Battery-powered air pumps have saved my reefs at least six or seven times over the past few years. But all the happy endings had one thing in common: I was at home when it happened, or soon after, and able to respond by putting the pump in and turning it on.
With all the outages we've had (I already had 2 this summer) I got to thinking ...what happens if I go away for a few days and the power shuts off while I'm away.
Searching for "battery backup air pump" yields lots of the variety that I have (where you have to switch it on manually) and also a couple models that run continuously, and have a battery backup. But I didn't want to run it continuously; I only wanted it to run in a power failure.
I finally found this pump (the B-11 model on the left) which plugs in, takes 2-D batteries, and comes on only in an outage. The plug doesn't do anything but detect voltage at the outlet.
I rigged it up and will feel a lot better leaving the reef alone for a week or so. I was a bit concerned about the quality -- but it is actually pretty nice, a lot nicer than the "Hagen" battery-only pump that I have used until now (and am still hanging on to!).
Just remember to put your drip loops and check valve on it, and put the pump above the water level if possible to prevent any accidents. I've found that these little things will run several continuous days on a fresh set of batteries.
With all the outages we've had (I already had 2 this summer) I got to thinking ...what happens if I go away for a few days and the power shuts off while I'm away.
Searching for "battery backup air pump" yields lots of the variety that I have (where you have to switch it on manually) and also a couple models that run continuously, and have a battery backup. But I didn't want to run it continuously; I only wanted it to run in a power failure.
I finally found this pump (the B-11 model on the left) which plugs in, takes 2-D batteries, and comes on only in an outage. The plug doesn't do anything but detect voltage at the outlet.
I rigged it up and will feel a lot better leaving the reef alone for a week or so. I was a bit concerned about the quality -- but it is actually pretty nice, a lot nicer than the "Hagen" battery-only pump that I have used until now (and am still hanging on to!).
Just remember to put your drip loops and check valve on it, and put the pump above the water level if possible to prevent any accidents. I've found that these little things will run several continuous days on a fresh set of batteries.
