Power Outage

I

IC Casey

Premium Member
So, I'm one of the 200,000 people still without power since yesterday. A tree was uprooted and pulled the entire pad-mounted transformer behind our house out of the ground. Oncor has yet to be by and assess the transformer. Currently running battery-powered bubbler for oxygenation. Temperatures haven't been bad due to the mild cooling we've had. So I'm kinda wondering what my course of action needs to be. I figure I've got a 48-hr window here to do something. I could probably re-home/sell some coral if need be. Not too worried about crabs and snails. Have a watchman goby-pistol shrimp pair and a six-line wrasse.  Coral Stock: wall hammer coral, kryptonite candy cane, Xenia (not worried about) green hitchhiker palys, rainbow Monti, and a number of red mini-maxis. Anyone have advice for how long I can run it on a bubbler and it getting a small amount of sunlight from our back doors? Should I look to re-home certain things?I expect it to take them two days from the time they START working on the tree/transformer. What's my solution? Kinda having a panic attack here. I guess I should add that as of right now everything SEEMS okay. 
 
Rent a generator, barrow one,  do water change, run a power cord from your vehicle if equipped to run a power head. 
 
Yeah I've got feelers out for a generator. I'm probably going to do a water change tomorrow. I'll do it slowly because I'll have to hand mix, but at least the water will be easy to temperature match since it is all room temperature now. 
 
I'm in North Dallas and been out of power since Sunday as well.  Latest word is power may not be back until Friday earliest.  Been running a battery powered air pump and now will be bringing my vortech battery backup back and forth from work (it ran out after 24 h use).  I have a fair bit of SPS and so far they are hanging in there...  fingers crossed...  good luck to us!
 
Well, I know EXACTLY what the issue is on my block because wey the only ones left in the area without. The problem was Oncor had no way for us to report an actual problem (that their transformer had been ripped put of the earth).  We finally reached them late last night with the photographs, because they hadn't even been by. They'd told neighbors that power was back multiple times and every time I had to say "Not unless that tree is gone, because the transformer is attached to it right now."They've told us tomorrow morning, but all they've done is marked the tree with caution tape as of right now. I'm expecting Thursday or Friday. I got a generator to run during the day while I babysit things and a bubbler at night when I leave. That way I can run a single pump and reduced LED lights during the day.  Everything in the tank actually seems pretty okay. Mostly worried about tomorrow as the temps are supposed to climb again but thankfully the overnight lows are keeping reasonable temps.  View attachment 7744
 
You can get ice from the store and place zip-lock bags of ice in the tank to cool the water as needed. I have had to do all of the above too many times to count.
 
Thanks everyone. So far, so good, as everything is still doing okay. Just running a generator  during the day powering my lights and one pump and a battery-powered bubbler at night when I'm gone. I've got ice bags in case temperatures get high. Don't know when we'll get electricity back. They finally cut down/moved the tree this morning but no one has been back by to deal with the transformer or anything.So I'm thinking I've got to keep this up til Friday probably.  View attachment 7748
 
That sucks, so sorry. Very happy to hear you are hanging in and the tank is holding up. I wish you knew when you would be getting power back, not knowing is difficult. 
 
Yikes.  Our power came back on late last night, a few days earlier than forecast!   Return pump seems shot and a conch died, but for the most part everything else seems ok as of this morning.    Thank goodness for the moderate temperatures.   Hang in there and good luck!  
 
Got power back a little while ago. They did basically the WHOLE JOB today, with the exception of coming back to remove the rest of the standing tree. Oncor guy actually came to the door and asked if I'd have a problem with them taking it out LOL. I was like "GET IT!" But I guess some people get mad about them taking out trees right next to transformers in the easements. So in the course of a day, they cut up and removed the 60-ft hackberry, ripped out the transformer, dug the hole, set a new concrete pad, lowered and connected the new transformer, and got the power up.Corals and livestock seem a little confused, but none the worse for wear. 
 
Yeah, the thing I was most worried about was the pistol shrimp, just because I've had trouble in the past with the sensitivity of some shrimps and crabs in particular among inverts. My corals are almost all LPS, save a rainbow montipora and some red mini-maxis, almost all of which started out life in my pico reef (which means they could survive less than ideal conditions). They all seem to bounce back if you just take things slowly. Inverts (except for my hermits which seem to never die) I've had in the past will seem to truck along perfectly, molt, re-grow limbs, etc. Then one day they just turn up dead and I'm left scratching my head.Thankfully, he (or she?) is easy to track. Just find the goby, and the shrimp will appear.The generator rental wasn't cheap, and I PROBABLY could've kept it going just fine with the bubbler, but it definitely gave me the piece of mind I needed. If I honestly thought this kind of thing was more of a regular threat, I'd probably buy a generator. The longest I've ever had a power outage in my life prior to this was probably 5-6 hrs.
 
I am concerned that the storms are becoming stronger, I am no weather person, but were seem to be having 100 year floods every few years in different regions. I have gone without power in Arlington for a week, once in GP for 4 days, and twice it was for 2 days each. So I decided to be prepared and at least have a small generator for emg. We may loose all of the food, but the tank must survive! 
 
LOL right? We dumped the fridge on day 1. Every effort was for the tank. I'm going to see if I can pick up a decent generator at some point, to be honest, just not any time soon. I really liked the Honda one I rented. I was able to run more than I needed on the eco-throttle setting for both days I used it. Of course, it's like a $1000+ generator.
 
We should have a list of people with generators that dont mind lending if they still have power themselves.  I have a decent one and wouldnt mind.  
 
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