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Backup Power Option???

I'm looking for a backup power option here. I have so many DIY projects lined up for my tank system right now I don't really want to take a stab at doing a backup power DIY... and i'm not hugely electrician savy. Is there a plug and play option for this out there that someone is building and selling or available retail?

The need here is for it to be able to run a MAG18 Return Pump and a single 300w Heater for at least 12 hours and preferably 24-36 hours.

What do you guys know?
 
Generator, don't DIY

You could end up going the marine deep cycle battery with all the electronic dodads on it, but a mag18 + 300w heater for 1/2 to 1&1/2 days? Man that's a LOT of power drawn.
 
Ya... heck... even if it could just run the Mag 18 that would probably be better than nothing. Just having it run a ph in the display would not help my refugium or frag tank. So it's either 1 Mag 18 or three PH's...
 
well the more complex your system gets, with refugiums, frag tanks, growout tanks, etc the more complicated any backup power solutions will be.

As far as water movement, I'd honestly go with the 3 powerheads, if they're a low energy power head like a maxijet, koralia, etc then they'll take so much less energy its not funny. The heater one is going to be the kicker, I'd simply have styrofoam on hand to toss on the tank in the case of an outage, and wait it out. My controller probe went kaput one night and the heater never turned on... fairly cold (low 50s) tank dropped to 70s, thinks were a little pissed off but they survived... however it was a large body of water.
 
before I bought the icecap battery for the vortech, I use a computer ups to run a K1 as backup in case power fail. But now that I think of it, the K1 will probably not provide enough flow to keep the oxygen level in the 120g tank.
 
Yep... I'm thinking of this in context of the 120g display 20g fuge and 40g frag tank. So we are talking about really three tanks with a total volume of 180 gallons that I need to keep oxygen levels up in. If I can find a solution that can keep my recirculation pump going it will take care of all three no problem.
 
oxygen issues you can use an pentaplex(??) battery powered air pump, neat little thing that turns on automatically in the case of a power outage, think they go for $10 a pop.

Circulation, you're better off with smaller more energy efficient pumps than using a return pump.
 
[quote author=sfsuphysics link=topic=6431.msg82332#msg82332 date=1234987398]
well the more complex your system gets, with refugiums, frag tanks, growout tanks, etc the more complicated any backup power solutions will be.

As far as water movement, I'd honestly go with the 3 powerheads, if they're a low energy power head like a maxijet, koralia, etc then they'll take so much less energy its not funny. The heater one is going to be the kicker, I'd simply have styrofoam on hand to toss on the tank in the case of an outage, and wait it out. My controller probe went kaput one night and the heater never turned on... fairly cold (low 50s) tank dropped to 70s, thinks were a little pissed off but they survived... however it was a large body of water.

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I'm finding this to be very true... I am running koralias in each tank so having it run one in each will be the most energy efficient method... longest battery life.

Still... is anyone making these out there and selling them... mostly plug and play?
 
I don't think so.
UPS units really are meant for very short term "let me save my work" purposes.

when Vortech got the icecap battery backup that was such hot shit out there you'd think there never was anything like it.

I have seen some DIY with deep cycle batteries, etc, although it seems like quite a lot of work to get what you want, that you might as well buy a small portable generator.
 
I personally have my an old computer UPS with a maxijet and heater on it (20g tank, would cool very quickly if the power died at night) and also one of the pennplax style battery air pumps. Power dies, MJ and heater keep working, UPS dies, then the airstone comes on.

For a large thing like you're doing, generator is definitely the way to go. A deep cycle marine batt. could prob get you pretty far with 3 koralia's running on it, but the heater would drain it pretty fast probably. Maybe if you had one batt. dedicated to the heater it could work. But really, a 120g would take a little while to get down to a dangerous temp. Unless you're really worried about being on vacation when it goes, one night, or one day at work should be fine til you come back to deal with it.
 
Air bubblers provide very little aeration that corals can use. They require actual water movement while bubblers (battery powered) tend to just break the surface and create a very minor total tank movement. better then nothing but not the best option. A Genset is the best option, then a Deep Cycle battery, then a high end UPS and then your average UPS which can burn pumps and heaters out.
 
+1 on the air bubblers... nothing I've ever read has lead me to believe this would help much. Sometime between now and my vacation plans this summer I will need to come up with some sort of Genset... Anyone here on BAR with a similar or slightly larger system have something set up? ... can post pics and specs?
 
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=6431.msg82397#msg82397 date=1234995648]
http://www.bareefers.org/discussion/index.php?topic=2526.0


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Thanks... I'll check it out.
 
I'm looking into the generator route here. Because I rent my house, doing a full house backup is not an option so I am assuming that it will be best to just have a poratable generator that I can start up manually and plug things into in the event of an outage.... Looking at the past year I believe that worst case and most likely scenario is a power outage in the heat of summer. In this event I would want two things to continue running.... my MAG 18 to keep water moving for oxygenation and my Chiller since the house gets freakin hot when the AC is not running.

MAG 18 Power Consumption = 145 Watts
Teco 1/3 HP Chiller Power Consumption = 480 Watts

So...as an example.... if I had a 3500 Watt Generator that has a 10 hour run time at 1/2 capacity on 4 gallons.... I am assuming that is 10 hours of use with 1750 Watts of use. My pump and chiller only equals 625 Watts of use. Would have an additional 1125 Watts of power that I could draw off of this generator and still have the 10 hour run time....

Am I thinking of this the right way?
 
You are not taking into account start-up spikes but you are leaving the proper head room :)

The Honda EU3000 is a super nice portable genset. You can even get a link to use two together if need be :) It's the quietest one around. I've slept 10' from one camping in fact!

http://www.poweredgenerators.com/honda/EU3000is.html
 
The start up spikes are for certain to be considered. I am 'assuming' though that with sufficient head room it becomes non-issue. Also... most 3500 Watt Gens I have looked at have an actual running rating of 3000 Watts.

Dang! I have no doubt it's a sweet Gen but $2k....! most of the 3500 Watt range gens I've been looking at from Home Depot, Lowes and Costco are in the $400-$800 range... which is my approximate budget for this. Most of these in the 65-75dB range. Yours is definantly nicer... will have to stick to my budget though.... ;)
 
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