Anyone using a battery backup?

[Ding2daDong]

Today I had a few power surges and one left the power out for a few minutes. So this left me wondering what you all do in these situations when the power goes out from minutes to hours? What if you were sleeping or at work/school?

Also if you are using a battery backup if you could give come information on it.

I also searched and noticed some people made there own battery backups with marine boat batteries that would make a pump run for days. Just wondering if anyone else had heard about this?

Thanks

-Matthew

 

[jeffbrig]

APC UPS 1400VA

Wilma-tested. Good for 4+ hours running a pair of Tunze 6100s on a multi-controller.

 

[ReefWreak]

For $1200, I could buy 3 vortechs and load each one up with it's own battery backup from eco-tech....

Any source for reasonable prices on something with that much power?

Matt, I've been looking for a while, and have considered doing the Marine Deep Cycle batteries, as I've heard that they do well, they just need a sine-wave inverter for them. Sams club also sells the marine batteries, so I wonder if it's cheaper going that route.

Does anyone have a price/combo suggestion for doing the marine battery route?

 

[jeffbrig]

The problem with marine batteries and sine wave converters is that they're aren't cheap. You'll probably spend $300 putting something decent together. At that point, it may very well run longer than an off-the-shelf battery backup unit. But, is it worth the extra cost? My objective is to provide basic flow and oxygenation until I get home to start the generator. An off-the-shelf unit can easily do that, and comes in a neat/tidy package.

Here's an APC unit similar to the one I'm using. I think I paid $160 when I bought mine locally (on sale). It lasts a long time with small loands (<100w)
http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=884148&CatId=234

 

[ReefWreak]

yea, I run about (21w*2 + 12*1 =) 54w, that APC lasts 12.4 minutes @ 432.5w load (half load), so 432.5/54 = 8, 8*12.4 = 99ish minutes of power, assuming that the marginal power consumption over time is constant (which I don't think it is). So 2ish or more hours running 2 seio 1100s and 1 korallia 4.

The problem then becomes how do I keep the aquatronica alive without keeping all of it's power sockets alive, and without going out and buying a extension socket for each outlet ?

 

[Von_Rahvin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11770917#post11770917 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
For $1200, I could buy 3 vortechs and load each one up with it's own battery backup from eco-tech....

Any source for reasonable prices on something with that much power?

Matt, I've been looking for a while, and have considered doing the Marine Deep Cycle batteries, as I've heard that they do well, they just need a sine-wave inverter for them. Sams club also sells the marine batteries, so I wonder if it's cheaper going that route.

Does anyone have a price/combo suggestion for doing the marine battery route?

you can pick up a d4 or a d8 locally for not a pile of cash. getting a used one at the marine flea market will set up back ~ 100 if you shop wisely.
and you don't want to buy batteries from sam's, ask around to your friends that fish and some will have a corp acct at BOW.

 

[ReefWreak]

I've got the aquatroica, not the aquacontroller. I could get a second power bar for the aquatronica, but that's like $200 or so, probably more, and again puts everything on two sockets, versus a few.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

I still don't know about the battery backup thing. What is BOW? Sorry, unfortunately I'm from a non-boating family

 

[jeffbrig]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11771147#post11771147 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
assuming that the marginal power consumption over time is constant (which I don't think it is).

It isn't a constant or linear depletion rate. The specs say 12.x minutes at 50% max wattage, but only 3.x minutes at 100% max wattage. That's 1/2 the wattage, but 4 times the run time.

Heat from high current usage is what saps the batteries quickly. A low current device will last much longer. I would expect your 54w to be on par with the Tunze 6100s I run (34w max each, but cycling up and down on a controller). As I mentioned before, those were good for more than 4 hours on battery power and the UPS batteries were still going strong.

The problem then becomes how do I keep the aquatronica alive without keeping all of it's power sockets alive, and without going out and buying a extension socket for each outlet ?

Now you're seeing one of the downsides of an all-in-1 controller.

 

[newreefbishop]

I have been thinking about this for awhile, as Im in the same boat I just want ebough flow and aggitation to keep everything alive till I get home and hook up the generator. I was looking at this
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1058596

For the money tons of features, including battery health and strength at well as load. My concern was I need something to either keep my main pump running for 2-3 hrs or keep my power heads running for 5 hrs.....and after doing the math I wasnt sure if this would work.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

4 fish tanks, 30 days no problem. DC power head in each one 12v with 4 car batteries waiting each 750 amps minimum, and a controller I build with 555 timers and relays that gives me a different frequency of surges for each fish tank. After loosing some of my fish I decided to buid this unit. The FPL conos don't count anymore

 

[Bret61081]

I just use one of the APC for the computer. I have my Maxijet with mod on it so if the power goes out, atleast there is movement in the tank. I used to keep my Mag9 on there but it used it up too quick...Just remember to change the batterys years. Batteries.com had them pretty cheap.

 

[ReefWreak]

O Aigos, since you're the specialist, what does one of those setups run? They sound good, and I trust your recommendation, cause if you didn't know what was good, you'd be living under a bridge

 

[Lacy]

ReefWreck,
BOW is Boat Owners Warehouse. I know that there is one on State Rd. 84 west of US 1 on the north side.

 

[Ding2daDong]

My ideal battery backup would be for my sequence super dart return so that all three of my tanks have flow in case of a power outage, or three powerheads from each tank would be more flow and less watts.

Still not sure what to get but am putting this on the top of my list to do. I mainly need an affordable way to do this, $500 unit would be sweet but I don't have that money.

Thanks for all the comments

-Matthew

 

[jeffbrig]

You'll be hard pressed to run a ~180w pump for a meaningful amount of time. The cheapest/easiest method would be to buy a small, inexpensive UPS, and run a single 4w air pump with lift tubes in each tank to provide water movement.

 

[ReefWreak]

a maxijet modded in each tank would take up a lot less electricity I imagine. Or just keep a korallia or seio that's already in your main display going. those are the smaller ones, and they're like under 20watts too.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

I have an APC 1400XL that I dot even use, my system is far superior to the APC, cost of the APC new about $ 1000.00 my system about 200.00 but it was alot of work designing and building the controller.

 

[pedromatic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11775326#post11775326 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jeffbrig
You'll be hard pressed to run a ~180w pump for a meaningful amount of time. The cheapest/easiest method would be to buy a small, inexpensive UPS, and run a single 4w air pump with lift tubes in each tank to provide water movement.

The little battery powered air pumps run for many hours on 2 D batteries. Like the VP says, stick the bubble head inside a gravel vacuum tube or a piece of PVC and keep it off the bottom. You can use an algae scraper inside the tube to do that. The bubbles moving through the tube will move a surprising amount of water. So you get flow and aeration. And it doesn't get much cheaper than that, the bubblers are under $15.

 

[REDDAWG43]

O Agios.....You interested in selling that APC 1400XL you are not using?

 

[loyalrogue]

I'm with Jeff and Pedro.

If you lived in Tamarac you would already be familiar with this product.
At least once a week I come home to all the clocks flashing 12:00.
When Wilma was on the way I bought a bunch of them and they work great.

Thanks for the idea of putting it in a riser tube for water movement.
I'll have to try that.