uninterruptible power supply (battery backup)

[reefiness]

I was wondering if anyone uses any of these products on their tanks for water circulation during power outages. I was hoping to run a single power head on it to get maximum time on the battery.

If anyone uses these how long do you usually get on a battery and what is the load on the unit that gives you said time.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBK3QK/?tag=reefs04-20

 

[Tonyscoots84]

I can see maybe 2 days at most depending on which pumps you have....

 

[reefiness]

well thats way more than i expected. I was just hoping it would get a solid 6 hrs. And I would only be running either 1 or 2 of my hydor koralias which i think only use about 10 watts each, maybe less.

 

[reefiness]

Any idea if the simulated sine wave or true sine wave AC is better. I read somewhere last night that for something like a pump which has a motor it needs the true since wave which would cost a bit more, but id rather spend it upfront then have the pumps kick the bucket after the first power outage when they have to run on the battery.

 

[reefiness]

Well i just called up the company's technical support to help figure out how long it would last and when i brought up that i wanted to run pumps for my fish tank he said the unit would fry the fish. he didnt go into much detail about why thats the case but he mentioned that there its one of the first things listed on their users manual is "not for use with aquarium products", he also mentioned these cant be used for paper shredders and vacuum cleaners in case anyone was interested.

So on that note, what can I use? I know you can get backup battery supplies for some of the DC power heads, but unfortunately i dont have DC ones

 

[cmantis]

Car battery with an inverter and then use a trickle charger between uses.

 

[reefiness]

Car battery with an inverter and then use a trickle charger between uses.

Can you run that in line with the regular outlet so the battery is used automatically when the power goes out? because thats what i was going for.

 

[Irisservice]

Whats Budget?
I used a trace inverter/charger/line switch...

 

[reefiness]

Whats Budget?
I used a trace inverter/charger/line switch...

hmm... thats definitely not something it looks like I would want to do. I will likely end up zapping myself.

And what does that lingo mean? Does it auto switch to battery when the electric goes out? And as far as a budget, I would say around $200 which is what the pre made units would cost, but the cheaper the better as long as it works.

 

[Irisservice]

Yes this auto switches to battery.... i used a computer one and it last 15 minutes and with a 24 hour blackout that was useless...

 

[reefiness]

how much did that cost you to make and how long does it last?

 

[pecan2phat]

I used a 1000w power inverter with a large marine battery and it's gotten me 9 hours (that's the extent of my longest power outage to date) running two decent sized return pumps (105w + 65w Water Blasters).
Quite happy with this setup and yes it's always plugged in to keep the battery topped off. Also that when power goes out, inverter switches on. Can't remember exact numbers but inverter, battery, cables & plastic battery box ran about $500. (marine battery was the most costly item)

 

[reefiness]

I used a 1000w power inverter with a large marine battery and it's gotten me 9 hours (that's the extent of my longest power outage to date) running two decent sized return pumps (105w + 65w Water Blasters).
Quite happy with this setup and yes it's always plugged in to keep the battery topped off. Also that when power goes out, inverter switches on. Can't remember exact numbers but inverter, battery, cables & plastic battery box ran about $500. (marine battery was the most costly item)

hmm for that price i may as well get a new DC wave maker system with the added battery backup unit. The jebaos would be cheaper, ecotech may be a bit over that figure

 

[pecan2phat]

For my purposes, I wanted turnover flow from the sump, not just powerheads. I seen instances where if you heavily stock fish, just powerheads for a period of more then 3~4 hours can still lead to heavy loss due to the o2 depletion.
I do use UPS on nano tanks with a 3~5 watt powerhead though.