Backup Power supply.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Don't worry about sine wave. It matters with hi tech equipment only and they are very expensive.
 
rodger said:
Don't worry about sine wave. It matters with hi tech equipment only and they are very expensive.
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+1
I'm no expert but I agree, the only time I've seen sinewaves be a big deal would be concerning high end audio equipment.
Pretty sure that any old dirty surge protector power strip in your house isn't putting out a pure uninterrupted sinewave compared to straight from the wall. But I could be wrong. I remember reading on a reef forum about guys plugging high end pumps directly to the wall because of sinewave differences versus a powerstrip.

So if your junk is like my junk and purrs away just fine from that Chinese power strip under the cabinet... you're probably ok haha

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I only mentioned the sine wave because I've had several pumps rattle around and not spin from a modified sine wave battery backup. Ran my computer for a few minutes just fine (PC power supplies can do heaps of rectifying), but that's not what I needed it for. Apparently it is hit or miss if a pump will run, and it probably won't damage anything aquarium related unless you use a chiller or a DC pump.
 
mudbuttjones said:
To be honest you're probably just going to spend a ton of money. You're gonna need a decent deep cycle battery, (spiral wound AGM, gel cell etc..) maybe even two, a battery maintainer, and a good inverter. If your only looking to run 100-130 watts then I'm assuming that excludes a heater? I'm not sure of your tank size.

From my experience in the auto biz - regular lead acid car batteries don't last long without continual charge/discharge cycles. Even a normal marine/RV deep cycle battery normally only lasts a couple seasons of normal use.

I understand your limitations, since I live in an apartment as well. I'm not going to invest in a backup until I can wire a gas generator into the electrical panel of my house.

Keep it simple. Get some DC air pumps that run on normal household batteries. Rinse your bio media in a bucket of tank water and put your bags/baskets/cartridges in the display tank. Just my $.02


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Each of the Fluval FX 6 are only 42 watts , and the aquarium heater is about the same . I figured I would add a few extra watts for Air pumps. I don't mind spending the money on something I know will be reliable. after all , I am driving down to Baltimore , MD to pick up some Stendker Discus.
 
Podzy said:
Each of the Fluval FX 6 are only 42 watts , and the aquarium heater is about the same . I figured I would add a few extra watts for Air pumps. I don't mind spending the money on something I know will be reliable. after all , I am driving down to Baltimore , MD to pick up some Stendker Discus.
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Ahh I see, I was assuming that 100-130w excluded a heater. Then that makes sense.

Are you using that number as an average draw with the thermostat? You'll probably want to size your equipment for peak usage rather than an average. Say you've got a couple 200w heaters and a couple fx5s - get an inverter for at least 500-600w peak usage, even if your average draw is under 200w, otherwise you could overload the thing if your heaters kick on and all the equipment running simultaneously. You'll need a good inverter to handle the sudden changes in power consumption. Although I have no idea hoe big of an inverter you'd need exactly


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If you are using DC powered pumps, vortech, tunze or jebao with a 2.5/5.5mm connection there's a simple battery box available.

http://www.fish-street.com/coralbox_powercell_for_jebao_battery_pump__dc_pump

fish will live a lot longer with water movement even if things get cold then without it.

If you have a lot of rock work then just running wave pumps "extremely low draw" is enough to break down ammonia since you won't be feeding at this point.
 
They only have power for a very short period of time.
 
Maxime said:
Why not a computer UPS? It would work perfectly but it's pretty expensive.

http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/US/en/home/load
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Another power outage just down the street from my home last night which lasted over 12 hours. the infrastructure around Toronto is quite old I have been told. a lot of the newer neighboring cities do not deal with this. this is the 3rd power outage this winter so far.
 
My backup power plan is a Hydrosponge filter #4 in each tank with an AC/DC pmp that only come on when the power goes off. I did research and found it too cost prohibitive to try UPS batteries and the like for MY liking, as some devices will not run RELIABLY on a UPS. The other option of deep ccycle marine batt with an inverter just didnt seem worth it to me. I was in Hurricane Katrina, and all my freshwater cichlids (125gal) survived without food or water power (not even the hydrosponge and battery pump)for 7 days. They were getting to that point, but they did make it.

Now my Reef,,,,Uhhh yeah thats a different story, lost it ALL in what looked like a huge tank full of SNOT once all my softies "melted". Oh god remembering that smell....getting nauseaus rmembering....brraaackkkk
 
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