Power Outages

[FishyReef]

Thanks Mono! I'll look into them! I only want to put my heater, a powerhead, and the return pump to my sump on the battery back up - not sure how much wattage that will use total - how can I figure that out? And how do I figure out how long the back up will last based on wattage use?

 

[Bifferwine]

To save energy, I'd pass on the return pump. All you'd need is the heater and powerhead for that time period.

 

[mono19]

If you have the boxes fishy you can find out the watts that each item produces. Then when you go to best buy or wherever you go just tell them how many watts you have and how long you would like to keep it running. They will get you the best one for the job. Most pumps are anywhere from 6 to 10 watts from what I've seen and the heaters I'm not sure, but I'm sure that you can find it out. It really is a nice and easy way to get it taken care of.

 

[mono19]

I agree with Biff though, don't worry about the return pump, I use a overflow box as well and as long as there is still water in the box that can be pulled it starts right up after the power comes back on. Really all I've seen from reading these forums is that you need at least a power head on to keep the water turning over. For 13 hours though I'm not sure, you may want the heater too.

 

[FishyReef]

So, at the risk of having two threads, am I better off getting a battery backup box, or 3-4 battery operated air pump? And if I go with the backup box, is putting 1 powerhead (1400gph aimed at the top of the tank) going to be enough for 90g for 13 hours?

 

[mono19]

Honestly it's up to you...In my opinion the battery operated air pumps seem like a bad idea...I would be worried of a bad pump leaking electricity into my tank or battery fluid or something....they have some battery back ups that will run a computer system for like 5-6 hours....if you think about how much wattage a computer uses compared to our tiny little pumps, even my vortech which runs anywhere from 8-18 watts it would run on one of those bigger back ups for almost a full day with no power. I'm guessing your 1400 runs on about 5-6 watts..on my little battery back up it would run it for 7 hours. How close to a best buy or computer store are you? I would run down there or give them a call and ask them, I spent like 40 minutes talking to the rep that helped me and he was really knowledgeable. You could probably even run 2 or your powerheads on one of the larger backups.

Cause from what I have heard, your corals won't last more then a few hours if you don't have current in the tank. I just placed my vortech in the middle of the glass on one side and it takes care of everything..