David S
Aquarium Advice Addict
Lets just hope no one steals the car!!
Battery backup???
- Thread starter David S
- Start date
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Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
That would be an interesting police report:
Officer: "Did you get a look at the guy who took the car?"
You: "No, I was busy making sure my aquarium was running"
"But you have no power, how was it running?"
"From the car"
"ooooo K...What kind of car was it?"
"A 1995 Geo Metro"
"So what value would you place on the loss?"
"I'd say about $10,000"
"But it was a 15 year old Geo Metro?"
"No, the tank is worth $9,950. The car is only worth the 10 gallons of $5/gallon gas that's in it."
Officer: "Did you get a look at the guy who took the car?"
You: "No, I was busy making sure my aquarium was running"
"But you have no power, how was it running?"
"From the car"
"ooooo K...What kind of car was it?"
"A 1995 Geo Metro"
"So what value would you place on the loss?"
"I'd say about $10,000"
"But it was a 15 year old Geo Metro?"
"No, the tank is worth $9,950. The car is only worth the 10 gallons of $5/gallon gas that's in it."
Well, when I used this method once, the police didn't come, but my neigbor wondered what was going on. That night an ice storm downed a big oak tree and it took out the street's main power line. I talked to the power company crew forman and he said it could be 8 hours plus before the power came back on so it was time to improvise. At the time I had about a dozen 20 gallon aquariums w/ poison dart frogs, some of which I was taking care of for a friend. House temp was in the high 50's when I came home (frogs needed a min of high 60s) and the frogs had buried themselves in the tank's substrate.
I stacked them like a pyramid w/ spaces in between. Put several old fashioned car mechanic's lights w/ 100 watt bulbs in the spaces, covered everything w/ moving blanckets & comforters & plugged the power strip into the inverter....hoping. The temp stabilized while the room temp declined, and then began going up. Since the house was cold I slept in the car with an egg timer set to go off about every 45 minutes so I could check things out. Luckily, no losses of adult frogs. A few juveniles perished later but unfortuantely all eggs and tads were toast (ice?). Luckily my car's a little more comfy than a 95 Geo but still, not a great night's sleep. Like I said, no cops were involved buy my neighbor knocked on the window to make sure I wasn't dead of carbon monoxide poisoning (scared the bejeepers out of me).
I plan to use it as a back up (once tested) until I can put a better solution in place on my new (on order) SW system, although at 500 peak watts I don't think it's going to run pumps plus the heater. I may need something bigger or another unit to run on a second vehicle in the event it happens again.
I once saw a device in a greenhouse catalog that dialed preprogrammed phone numbers if the temp reached a certain level. That might be nice to have and plan to look into it.
I stacked them like a pyramid w/ spaces in between. Put several old fashioned car mechanic's lights w/ 100 watt bulbs in the spaces, covered everything w/ moving blanckets & comforters & plugged the power strip into the inverter....hoping. The temp stabilized while the room temp declined, and then began going up. Since the house was cold I slept in the car with an egg timer set to go off about every 45 minutes so I could check things out. Luckily, no losses of adult frogs. A few juveniles perished later but unfortuantely all eggs and tads were toast (ice?). Luckily my car's a little more comfy than a 95 Geo but still, not a great night's sleep. Like I said, no cops were involved buy my neighbor knocked on the window to make sure I wasn't dead of carbon monoxide poisoning (scared the bejeepers out of me).
I plan to use it as a back up (once tested) until I can put a better solution in place on my new (on order) SW system, although at 500 peak watts I don't think it's going to run pumps plus the heater. I may need something bigger or another unit to run on a second vehicle in the event it happens again.
I once saw a device in a greenhouse catalog that dialed preprogrammed phone numbers if the temp reached a certain level. That might be nice to have and plan to look into it.
