generator help

[luvabunny]

My tank has a Wave Pointe 48" T5 light (with 4 bulbs), 2 Marineland 400 HOB filters, a JVJ canister filter, 2 Koralia water circulators (I think 1 is a 10, the other a 6 or 8) and I will have to buy a heater.

All of the filters / water circulators don't have to run, and the light is negligible for a few days, as the inhabitants are mostly softies, LPS.

My question is...will a 800 watt/900 max generator be able to power what I need it to on this tank?

I'm not looking to run my house / heater / fridge or anything else off it, just the tank...but I have absolutely no idea how many watts these things pull, and if I'm even close to the right size. Most of the stuff was purchased used with no box, and if there was a box, it's been trashed by now.

Any suggestions?

 

[MyMonkey]

Not certain whether the 900 watts is sufficient or not. Variables such as the draw of each piece of equipment should be factored. Also, in general consider that the start up wattage of an electric motor is roughly twice what it takes to run the same motor. So, any device like wavemakers etc should not be online when running a generator. The focus is generally on retaining the oxygen content in the water and water temps. In my mind, lights are not needed to run all the time in the case of a power outage but a pump that provides oxygen and the heater will be. A shorter lighting cycle that is offset with one of your pumps might make it possible to run lights though if the generator will carry it.

Each item should have some sort of a label that indicates the draw amounts I believe. 900 watts should run most of the tank equipment so long as there is not too many motors cycling. Worst case is that you can run only a portion of the pumps at once.

 

[eddybabyhd]

April, that will be fine...run the lights/heater/filters and everything would be fine, maybe even a koralia or two...

The only problem I see with the koralias is that they absolutely hate for their input hertz to change, so be prepared for them to act really really squirrely as generators jump around alot.

 

[cjilge]

April, that will be fine...run the lights/heater/filters and everything would be fine, maybe even a koralia or two...

The only problem I see with the koralias is that they absolutely hate for their input hertz to change, so be prepared for them to act really really squirrely as generators jump around alot.

good point Ed, My koralias acted all kinda crazy the last time I ran on a generator.

 

[kent ashbrener]

just remember oms law.
Votes times amps = watts, I think ;-) , a heater like in my tank is a 250 watt if you just run your pumps and your heater you should be fine if you want to add your lights than I would add up all the watts to be safe

 

[mskohl]

If you can't find the watts on the product, check their websites. Some make the info available on retailers' sites.

 

[mattnokc]

Hey!

Hey!

http://www.newworldcichlids.com/acpower.htm

check out that link

that will help yah with the 400's atleast

 

[JR719]

April,

For a temporary run, you should be fine with a modified sine wave generator. If you want everything to run as with grid power, you would need a pure sine wave inverter or generator. These are very expensive and not really needed for your use.

I don't know what kind of budget you have, but Sam's club has some pretty good prices. 1200 watt for $125.00. That would be more than sufficiant to run the essentials. Your start load is what is going to hurt. When running, some items may only require a few watts, but for them to start, is a large surge. As long as you don't have several starting at the same time, you'll be fine.

Heater is straight watts. Whatever that is, subtract it from you total and that is what you have left remaining. I would then total the watts minus the heater watts. You may find you will need a little more to power everything, if all is running at the same time. If your able to cut off some of your needs, you should get by easily.

 

[kender]

The rule of wattage consumption is voltage times amperage. So since we run off of 110 voltage here in the states, all you have to do is locate the amperage info on each item. Should be on the transformer packs or near the power connection on the the device. Multiply that number times 110 and that is the wattage it uses at normal run. ;-)