After a brief power outage...

[Bruce Burnett]

A true 60 cycle generator does not need a digital inverter. That generator is used to power an RV which includes TV and Microwave.

 

[dangros]

What's your point @Bruce Burnett ?

 

[Captmcfly]

I run my whole house on a 6500 watt I bought at harbor freight . This whole sensitive equipment idea is a joke to me. Most of your sensitive equipment converts your power to D.C. Right away where it then hits compassator banks and voltage regulators before getting used in the device. Yes a pure sine is nice to have but for the most part your controllers and whatever else you worry about don't care what the wave looks like ... because after the power supply it's D.C. I run my 4K tv my routers modem computer equipment no issue .. use a surge protector and you will be ok. For what it's worth I'm a union electrician.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

What's your point @Bruce Burnett ?

The generator he purchased will work just fine for emergency. It will not help if he is not home and loses power. Only a true whole house auto change over generator will work for that with extended time. An auto battery backup on pump will work but not for extended period of time like a couple of days unless you get a good sized one. Even auto generators sometimes fail to start, we can only take so many precautions.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I have a power inverter and can use a marine battery. I ruled out a generator when I realized that it would need to be rolled out of the garage and started up 4 Xs a year to be sure that it would start in a crisis. I am sure to have working batteries to power the inverter and I will run only the most essential equipment.

Here is what will work and for most people will give 2-3 days if just main pump is all that is plugged in. Will switch over if power goes out and keep batteries fully charged. Of course Apex has it's own power back up available to do the same thing.
https://www.backupbatterypower.com/...1-5kva-pure-sinewave-battery-backup-power-ups.

 

[Newb73]

I run vortechs on an emergency vortechs batteries and have 4x airpumps with airstones in the fish cabinet next to my tank.

House has back up propane gas logs for heat but in am extended winter outage my gas logs would drop the PH down to dangerous low levels.

So on top of all that I still need a generator so I can run a main pump, a skimmer with my co2 scrubber (yes I have one) attached and a heater.

I run cheap deep sea pond pumps and finnex titanium Heaters.

So you think is be okay with a cheap gas generator just for those items?

Also on gas generator if you put it in your building with the oil strapped to it fresh in the container and never put the gas I it...it needs no maintenance.

It will 99.9% work if the first time you need it is on brand new oil and brand new gas, even after 10 years.

You can also run it empty on gas and then drain the oil and it should be good for long term storage. Just don't forget to strap a fresh can of oil to it and have had in a gas can somewhere.

The vortech batteries are always on and run about 36 hours automatically....more than long enough to get home and put in airstones.

Lastly I have a computer backup battery on my apex and with a an extra power supply and 2x eb8s you can program some pretty impressive stuff.

My runs the main brain and turns the main pumps on for a few minutes once an hour so it can last sevetal hours that way as well.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I run vortechs on an emergency vortechs batteries and have 4x airpumps with airstones in the fish cabinet next to my tank.

House has back up propane gas logs for heat but in am extended winter outage my gas logs would drop the PH down to dangerous low levels.

So on top of all that I still need a generator so I can run a main pump, a skimmer with my co2 scrubber (yes I have one) attached and a heater.

I run cheap deep sea pond pumps and finnex titanium Heaters.

So you think is be okay with a cheap gas generator just for those items?

Also on gas generator if you put it in your building with the oil strapped to it fresh in the container and never put the gas I it...it needs no maintenance.

It will 99.9% work if the first time you need it is on brand new oil and brand new gas, even after 10 years.

You can also run it empty on gas and then drain the oil and it should be good for long term storage. Just don't forget to strap a fresh can of oil to it and have had in a gas can somewhere.

The vortech batteries are always on and run about 36 hours automatically....more than long enough to get home and put in airstones.

Lastly I have a computer backup battery on my apex and with a an extra power supply and 2x eb8s you can program some pretty impressive stuff.

My runs the main brain and turns the main pumps on for a few minutes once an hour so it can last sevetal hours that way as well.

Sounds like you have it down but where I live I would have to worry during summer about cooling.

 

[Newb73]

Here is my virtual outlet for a program called pwrfail2 (I have several)

Fallback OFF
If Power EB8_4 Off 120 Then ON
OSC 055:00/005:00/000:00 Then ON
If Power EB8_4 On 001 Then OFF

If my apex detects power off it waits 2 hours then circulates just one main pump for 5 minutes an hour (that's in addition to my vortechs on battery backup).

Here is the pump command.

If Output Pwrfail2 = ON Then ON

 

[vlangel]

Here is what will work and for most people will give 2-3 days if just main pump is all that is plugged in. Will switch over if power goes out and keep batteries fully charged. Of course Apex has it's own power back up available to do the same thing.
https://www.backupbatterypower.com/...1-5kva-pure-sinewave-battery-backup-power-ups.

I am not worried about dirty power. I have a 9.5 mag drive pump that is indestructible and with my seahorses I mostly just care about the return pump and a whisper air pump running.

 

[nhlives]

whole house as we wait for Irma

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Cancelled order for now... I may just go get an inverter for the 29g tank and a battery powered air stone for the 10g. Truly do appreciate all your input. I've done some more research and understand much better.



Update: can't cancel as it's shipping soon... guess I'll hope for the best!

Just ship it right back. Amazon will take it back and make it pretty easy I think.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

PS. I am not leaning towards you shouldn't use it or not.

 

[Adam113]

Just ship it right back. Amazon will take it back and make it pretty easy I think.

Already fired it up. After reading up a lot more, I'm really not worried about the "dirty power." Cranked up first pull and it'll be great to have regardless for emergencies.

 

[nzxtguy123]

We made it through Irma with no losses but next year I will have a generator for sure.

 

[Trivan]

Having live through many weeks without power from the ice storm, Sandy and just random power lines coming down, I do know many who ran contractor generators to their refrigerators, furnaces, microwaves, etc. a few months later problems and the service techs would have to replace some electronic part. Coincidence? Maybe, but I do believe that these generator had an effect. I also do know people who have not had problems, but fewer in numbers.

 

[roberthu526]

A great investment if you think how much we spend on our tanks. I have a portable generator that can be connected to my electrical panel via a power inlet. A whole house generator with auto switch-over would be best but I can't justify the cost.

Exactly. I would rather ruin some pumps that cost a few hundred bucks than have my tank torn down. Getting a quality surge proctor or UPS would likely work well with traditional generators.

 

[vic67]

I run my whole house on a 6500 watt I bought at harbor freight . This whole sensitive equipment idea is a joke to me. Most of your sensitive equipment converts your power to D.C. Right away where it then hits compassator banks and voltage regulators before getting used in the device. Yes a pure sine is nice to have but for the most part your controllers and whatever else you worry about don't care what the wave looks like ... because after the power supply it's D.C. I run my 4K tv my routers modem computer equipment no issue .. use a surge protector and you will be ok. For what it's worth I'm a union electrician.

Thank you for the info !

 

[RamsReef]

Here is my virtual outlet for a program called pwrfail2 (I have several)

Fallback OFF
If Power EB8_4 Off 120 Then ON
OSC 055:00/005:00/000:00 Then ON
If Power EB8_4 On 001 Then OFF

If my apex detects power off it waits 2 hours then circulates just one main pump for 5 minutes an hour (that's in addition to my vortechs on battery backup).

Here is the pump command.

If Output Pwrfail2 = ON Then ON

Should this not be


If Power EB8_4 Off 120 Then ON
OSC 05:00/0055:00/000:00 Then OFF ???
If Power EB8_4 On 001 Then OFF

Since the Power EB8_4 Off 120 Then ON will turn the outlet on you need to cycle the OFF of the outlet, I could be totally wrong and haven't searched it yet.

 

[RamsReef]

In regards to generators.

Standard generators are fine, the more you can run them at a constant load the better, as the governor is slow to respond, this is where you get distortions from.
The damage to pumps and electronics comes from this.

The sine wave will become slightly distorted. Anything that is not a "PURE" sine wave leads to heating. That heating will overheat and damage the coils of a motor OR the coils of the transformer in your AC/DC converters.

The transformer-less AC/DC converters probably do not have this issue.

The inverter generators are smoother because they produce a 3phase signal that is converted to DC then back to single phase ac. Since the demand is mostly electronically driven they are quick to respond and can track load easier. The prime mover (engine) is essentially decoupled from the system.

IF IT WERE ME:
I would be comfortable with a standard genset, especially if you are loading it with a constant load.