car charger/power inverter anyone?

[lwillis22]

I am going about 4 hrs away to get some fish and corals and will be staying overnight before coming home with them the next day. I am concerned to not have heat or water flow for that long. I am wondering if anyone has any experience with car charger/power inverters? I don't know anything about wattage and such but these say you can plug in to your cigarette lighter and run electrically stuff in your car. So I thought I would pick one up for the ride home. I just don't know if they are strong enough to power a heater and power head? Anybody use these?

[SushiGirl]

We ran powerheads, a mag 9 pump, & a heater off ours during an overnight power outage. Unfortunately my boyfriend had to sleep in the running truck to do it LOL.

[gchaney]

honestly if you think about it those online places ship stuff over night and things stay boxed up for nearly two days. just ensure the place uses a large bag and if they can put O2 in the bag as they tie it.

[timkatz71]

No matter what kind of inverter you would get you would have to keep car running or battery will be dead for sure. maybe think about taking a long extension cord plug in the hotel room.

[lwillis22]

Oh I guess I should be clearer. I ment for the trip home, not to run on battery power while the car is off. I would move the stuff into the hotel for the night. I am buying from a private seller so no option for extra O2. Someone mentioned that they ran all there stuff off of theirs, what kind did you have?

[xfactor1315]

They will be fine for the 4 hour trip. They stay in boxes way longer then that.

[timkatz71]

Originally Posted by xfactor1315

They will be fine for the 4 hour trip. They stay in boxes way longer then that.

I think that you missed the part of staying overnight prior to returning home with them...

[MinnFish]

I have a inverter in my company truck. I can run 2 cords from it. It has no problems running a laptop, battery charger at the same time. So, I don't see why u could not run a power head and small wattage heater. I'll check max watts.

[MinnFish]

It's a black and decker, 400 watts, 3.48 amps max.

[Reefmedic79]

Is it possible to purchase them, and then pick them up the next morning before you head home? That's what I would do, most LFS I know would accommodate such a request.

Sent from my future self.

[cdineen0823]

You're buying them, staying the night, then going home. Correct? No different than getting corals shipped overnight. They both would be packaged over night. You shouldn't have any issues. I would be more concerned about maintaining a proper temp for them

[Pittsburgh]

You'll need to check wattage on the equipment you plan on using with the inverter, add it all up, throw extra 25% overhead and get an inverter capable of providing wattage to cover it all. So say your heater is 50w, air stone is 20w and powerhead is 20w, the total is 90w. Add another 20w-30w overhead and get an inverter rated for 110w or more.

You would need to run the engine the whole time your equipment is on. Otherwise, the car battery will die rather quickly.

I'd personally order livestock online and ship overnight instead to avoid all the trouble and save some money.

[567234ta]

Lets not forget about the cig lighter, that isn't going to feed all that stuff without getting very hot and possibly blowing a fuse.

I use inverters when my power goes out, they shut off when your battery gets to a certain voltage like 11v. I would just run an air pump in the vehicle off of a smaller inverter, like 400 watt inverter. The air pump will keep the temp stable if the air it's putting in is the right temp, which would be the temp of the air in your vehicle. it will give you water movement and by adding the air it will keep the ph up. Bring a test kit to test for ammonia, if it gets bad do a water change or add some ammonia binder.
I ran a window fan, filters, air pump, lights and skimmer from my truck battery for about 6 hours before it went dead, that was a 750 watt inverter. not connected thru the cig lighter though, hooked directly to battery.

[fishgate]

For a 4 hour trip, why not just skip the hotel and go home?

I think the big issue is with opened bags. In order to heat and aerate, you will need the bags or container opened. That is when the ammonia starts to creep up.

[sponger0]

I know it isnt the same, but I had to use an inverter when my power went out for 3 days. Didnt lose anything. But Id say just run a heater off of it. I would think the movement from the car would create enough water movement

[Lig]

Originally Posted by fishgate

For a 4 hour trip, why not just skip the hotel and go home?

Best idea IMO.

[timkatz71]

Originally Posted by fishgate

for a 4 hour trip, why not just skip the hotel and go home?

I think the big issue is with opened bags. In order to heat and aerate, you will need the bags or container opened. That is when the ammonia starts to creep up.

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