Don't know if this is only my area. Power went out at 11pm last night, and came back at 5:40 this morning. My battery saved the day (powering 2 Tunze 6045 in main tank, 1 Tunze 6045 in prop tank, and circulation pump in nano tank), and surprisingly all these pumps together only draw 26 watts. The only bad thing I saw this morning is the PH dropped to 7.68.
Power outage
- Thread starter tonggao
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sfsuphysics
Active member
If you had a spare air pump bubbling, they draw only a few watts anyways, your pH would have probably been good too. Although doesn't it drop at night? Not that much but still a couple tenths?
Might be time for a preparatory write up, now that heat is here and with everyone in the east/south bay turning on air conditioning, about possibilities of a power outage.
Might be time for a preparatory write up, now that heat is here and with everyone in the east/south bay turning on air conditioning, about possibilities of a power outage.
I have an air pump prepared for this, but decided not to plug it in the last minute since I thought 2400GPH in 120G tank and 1200GPH in 18G prop tank is enough to keep the water oxgenated. Well, next time I will plug the air pump in.
Some other reasons for PH drop are fuge light where I grow Cheato was off, and kalk reactor stopped pumping lime water.
Some preparatory write up by some experts will definitely be very helpful for everyone to be prepared. I am not an expert for sure, and here is my non-expert setup
. First I have a 500VA UPS connected to one of Tunze 6045 that kicks in automatically when power goes out, and this gives me enough time to come home and hook up either deep cycled battery setup (I use this at night to avoid the noise of generator) or the generator (used during day time).
Some other reasons for PH drop are fuge light where I grow Cheato was off, and kalk reactor stopped pumping lime water.
Some preparatory write up by some experts will definitely be very helpful for everyone to be prepared. I am not an expert for sure, and here is my non-expert setup
. First I have a 500VA UPS connected to one of Tunze 6045 that kicks in automatically when power goes out, and this gives me enough time to come home and hook up either deep cycled battery setup (I use this at night to avoid the noise of generator) or the generator (used during day time).
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Thanks Art and Wayland. My tank is OK, just a lot of lost sleep for me last night.
For the people who use UPS to drive powerhead, make sure you test the setup beforehand. Even a small powerhead can confuse the UPS thinking it is overloaded and shut down. I called APC asking about this, and they said the UPS is not designed for motors, and the inductive current from moter can cause UPS to think it is overloaded and shut down.
For the people who use UPS to drive powerhead, make sure you test the setup beforehand. Even a small powerhead can confuse the UPS thinking it is overloaded and shut down. I called APC asking about this, and they said the UPS is not designed for motors, and the inductive current from moter can cause UPS to think it is overloaded and shut down.
Psionicdragon
New member
We should do a general list of which cities that reefers are in who are losing power.
Man this is getting scary.
Man this is getting scary.
650-IS350
Active member
Shouldn't most of these work especially the ones with the most watts..
http://www.officedepot.com/textSear...XOP_r:11e2rnvgu?uniqueSearchFlag=true&Ntt=ups
http://www.officedepot.com/textSear...XOP_r:11e2rnvgu?uniqueSearchFlag=true&Ntt=ups
Kinetic
Active member
the problem is: how long will a UPS last? what powerheads do you want to put on it? etc.
I'm no expert, but I remember someone, I think prodman, saying if you run certain powerheads at full steam and a heater on certain computer type UPS's, it'll only last like 5 minutes.
A better way I've seen is people who've done DIY with a car battery to power everything without a problem for a day or more depending on what they were running.
Back when Katrina went nuts, a lot of people lost power for long periods of time, I think around that time there were HUNDREDS of DIY threads about how to keep your tank running.
I'm no expert, but I remember someone, I think prodman, saying if you run certain powerheads at full steam and a heater on certain computer type UPS's, it'll only last like 5 minutes.
A better way I've seen is people who've done DIY with a car battery to power everything without a problem for a day or more depending on what they were running.
Back when Katrina went nuts, a lot of people lost power for long periods of time, I think around that time there were HUNDREDS of DIY threads about how to keep your tank running.
We just use 2 large class 'd' deep cycle RV batteries (I think that it the right "class"). They are something like 12" X 24" and I forget how tall. Haven't invested in a generator just yet, but can keep our tank (and refrigerator) running for a couple of days with just the batteries.
jellygeee
Premium Member
You know, how long can the fish survives without the heater running? Using the UPS to support only the powerhead can probably last at least about 2.5 hrs (assuming the powerhead is using 12 watt), but if you plug in the heater, then the UPS probably can only support half hour (assuming the heater uses 150 watt)
sfsuphysics
Active member
Ok this is the correct power outage thread
Tom:
I was always curious how long those batteries last in general, are they like standard car batteries in that they'll drain slowly if you don't recharge them?
Tom:
I was always curious how long those batteries last in general, are they like standard car batteries in that they'll drain slowly if you don't recharge them?
northbay-reefer
New member
another thing that can be use in case of emergency is having a power inverter on hand, when the power goes out, connect it to your car battery, turn on your engine and let it idle ... hopefully you have a full tank of gas ... voila instant power generator 
sfsuphysics
Active member
I blew out many power inverters using my car on my pumps, don't know if it was just the way they operate or what but none of the inverters worked for long (some almost instantly).. of course these were the cheapies you can get at target. But their return policy is quite lenient
Here are the equipments I use for outage. Again, I am not an expert in this by any mean, and my setup might not work for you at all. Please only take this as info sharing for your reference.
My tank is 120G, with 20G prop tank, 20G fuge, and 30G sump all plumbed together. Water flow in the main tank is about 7000GPH. When power goes out, I only make sure the main tank and the prop tank are taken care of.
I have a APC ES 500 UPS powering a Tunze 6045 in the main tank. Since UPS automatically kicks in when power goes out, this gives me the short time circulation when I am not home. It also gives out beeping alert during outage, so it will wake me up at night if power goes out. According to APC, it can power 150w for 11.5 minutes. Tunze uses 7W, so this should give me about 4 hours of running time. A lot of people will buy larger UPS, and I decide not to since I am cheap and the price of larger ones goes up nonlinerly, and I only intend to use this for short time before I hook up to more powerful systems. If I am to do it again, I will probably buy a larger one. As I said in an earlier posting, make sure you buy a UPS rated way higher than your pump, and test it on the pump without assuming your pump can handle it (inductive current from motor significantly reduce the wattage that the UPS can supply powerhead). Here is a crappy pic of the UPS
I have a 3000w generator I bought from Costco last year. If the power outage happens during day time, i just kick up the generator and plug everything into it (including lighting, heater/chiller). Here is a pic of the generator:
The problem with the generator is that it is very noisy, and the small ones like mine is not supposed to run for extended period of time. Being a good neighbor, I also invested in a deep cycle battery system for night usage. It consists of a deep cycle battery bought from costco, a float charger that I bought from Amazon that keep the battery charged all the time without overcharging, a 400W power inverter to convert 12VDC out of battery to 120VAC. I will manually plug in two Tunze 6045 in the main tank (giving me 2400GPH water flow), one Tunze 6045 in the prop tank (yes, 1200GPH for about 16G of water) into the inverter. I will also plug in a 100W heater for the main tank, and 50W heater for the prop tank in cold days, and various fans in hot days. I plan to buy another 400W inverter to connect to the same battery soon to build some redundancy and to avoiding pushing the single inverter close to its limit. The battery is rated at 1380VAH, so it should be able to power the 3 Tunze 6045 (21w) for 65 hours, or the 3 tunze plus 150W heater for more than 8 hours. Since the heaters are not going to be on all the time, it should easily give enough power to go through the night. In the future, I will also plug in an air pump that draw very little wattage. Here are some pics of the battery setup.
My tank is 120G, with 20G prop tank, 20G fuge, and 30G sump all plumbed together. Water flow in the main tank is about 7000GPH. When power goes out, I only make sure the main tank and the prop tank are taken care of.
I have a APC ES 500 UPS powering a Tunze 6045 in the main tank. Since UPS automatically kicks in when power goes out, this gives me the short time circulation when I am not home. It also gives out beeping alert during outage, so it will wake me up at night if power goes out. According to APC, it can power 150w for 11.5 minutes. Tunze uses 7W, so this should give me about 4 hours of running time. A lot of people will buy larger UPS, and I decide not to since I am cheap and the price of larger ones goes up nonlinerly, and I only intend to use this for short time before I hook up to more powerful systems. If I am to do it again, I will probably buy a larger one. As I said in an earlier posting, make sure you buy a UPS rated way higher than your pump, and test it on the pump without assuming your pump can handle it (inductive current from motor significantly reduce the wattage that the UPS can supply powerhead). Here is a crappy pic of the UPS
I have a 3000w generator I bought from Costco last year. If the power outage happens during day time, i just kick up the generator and plug everything into it (including lighting, heater/chiller). Here is a pic of the generator:
The problem with the generator is that it is very noisy, and the small ones like mine is not supposed to run for extended period of time. Being a good neighbor, I also invested in a deep cycle battery system for night usage. It consists of a deep cycle battery bought from costco, a float charger that I bought from Amazon that keep the battery charged all the time without overcharging, a 400W power inverter to convert 12VDC out of battery to 120VAC. I will manually plug in two Tunze 6045 in the main tank (giving me 2400GPH water flow), one Tunze 6045 in the prop tank (yes, 1200GPH for about 16G of water) into the inverter. I will also plug in a 100W heater for the main tank, and 50W heater for the prop tank in cold days, and various fans in hot days. I plan to buy another 400W inverter to connect to the same battery soon to build some redundancy and to avoiding pushing the single inverter close to its limit. The battery is rated at 1380VAH, so it should be able to power the 3 Tunze 6045 (21w) for 65 hours, or the 3 tunze plus 150W heater for more than 8 hours. Since the heaters are not going to be on all the time, it should easily give enough power to go through the night. In the future, I will also plug in an air pump that draw very little wattage. Here are some pics of the battery setup.
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