Upcoming Power Outage- suggestions?

[newbiemike]

My building is having a a scheduled power outtage next week for approximately 8 hours. Does anyone know of any battery operated powerheads or heaters? I'll probably leave my balcony door open, keeping the apartment quite warm, so the water temp shouldn't drop too much, but I'm concerned about water movement for the corals. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

-Mike

[scrmbld33]

they have battery operated air pumps at dr fosters, not sure how long the batterys last though

[Nabber86]

Buy a power inverter, plug it into you car, and run an extension cord up to your balcony and inside. Not real convienient in an emergency but at least this is scheduled outage.

[newbiemike]

The battery pump is very inexpensive. I'll be ordering one of those. As far as the extension cord, I live on the 7th floor, so I don't think that one will work : - )

I wish they had a battery powered heater!!!

[agilis]

If you haven't already done so, do a trial run by shutting down all power to the tank at the breaker. Make sure there are no problems with sump overflow, etc.

Battery powered air pumps are available at fishing and bait shops. most take D cell batteries. You need 3 or 4 pumps, and at least one battery change during the 8 hours. The pumps are cheap, around six dollars.

I use my scuba tank, with a yoke air adapter. An 80 c.f. aluminium tank is less than $150, and will provide very strong air flow for 12 to 15 hours, even longer at moderate levels. Reasonably cheap insurance.

[Agu]

Get a couple of these and after the power outage leave them set up.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx


I've heard they'll run up to three days with fresh batteries. Fortunately I haven't had to find out first hand .

[Ceak]

Rent a generator for a day...

[cardgenius]

Go to your local thrift store or pawn shop and buy a couple battery backups that they use for computers.

[rustybucket145]

Walmart (or similar store) sells battery powered airators ($8) each. A couple of them in your tank will go a long way. The batteries last over 24hrs. They are located in the fishing/hunting section. Fishermen have been using them for years to keep bait/fish alive. Watch out for your temp. You might want to freeze some water jugs (milkjugs) to add if the temp starts to climb. Other than that everything should be fine. It is only 8hrs.

[duec22]

Originally posted by Agu
Get a couple of these and after the power outage leave them set up.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx


I've heard they'll run up to three days with fresh batteries. Fortunately I haven't had to find out first hand .

My Apt complex went though a similar schedual powere outage while they upgraded some of the electral.... I had two of these, put them on the tank and went to work. When I came home I couldn't even tell the power had been out..everything looked great...I even called to make sure that they had done the project I was so unsure if the power had been out. They said the power had been out for about 6 hours..

[LegoZ81]

I actually have an inverter/charger that is wired in, it auto switched from mains to battery when the power goes out (very small delay, pumps don't even shut off at all) and goes back to mains power when it is restored. You can that way get large capacity sealed deep cycle batteries to keep the tank up for sometime on battery power only. It can be a bit expensive though. you can get a smaller 70w inverter for dirt cheap and use a fully charged car battery to keep a medium circulation pump running if needed. I wish my concern would be keeping the tank warm enough this time of year, mine would be getting the darn thing cooled off if the house temp started rising (which is why right now I have no lighting on inverter power)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=50437
this is what I purchased. pretty handy i can keep the skimmer, return pump (from basement), and both powerheads on. and still have 400 watts of spare capacity for a heater or to keep one of the halides fired if I wanted.

[poedag]

Originally posted by Ceak
Rent a generator for a day...

i second that, put it out on the patio (if you have one) and run it for a majority of the time. that way won't be subjecting your tank to too much stress at all.

[Bandsaw]

My vote is with cardgenius. I picked up a small UPS (enough to power my power heads and a small 100W heater), took it apart and removed the batteries that come with it. I've got two 265Ah deep cycle marine batteries (connected in parallel) connected to the UPS. Power goes out, the power heads stay on for days if need be (don't laugh, when my power goes out - it can be out for a long time)

[DirtySouth056]

Originally posted by Agu
Get a couple of these and after the power outage leave them set up.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx


I've heard they'll run up to three days with fresh batteries. Fortunately I haven't had to find out first hand .

I have this unit and it works great! We had 3 hurricanes last year, and I only lost 1 fish from them. For eight hrs. you will be fine, I'm sure it will be on before, 8hrs is the max? Anyways it does last 3 days or so. Get 2 units.

[nyvp]

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=RY1119

Here you go

[newbiemike]

Just got a battery operated pupm from petsolutions.com. It's a few bucks cheaper than Dr. Fosters. Thanks!

[BillRS]

I used the battery operated air pumps on my 55 gal and 15 gal nano tank. Unfortunately, I lost a wrasse and a coral beauty. Power was out for 2 weeks though. (Thank you hurricanes and Florida Power and Light) For 8 hrs you should be fine.

[ERICinFL]

Looks like I'll be picking up some pumps too. Didn't have my tank for the last round of hurricanes two years ago. I'll need something that'll last at least 48hrs though. If my wife and kids have to evacuate, i'll be stuck at work with no way to check on it.

[newbiemike]

The pump from dr fosters worked like a charm. As soon as the power kicked off, the pumps kicked on. I hid them amongst the live rock and actually kept them in the tank. Thanks everyone!

[ZoeReef]

Originally posted by cardgenius
Go to your local thrift store or pawn shop and buy a couple battery backups that they use for computers.

I'm sure there is a savings here, but perhaps the possibility of a much greater loss. A UPS is a battery and the condition of a battery is dependent upon the conditions in which it has been used and stored. Do you have confidence that people who pawned their UPS had them fully charged up and that they are reliable? There is no way to know if they had sat unplugged in a hot garage for 2 years. A UPS is insurance. It needs to be something you can count on. FWIW...

[10" Red Devil]

Okay these are all great suggestions, but lets say worst case scenario, you are out of town what kind of power back up solution do you recommend then?

Or say you are stuck at work and you wont be home for 8 hours. You know something like this.

Thanks.

[Amphiprion]

Originally posted by Agu
Get a couple of these and after the power outage leave them set up.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx


I've heard they'll run up to three days with fresh batteries. Fortunately I haven't had to find out first hand .

Actually, they work extremely well. I had them going for 4 days on one set of batteries.

[10" Red Devil]

Okay so I saw the suggestion for using 2 ups units. What would be powerful enough to run a quite one 230gph return pump and a 250watt heater for say max 4 days. This would need to come on automatically in the event of a power outage, as I may not be here.

Thanks.

[jeffbrig]

Originally posted by 10" Red Devil
Okay so I saw the suggestion for using 2 ups units. What would be powerful enough to run a quite one 230gph return pump and a 250watt heater for say max 4 days. This would need to come on automatically in the event of a power outage, as I may not be here.

Thanks.

Nothing you'd want to shell out the $$$ for. A typical UPS is designed to run a computer/monitor for maybe 15-30 minutes to give you time to save what you're doing and shut down. Run a smaller load and you can get more time. Forget about the heater, 250w would run down a UPS very quickly. Maybe 1-2 hours tops, certainly not 4 days.

That's not to say UPS's aren't a good idea. I have an 1100VA model from APC (~$125) on my tank, and it has served me extremely well. It provides backup power to a pair of Tunze Stream 6100s in my tank. It's designed to be minimum life support only for maximum duration.

The Streams are 45w each, but run on a controller. I estimate the average drain to be ~60w as the controller throttles them up and down. With this setup the UPS can power the tank for 3-4 hours at a stretch before running down. I had an extended 6 day outage after hurricane wilma last year, and the UPS allowed me to turn off the generator periodically (to save gas) while keeping the tank running on minimum flow.

I also have firsthand experience that the same UPS can run a 32" Toshiba HDTV and satellite box for 2 hours before it gives out.

If you want to maximize run time, hook the UPS to a single powerhead, I'd recommend a MJ900. That's only ~8w, so you could probably go most of the day on that load, while moving ~200gph.

Jeff

[thor32766]

great ideas everyone.