Getting back in

[Fat_Penguin]

I have a 55g saltwater tank that has been fishless for over 6 months. Due to a unexpected 8hr+ blackout while away from home, almost everything in my reef was wiped out. I have been maintaining the tank fishless with some star polyps that survived along with 7 nassarius snails. I was wondering if there are any good suggestions on a back-up powersupply I could use for my tank to prevent this from happening again. Also, I was wondering if it is safe to add a yellow tang into the tank or if I need to cycle the tank again before I do.

 

[andysam]

Hi Penguin
Realistically there are only 3 ways to do a power backup,
1- get 12 volt motors and 12 volt batteries,use a normally open contact to energize the dc motors when line power fails.
2- get a LARGE UPS with a 120 volt inverter build in
3- get a generator with a transfer switch
I use the 3rd option as I consider it to be by far the best.
I am an electrician by trade so I did it for a much lower cost then is available to most however it is not as expensive as replacing a well stocked tank.
The advantages are as follows
1/ can run all tank equipment lights,heaters,pumps
2/ if generator is running on natural gas it will never run out of fuel
3/ can run house furnace and or a/c to maintain house temp normal
4/ wife not pi**ed at you since only thing working in the house is your tank
I run a 6.5 KW gen on gas and it will handle any emergency, the gen is around 1,000 and the transfer switch another 600 and finding a electrician friend should not be hard
As far as the tank ya I would cycle it again

 

[Fat_Penguin]

Thanks for the helpful advice. I guess I'll look into option #3 and cycle my tank before adding fish in. Hope things go better for me this time around ...

 

[intimatecple]

If you have been maintaining the tank as normal for 6 months....no recycling would be needed as in...you have been doing water changes and throwing in some flake for feedings every now and again....checking parameters and everything still cks out ok....

 

[roka64]

Throw some food in the tank and test for ammonia. If you have no ammonia, your bio-filter is still intact. I would add maybe a fish a month, just to let the LR/substrate build up the bio-filter.