A lot of UPS threads?

[Thales]

I am wondering what you guys are trying to run on an UPS and why.

Here is my thinking.
For a 1-8 hour power outage all it seems you really need to care about is circulation. In my 150 I tackle that two ways - 2 penn plax battery operated air pumps that come on automatically when the power goes out and a mj 1200 on a mvt wavemaker on a small UPS. The air pumps will actually run for 2-4 days before the batteries run out, and are sufficient to keep the tank in O2 and circulation. The mj on the wavemaker and UPS will run for at least 8 hours as well. The combo is cheap and more than enough for your usual california power outage - heat is generally fine, and a tank can go for days without lighting. If there is a bigger outage either I won't care about the tank because something very bad happened or I can fire up the inverter or the used generator I have, both of which give me power for other things in the house as well.

I guess what I am getting at is, although neat, I am not sure what the recent draw to big UPS's is. If I were going to spend money on backup, I would be looking at just circulation and it seems the best bang for that buck might be a vortech with the 30 hour back up battery that needs nothing special in the way of maintainance except for sending it back for inexpensive, ecologicaly sound replacement every 5 years.

Why are people going with big UPS's?

 

[northbay-reefer]

Thales, I am with you on this one. I use the battery power airpump in my fuge and a small UPS for my main tank running one hydor 4 and thats it. The large ups are too costly to run IMO. If things gets too bad, I have a power inverter on stand by to connect to my car battery.

Also, the small UPS (650 va) uses only 1 battery, and this internal batery can be replaced easily every 5 years for about 30 bucks.

 

[tonggao]

Rich and Tom, I guess it is similiar to the reasons for people to overbuild other things in this hobby, just part of the fun , at least for some of us.

For me, besides fun, I really want to keep the main return pump running during outage, since it link all my 4 tanks together, and I do not want to setup separate emergency equiment for the fuge and frag tank. It will not be a pretty picture to have a OK main tank, and all dead stuff in the prop and fuge tank.

As for the cost, I definitely feel the pain now . If I knew it would cost me so much, I probably would have thought about it twice before doing it.

 

[orientalexpress]

i went to a Toyota dealer and end up coming home with a Lexus,go figure.Freaking sellman.they're alway get me buy sh i T i don't need.same thing with costco.



lapsan

 

[tonggao]

Lapsan, well said, and that's exactly what always happens to me all the time, including the Lexus .

Before setting up my latest UPS, I used to have a small UPS, a deep cycle battery/inverter setup, and a generator. My area has power outage pretty frequently (at least once every half a year), and every time when power went out, I found myself busy plugging/unplugging things between the three setups all the time, which really tired me out. More importantly, I do not expect anybody else around my house knows what to plug/unplug with such a complicated system. So I am hoping my latest setup don't require me to babysit the system 24/7. Oh, I also hated it every time I crank start the generator, and hopefully this will let me to be lazy most of the time .

 

[Thales]

For me, besides fun, I really want to keep the main return pump running during outage, since it link all my 4 tanks together, and I do not want to setup separate emergency equiment for the fuge and frag tank. It will not be a pretty picture to have a OK main tank, and all dead stuff in the prop and fuge tank.

That makes total and complete sense. Though... 6 of the pennplax airpumps would cost you less than 70 bucks