Disaster... I need an alaram

[Michele]

My tank is on it's own circuit with a circuit breaker. For the first time, the circuit tripped and the tank was off for 20 hours without being detected. We had had a very bad day as a family, complete with a funeral. Not much of an excuse.... but the bad result is we lost our yellow tang, royal grama, coral beauty angel and cherub angel. The smaller fish survived along with all the coral thus far.

Does anyone know of an alarm that can go off... either with temperature changes or loss of power? We are a busy family of 5 with three small children. I can only hope this won't happen again... but I really want to make sure we don't miss it.

[Brooke]

Very sorry Michele....for awhile we used a battery backup meant for a computer on our tank. It won't power very much but it does beep pretty loud when it is switched on. You might look into something like this. I'm not aware of any other kind of alarm for lack of power.

I hope everything else in your tank makes it.

Brooke

[dtiedke]

FWIW- I have an old laptop that I will be using for monitoring the tank and such, and I have put it on a battery backup (UPS) on the same circuit as my tank.

There is free software that comes with the UPS that will sound alarms, and send me messages via email to my cell phone when a power problem occurs. The UPS battery is not meant to run my tank, but rather act as an alarm (via my cell phone) when there is a power problem.

I am looking into adding an aquarium controller that will also monitor PH, Temp, etc...and can also send emails with alarms to my cell phone when these parameters are out of whack too...



Dave

[Rick O]

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles Michele.

There are battery powered flood lights that are used in commercial buildings to light exits in the event of a power outage. They come on automatically whenever AC power is interrupted.

[Doug1]

Oh Michelle, sorry to hear about that
I think they make a digital tank thermometer that has an alarm the goes off if temp falls below set point. that only helps if some one is at home
FWIW I have one pump and one heater on each of seperate circuits, that lesens chance of complete shut down.
With a 120(?) reef it may be worth it to invest in a controller with paging capability. Then again , get ahold of Bill E he's clever with that sort of thing

[Geoff]

Sorry, to hear about your tank.

the UPS (uninterupted power supply) is a good bet, but could be expensive. the large digital thermometer has an alarm mode on it like Doug was talking about.

it the larger fish died then my bet was a lack of oxygen in the tank. they make battery backup air pumps.

HTH,

G~

[Alice]

Michele;

I'm really sorry to hear of your losses. I don't have any kind of alarms on my tank either but like Doug, I do use two circuits to run stuff for my tank. I have two powerheads on another circuit so if it's just the GFCI that cuts out, at least there's water movement/gas exchange. That doesn't help in the event of long power outtages, but it's at least a little redundancy.

Alice

[Jimbo]

If you can solder you can make this alarm 9v battery will power a small piezo tweeter.

[Junkzoo]

Good idea Jimbo,,,
Michelle,if you are not electrically handy,,,
go check out the Lowe's,Menards,Home Depot kinda places,,they oughta have a plug in "tattletale/screamer" deal that might work for you .
HTH

[Jeremy1973]

Hmm..well, there are electronic thermometers that will make a warning noise if the temp drops or rises from a set parameter. Plus, I have seen at Radio Shack..a year ago though...a device that you plug in to an outlet, and if power gets shut off, it makes a beeping noise. I don't know if they are still out or not, but you can try that. If I recall, it wasn't to expensive either. $20. or so. So sorry to hear about the losses..both human (family, friend), and the fish. *hugest hugs out to you for such a terrible day*

[Michele]

Thanks everyone for your help. It is very sad not to see my buddies swimming around. The rest of the tank appears to be doing fine.

I think I will check out the radio shack alarm and get the thermometer with the alarm. 2 alarms should do it.... I'm pretty nervous. that should work as a quick fix.

The idea of 2 separate circuits is also a great one. We had the wall and plugs put in specially for the tank... so I will have to be creative with how to use a different circuit from the house.

The controller with automatic paging sounds like the best. I have no electrical background... so it will have to be easy.

Thanks agian everyone.

[Alice]

Michele;

I remember you crawling around and doing the plumbing under the tank when you were out-to-there pregnant, so I have confidence you can handle this project

Alice

[Silas]

Drs Foster and Smith sells a temp monitor that will beeps at you. I think it is about $35.00 p/n 906111. I recall the Medusa temp controller for the heater/chiller will also beeps if temp fall or raise above the limit you set. Power out is a real PITA and problem. I installed a 1000 watts UPS on the circuit of the main pump just to make sure the water is moving during power out. Off course, the UPS will beep when that happen. I am thinking of doing the same for the heater. I was told the keeping the water moving is more important than heat if one is to given a choice.

My fall back if power doesn't come back quickly, I will start up my portable generator to keep the tank going before anything inside dies on me.

have fun...

s