MP40 and the Battery Backup unit programming

[NTP66]

Long story short, I'm looking at purchasing an Ecotech battery backup unit for my MP40wES' (and Apex Jr.) in the event of a power outage. I have what I'll call a medium-stocked 90g FOWLR with three total fish - a 6" foxface, a 3.5" rectangle trigger, and a 3.5" blue spotted puffer.

My question is, can I assign a fallback profile for one of the MP40s so that it goes into a pulse mode? I've read conflicting information on here, and can't seem to find anyone who has confirmed this behavior. The reason I want a pulse mode is because my pumps are both about 6" below the surface, and the only way to really get surface agitation would be to put the pump in a pulse mode to create some waves. I'd hate to get a battery backup unit and run it in a constant mode only to have my fish die because there was no surface agitation.

It it helps, my WXM module as well as both MP40s are not plugged into my Apex power bar.

 

[morty]

To my knowledge, the Vortechs will only run at a constant speed when in battery backup mode. This occurs when the battery backup is connected to the driver and power is removed from the drivers' AC wall adapter. (However, I believe you can set the speed that the Vortechs run at when in battery mode. You may have to temporarily un-slave them from the WXM, and follow Ecotech's instructions on how to set this.)

My MP40s are at least as deep as yours, and you might be surprised how little surface agitation is required to create adequate gas exchange.

I don't think the Apex Jr. has an auxiliary power input, so it is unable to execute power fail commands. The way that the regular Apex does this is to have it and a Power Bar plugged into a UPS, and a 12v adapter plugged into the wall connected to its aux power input. When the Apex senses that power has died at the aux input, it knows to execute power fail commands. See page 117 of the Comprehensive Manual pdf.

 

[NTP66]

Ugh - I searched everywhere online and completely forgot about the Comprehensive Manual. Sure enough, there's my answer in black and white (page 70 in the latest edition), as well as the MP40 manual. My bad.

Thank you for the response. Now all I have to do is figure out whether or not it's worth it to grab a battery backup. I don't get many outages, and do have a portable generator, but I work an hour away from home and am thinking I want a little more automation for when I can't physically be there to do things like relocate a powerhead.