Power Outtage

[Charleslee]

Hello everybody! New member here. Thank you Reef Central for allowing me the privilege of joining your wonderful forum. I look rorward to enjoying myself & learning a lot from all the great members.

Now for my first of probably many Q's: I, like many, have went through the heartbreak & agony of scooping out dead fish I've lost during power outtages & do not want to go through it again. I bought a portable generator which w/ work if i'm home but if @ work there's a problemo. I asked neighbors to call me if an outtage occurrs but I'm 2 hrs. away so... I'm considering purchasing a Tripp Lite 750 to use w/ marine or Optima or whatever batteries. It w/ have to run my 500W heater being the biggest draw & far lesser wattage equipment: (2) Aquaclear 110's, a Rio pump for sump return. My HOB skimmer loses suction due to water level so it won't be a factor.
Advice pls. from anybody familiar w/ the Tripp Lite or other solutions. Thanks.

[slief]

Best advice I can give you is the skip the Optima's and get yourself four or even six 6 Volt golf cart/RV batteries like Trojan T-105's and wire them in series parallel. That will give you a much better battery with much better amp hour capacity to maintain your tank.

FWIW, the Trojan 6 volt batteries or most any golf cart batter will last a lot longer than the Optima's before needing to be replaced as long as you maintain the water levels in them. If you take care of them, those batteries are nearly bullet proof. I'm not a fan of Optima's> I've gone through several of the Marine and standard ones in my 68 Camaro and stopped using them.

[tkeracer619]

There is no optima deep cycle and using them like one will degrade them quickly. They are for engine starting. They do not handle discharge well.

The Trojans are a better choice.

Personally I would skip all of that and get some power heads that allow for battery backup.

You don't need a functioning heater for the couple hours it would take to get home and get the gen running. My vortechs have around 20 hours of runtime on batteries. If I were to invest in a large battery setup I would just assume make payments on my cc for a whole house NG generator with auto transfer switch. They aren't that expensive these days and if your power drops out that often or are in hurricane country it is worthwhile.

[Tigerdragon]

Deep cycle batteries that are designed for long term discharge and an inverter for your ac stuff. I agree you tank can get by a couple of hours or so without heater but you want water circ primarily

[Charleslee]

No guarentee I'd get the call informing me of an outtage; neighbors might not be home, could forget to call, whatever & I might not get home from work 10-11 hrs. later! Have to prepare for the cworst case scenario. Last time temp. in tank dropped to 62 degrees. Wrasse survived by burying self in sand. Couple others survived, more expensive, nicer ones perished of vcourse. So, i better go w/ the Trpp Lite or something similar. Anyone have experience w/ it?

[firebirdude]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

There is no optima deep cycle and using them like one will degrade them quickly.

The yellow top is deep cycle sir.

I think you need to think survival here. One power head, maybe buy another heater and set it low, and possibly an air stone. That's it. The less on your batteries, the longer they'll last.

[tkeracer619]

They may call it a deep cycle and technically it can be called that but they don't survive deep cycles well. It is a hybrid battery with low internal resistance designed for large cranking amp output. It isn't a true deep cycle and this isn't the application for it.

It is designed to start your truck and operate your winch. It does pretty good at that. Many people use them for battery backups but they spent too much for too little.

[firebirdude]

The yellow tops were used heavily in car audio applications long before all the current "car audio specific" batteries came about. I've watched people drain an entire bank of yellow tops DEAD, recharge, and go again. Over and over and over and over again. Call it what you will. So though I'm not some big promoter of Optima and probably wouldn't use it in this case, just stating the facts. I believe what my eyes see.

[viggen]

I have a optima yellowtop in my car... it's 8+ years old now and still works fine

However I have heard numerous times the newer Optima batteries are not close to as good as the old ones. Something about changing manufacturing facilities or something like that.

I have been wanting to put a backup system together on my tank as well. Years ago I used a marine grade boat bilge pump, bosch relay & a car battery to give me many hours of circulation. However no heat etc with what I did..... I was thinking of doing a similar setup again and set my gas fireplace to kick in if the power drops or tems get to low

[slief]

Originally Posted by firebirdude

The yellow tops were used heavily in car audio applications long before all the current "car audio specific" batteries came about. I've watched people drain an entire bank of yellow tops DEAD, recharge, and go again. Over and over and over and over again. Call it what you will. So though I'm not some big promoter of Optima and probably wouldn't use it in this case, just stating the facts. I believe what my eyes see.

For the OP's use, 6V golf cart batteries are about the only thing I would consider as I mentioned above.

I've got a stack of trophies for car audio events with my 68 Camaro and a magazine feature in Car Audio Magazine.. I ran a pair of those Yellow tops for years.. I went through a few pairs worth too. Yes, Optima markets them as deep cycle batteries. They are however about the worst high end battery as far as longevity that I have ever owned. Yes, there were the cats meow once upon a time. They certainly look great and are decent when new but after a couple years they go down hill and do so rather quickly. Not worth their cost IMO.



I still have the car but I don't run Optima's anymore!

[tkeracer619]

Nice ride! I never had issues with them until they switched manufacturing to mexico. I've had them all (yellow, blue, and red) many times over. My red top is the only one surviving and that's because it never holds its rated CCA past the replacement warranty.

[slief]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

Nice ride! I never had issues with them until they switched manufacturing to mexico. I've had them all (yellow, blue, and red) many times over. My red top is the only one surviving and that's because it never holds its rated CCA past the replacement warranty.

Thanks. It's a shame they aren't what they used to be. They sure are a great looking battery. I felt bad derailing the thread but since the subject of car audio and yellow tops came up, I figured I'd chime in with my experience. I held back on the rest of the article. My car was featured in their buyers guide.Would ya believe I've only put 2000 or so miles on the car since that photo shoot.

[origreefer]

I have 8 L-16 AGM battery backup. AGM are worry free, no water needed. I also have solar to charge but for aquarium backup, all you need is to keep them charged and a good 2000w inverter. I too worry about power going out and not knowing, being in a cold climate it does not take long for tank to drop many degrees (or climb many degrees in hot climates.) I just went thru on Thanksgiving a 3-day outage. Ran heaters in 2 tanks, biopellet reactors in 2 tanks and recirc main pumps in both. Fortunately I was home when power went out. When I'm at work and I know the wx could cause an outage, I either call home to see if answering machine picks up, or log into my APEX to see if it's working.

BTW, one generator is not enough. What do you do when it fails or wont start? Trust me, I have experience with this and lots of dead livestock because of failures. This is why I went battery.