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| June 2003 Meeting Minutes
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ETRC Meeting - Mike Teague's house
First we all had a look at Mike’s
tank, and talked about flatworms and what to do if you get them.
Membership applications and dues were accepted.
Then we discussed battery back-ups and what to do in case of a power outage.
Mike has a generator that is available to others if Maryville has power. A
cheap inverter can be used for probably an hour or two on a car battery. The
concern for when a power outage happens is that you never know when it will
come back on. Battery backups can be very expensive (an article from FAMA
was distributed). But Mike has shown us that you can build a battery back-up
system (to run the necessities) for around $150-$200.
First he bought a power inverter from Sam’s Club, which converts DC power to
AC power (the battery is DC and the tank needs AC). Then he bought a Marine
Deep Cycle Battery, which is very useful because unlike a car battery if you
draw off nearly all of the power (drain it way down) it will still be good
after recharging.
To make it automatic, you need a relay switch. This device, when plugged
into the wall, detects when the power goes out. It then switches on whatever
else it is plugged into (say a battery hooked up to your tank), and when the
power comes back, it will switch off whatever you have plugged into it.
Some people may want to even consider getting a battery tender, which is
something that charges the battery so slowly it will never blow up. This is
advantageous because some people say that using large batteries (like car
batteries and DCBs) will emit hydrogen gases that can be toxic and even
explode. But a battery tender is charging so slowly that very little gases
are emitted.
Mike says, and we all agreed, that you only need to put the most essential
elements of your fish tank on a back-up system. Tanks can survive quite a
while without lights, but not circulation and oxygenation.
Topics discussed for the next meeting:
1) We need to get a head count for the Ripley’s Aquarium trip.
2) Fragging- sizes vs. prices, attached to rocks vs. non-attached.
3) Next meeting location is TBA (for a little bit longer)
4) Getting t-shirts or not?
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