Best battery backup

[DavidS]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has used a 12 Volt battery as a backup in case of power failure.
There is a thread on reefsanctuary.com where a person recommends the use of an Exide Orbital 34XCD.
But during the recent power failure in NY, I bought a Duralast Marine battery that was rated at 85 Amps/hour whereas the Exide battery is only 50 Amps/hour.
I'm assuming that means that the Duralast would power any pumps/heaters for a longer period than the Exide.
Is this correct? Can anyone recommend a Deep Cycle AGM battery that would keep my Aquarium equipment running the longest before it needed a recharge.

Thanks
DavidS

 

[Geraud]

Hey there,

I was wondering the same recently:

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/135611-power-inverters-apartments.html

And it looks like golf carts "deep cycle" batteries would be the best choice. I was looking around and in terms of capacity they can reach up to 250 Ah.

 

[Affordable Aquatic]

Deep cycle marine batteries are preferrable but once you add heaters they will kill the batteries in hours not days. If you are planning on running any kind of deep cycle battery, you need to consider that you can only run powerheads or airpumps for an extended period of time. If a hurricane were knock your power out for a week, I think it would be preferrable to have oxygenation for 3-4 days rather than heaters for 3-4 days. Even marine group 8 batteries which weigh 150lbs are only going to provide 220ah. Heating and cooling uses much more power than you can reasonably get from a battery.