Back-up Power Supply

seaworks

New member
Would anyone know, or have any suggestions on what would be a good back up power supply to run 2 Mag 9.5's?
 
How long are you hoping to run your Mag 9.5's for? Each Mag 9.5 uses about 93 watts. So two Mag 9.5's would use 186 watts (round it to 200 watts). If you go to APC site, you can compare UPS runtime at different watts. If you get a SmartUPS 1500, you can get 1 hour 24 minutes. A refurbished SmartUPS 1500 will cost you $275. http://www.refurbups.com . Oh BTW - don't forget that this rating is when the battery is brand new. Plan on replacing the battery every 3 years (even if you don't have any power outages.). Each replacement battery is about $100.

You really should be asking yourself what is the goal of getting a UPS for your pump. I assume it's so that during the power outages, your animals don't die. If that is the case, you really should look into a battery powered air pump. I have one where it plugs into the wall. When there is an outage, the pump comes on. When the power is restored, the pump turns off. I have no clue how long one of these will last on battery though. Silent Air B11 Battery Back-up pump

I am not quite sure what the two Mags 9.5 are doing in your tank. If you are using them for circulation inside the tank, then you might want to consider using some Seio pump instead. The Seio M620 uses about 8 watts (or less than 10%). Assume you use the same Smart UPS 1500 and the battery last in a linear fashion (which it won't), then you will get about 10 hours of runtime.

BTW - I remember reading somewhere that you want a UPS that has a true sine wave - not a UPS that has a modifed or square wave. APC's Smart UPS uses the sine wave. The cheaper APC Backup UPS uses the square wave. I am not 100% sure if you really need a sine wave though.

Hope this helps.

Minh
 
Last edited:
Leonard,

I should clarify some stuff in my post. A single Seio M620 uses less than 10% power than a single Mag 9.5. So two Seio M620's should run for 14 hours (not 10 hours) - assuming the runtime scales linearly. If you use a single Seio - it shoud run 28 hours (if it scales linearly). BTW - I seriously double these UPS scale linearly.

I have seen people take these UPS and hook up a bunch of marine battery for an even longer runtime.

Minh
 
jnb I use a tripplite inverter charger hooked to a good marine battery

JNB - I was thinking about this approach. What are the details? Is there a website with info about the inverter? How do a calc how much time I can get out of the battery?
 
Thanks for the link Minh, sorry i missed the original post. :-(

Do you think something like that would be sufficient on its own?

Is that all you use?

Lee
 
A switching relay to kick over in the event of a power failure is one way I've seen people use to start a 5kV Honda generator. 5kV is a lot of juice. You could even run a household refridge/freezer and your TV along with the tank as long as you keep it gassed up. Ask RasBobre what happend to his tank after 36 hours without power.
 
http://www.tripplite.com/products/product.cfm?productID=2938

should get you to the one I have the aps 750 and there is a link to the manual which tells you how to calculate based on load, battery, etc - it is expensive but so is our hard work and expensive life - i have my ehiem 1262 running off of it and keeps it powered up for a day or so. I also have a relay I made so that something does not run even though plugged into the inverter charger unless the power goes out. You can get any amount of hrs based on how many and what kind of batteries you run.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6857577#post6857577 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by builderguy
JNB - I was thinking about this approach. What are the details? Is there a website with info about the inverter? How do a calc how much time I can get out of the battery?
 
I'd only run a pump on a true sign wave/inline UPS such as a Liebert. The common UPS's on the market are a modified sign wave and will usually over heat a pump. They're fine with 12vdc stuff as it has to go thru a transformer that will clean it up, prior to the computer using it.

There's been some very informative threads in the DIY section on this subject. Bean is the one to talk to.
 
I bought a used APC Backup Pro 1000
and then removed the batteries and bought 2 of the cheapest car batteries over at wal-mart.

I then hooked those upto the UPS and viola super cheap UPS that will run a long time and works great!!!

Except Since I don't have a tank yet, this is what runs my big server in a power outage.
I host about 20 websites out of my house on that server.

Which is really going to make a few people mad when I move cause they will be down for a few days.

I can take pics if you want, of the UPS
~Steve~
 
The UPS I bought (like most others too) Run off 24 Volts DC
Car Batteries are 12 Volts...

So you put two together in series and get 24 Volts, the UPS has no idea there are huge batteries on the other end, as long as it has 24 volts it makes 120 Volts AC for you to use on anythign you need.
 
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