Battery powered air pump?

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Richie^Rich

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 27, 2009
14
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Sydney
Hey hey,

Does anyone know how to make a power-board hooked up to a car battery? I'd like to run my air-pump (10w) through it, so that when the power goes off it automatically kicks in - ideally, I could also have a 200w backup heater attached to it set a few degrees below the regular temperature (to save power and extend battery life in case of emergency).

Basically I don't want to come home to find a small issue has been compounded to a major one. As such, I want a backup of the bare essentials to keep tropical fish alive and healthy for a few days - air and heat.

Now that I think on it, perhaps having a chamber set up above my tank, which opens when the power goes out and releases zeolite or other chemical adsorbitives would be worth considering? Do these require water to filter through them to be effictive in any way? Perhaps I could stock up a small cannister filter with them, also attached to the battery supply, which would kick in when the power supply went out?

Ideas anyone?
 
Well because I already have a pump that does 800lph, which is probably more than I need especially when I hook up the internal filter with spray bar - buying another air pump would be a waste of money, and power as well if I have to run it constantly for it to work when the power goes out.

I don't mind getting another pump in case the one I've got stops working, but I would rather more bang for my buck. The battery powered ones I've seen don't have an impressive flow rate, and the one you linked will only do 120lph for 20 hours - this doesn't help me if I go away for the weekend and the power goes out shortly after I leave.

Besides which, it's a limited option - I prefer much bigger band-aids, especially if they're more versatile. That's why I want to hook up a power board to a battery, so that I can run mutliple appliances and chop and change as I see fit; it might turn out to be more energy effecicent to use power heads to agitate the surface for instance, increasing the life span of the battery. It also leaves me the option of hooking up multiple batteries to further extend the usefulness of the machine.

Plus there's the whole D.I.Y issue - if they can sell that item at $75 retail, and $56 sale, than what does it cost to actually make it? Sure, the manufacturers have economies of scale and the material at hand, and my time is valuable too, but for a similar retail price I could probably make something more appropriate for my needs.
 
battery backups (the kind you would use for computers) are worth their weight in gold.. for most setups they are powerful enough to keep all of your equiptment running for several hours if not several days..
as for car inverteres... also worth it IMO unless you have a lot of equiptment you plan on running... then for the price you might as well get a generator..
best bang for your buck is a gas generator.. that way not only can you run all your equiptment but you can also plug in the fridge so you dont lose all your food..
 
Assuming I were to buy any of these, what sort of voltage/wattage would I be looking for to support approx. 30watts worth of equipment for a few days?
 
I like APC http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=&webid=695445&affixedcode=WW

That one is 780w/1300va.......Could probably run 30watts worth of stuff for a few days....don't hold me to this though, but it seems like 30 watts would be a small load, it could possibly go for a week........ you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere. But the 1300va version is a good deal, the 750va apc costs more actually. It also has a digital screen to show how much power you are usin/battery life, etc.
 
APC also has these backups and theyre made for computers. relatively cheap and you could run a tank or 2 off of them. i've seen them for under $50 new
 
Why not just buy a DC to AC power inverter?
 
Yeah I just checked out APC's website, http://www.apc.com/products/index.cfm, and checked up on their specs - not up to scratch for what I'm after ;)

I'm not trying to make an uninterrupted power supply for a single air pump for a day, I'm trying to make one that will last a week or so as it runs a pump, a heater, and a cannister filter full of chemical adsorbitives.
 
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