Advice for Connecting Equipment

[titus_4]

I am setting up a 125 gal tank and want to see if I am doing things correctly. I've done multiple searches and can't quite find exactly what I'm looking for. Here is a list of how I've drawn out how things are going to be hooked up. I realize there are multiple redundancies and backups but I'm doing it this way to make things easier in case of a problem.

Equipment from Wall Outlet:
(1) APC Smart UPS 1500
(1) Surge Protector

Equipment from UPS:
Plug 1: Gen3 XR30w Pro
Plug 2: Gen3 XR30w Pro
Plug 3: Vectra M1
Plug 4: Apex Jr.
---Apex Plug 1: Skimmer (set to delay startup in case of power failure)
---Apex Plug 2: 150W Heater (not sure of brand yet)
---Apex Plug 3: 150W Heater (same)
---Apex Plug 4: Fuge Light

Equipment from Surge Protector:
Plug 1: Ecotech Battery Backup
Plug 2: MP40
Plug 3: Ecotech Battery Backup
Plug 4: MP40
Plug 5: Tunze ATO

My theory on all of this is, if I have a quick power outage (which are somewhat common where I live) the only thing without power would be the ATO. With everything I have on the UPS, I think I can get 10 minutes or so. My reasoning was to keep the equipment from those quick on and off cycles. Maybe it is overkill, but don't want to cause damage.

I've never used an Apex so correct me if I'm wrong on any of it. I will use that to control the heaters to prevent damage if one sticks on, delay the skimmer startup if the battery were to run completely dead, and as a timer on the fuge light.

I also will be using ReefLink to control the Radions, Vortechs, and Vectra so I don't need those on the Apex. I have looked at the ReefKeeper Lite too, so if one of those will work in place of the Apex, I'm not opposed to saving a little bit of money to go that route.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[MondoBongo]

i personally wouldn't bother with the lights on the UPS. same with, well all the other stuff.

you have two mp40s, so i'm assuming you have a good sized tank. minor power outages of a few minutes, and depending on ambient air temperature even an hour or two, aren't that big an issue. it takes a long time for tanks to change temperature unless the room around is very warm/cold. so the extra couple minutes (if that, heaters and return pumps draw a lot of juice) out of the UPS isn't going to buy you much.

the primary concern is keeping water moving to keep it oxygenated, which you have covered by using battery backups on your mp40s.

you're spot on with the apex. you can also have it alert you if the temp drops too much. my biggest draw to the apex is the ability to remotely administer it, either on my phone or through a browser. so i can check on whenever, wherever. i also have it controlling my dosing pumps, and doing a few other checks which are handy. not sure what the RKL provides in that department.

for the heaters, if i can make a suggestion, i've been very happy with my Via Aqua Titanium Heaters. they are powerful little buggers, and have a digital controller on them that is useful as a backup to the temp probe on your apex (you can never have too many fail safes). they even have an error mode where they will shut down if they overheat. i found this out when the sump on my grow out tank sprung a leak and emptied while i was at work. i came home and the Via Aqua was blinking "ERR" on the display, i was able to unplug and replug it and it came back online. so that was nice. the normal heaters with the twist thermostats would have overheated and exploded.

if you're on a surge protector you should be fairly well guarded against damage. in this case i don't know that the UPS is actually buying you anything.

 

[titus_4]

Thank you for the suggestions on the heaters. I will look into those.

I agree that the UPS isn't going to power things very long, but wasn't sure if those couple seconds/minutes that the power goes out would be hard on everything. That was my main reason in thinking about using one of them. I have a generator for the house so if it was a prolonged power outage, I would use that to keep running things as normal.