losing all my fish during this black out period definitely not an option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 what I'm getting at is, if you don't check with them & keep the fuel upto it, they might turn it off & you get dead fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 9, 2004 Author Share Posted November 9, 2004 i know what you mean but this is high rise building in cbd, they must be either spiderman to be able to climb the wall or they have to break through the door anyway, i will check with the security tomorrow, thank for reminding me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamsherman Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 Ive used alot of generators in my line of work (sole power source for months on end) and i can tell you that 750 watts wont power a kettle!! For $85 it would be great to run a drill or something like that, but if you add up all the wattages of your fish tank/room needs, you will find that it wont run everything you want to run. If you want to just run air, then a large style (heaps of outlets??) air pump will run comfortably, but thats without the filters and heaters. And i think if you run the generator on your balcony, then you shouldnt have any dramas with noise as the diesel ones they make these days are very quiet. HTH Alan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 9, 2004 Author Share Posted November 9, 2004 well there goes my cheap solutions from bunnings will the one with 2kva i mentioned earlier do the job? any direction of where i can hire them cheaply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamsherman Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 We used to use 1.6kva to power a whole signal detachment (communications setup), along with cd players, t.v's ect. Yep, it will do the trick for sure, but id still be a bit weary at how many heaters you use. Cheers, Alan. P.s, you need a 60 kva, those bad boys can light up a small country town!!! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 9, 2004 Author Share Posted November 9, 2004 there will be around 1100-1200w in total (heaters+filters+airpump) -duck- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamsherman Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 Should do the trick no worries then. Also, check if the gene you are going to get has a drum feed. (sucks in petrol/diesel from a bigger tank so you can leave it running for ages without having to keep topping up). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 9, 2004 Author Share Posted November 9, 2004 good point!! as i wont have access to the building during the blackout .. dont want to imagine the gene ran out of petrol thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mianos Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 750 certainly won't run a kettle as that appliance is probably the most power consuming thing (on a short term) aside from a stove. If you you took a long term view and planned for this sort of thing 750W would work. For example, lets say 3 X 400L tanks. Each tank would have 2X150W heaters. If the day is over 20 or you can seal the room off a bit a 150W heater will keep 400L at 27 easily (you can calculate that but they are rough as you don't know the heat loss out of the room but you can use standards). 3 X 2000 LPH pumps (consuming 45W each, from the box on front of me), takes 150W (and also adds nearly 45WPH of heat to the tank). Adding that up 450+150 = 600W I'd say that's about right if you plan on running nothing else. That said, the 2KVA genny would probably be better than the 85 buck GMC but rentals can be pretty badly maintained. Make sure you tell them you want to keep animals alive and not just run the hifi at a beach party. Of course, as Alan says, a nice litlle diesel one would be great but they also tend to be bulkier. (They are also cheaper to run). ymmv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck Posted November 10, 2004 Author Share Posted November 10, 2004 the idea of using generator might not going ahead, i spoken to the security and he said i need a permission from building manager which i can tell you now what is his answer going to be .... NO!!! if thats the case i will start praying now for another hot day and use battery airpump for oxygen . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barramundi Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Re the heating, could you use a kero heater or something to keep room temp up? If it's not a warm day, obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 i dont realistically think you need to worry about your tank temperature given the time of year. as long as the tanks cool down and heat up slowly the fish wont even notice it. in my opinion an air pump is more than enough to keep the fish happy in the time that the power is out. the power filters may lose a small amount of bacteria, but that will build up again in no time. just make sure you watch your ammonia/nitrites for a couple of weeks after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 almost forgot in addiotion to what I said, I would also not feed the fish for a couple of days before to let them purge a little. then on the day without power, cover all of your tanks with blankets to keep the light out. when the fish are "asleep" they will use much less oxygen. has worked well for me in the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.