Battery back ups

[Shawna Solomon]

Hello everyone,

I’m currently looking for batter backups for my tank because it’s storm season and we sometimes lose power. Last year we lost power for 2 days. I have looked at ones on Home Depot but apparently anything aquarium related plugged in voids the warranty on them so I don’t know if that means it’s a bad idea to use them or I just won’t be able to use the warranty if it fries any of the equipment. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[James M]

Get a aquarium back up battery
https://www.marinedepot.com/search?Query=battery+backup

 

[chinw76]

I made my own battery backup, it powers all my electronics, my furance, lights, main tank and 4 qt tanks. Last about 10 to 12 hours.

 

[Phil D.]

I bought a 375W Cyberpower one when I had my 28g JBJ and it would run everything for an hour.

 

[chinw76]

Get something that has a true pure sine wave, not the modified sine wave. Modified ones give off dirty power and you pumps will run slower on them since they dont have a full sinewave. You will pay more, but it is worth it.

 

[Shawna Solomon]

I made my own battery backup, it powers all my electronics, my furance, lights, main tank and 4 qt tanks. Last about 10 to 12 hours.

Thank you!

 

[Shawna Solomon]

I bought a 375W Cyberpower one when I had my 28g JBJ and it would run everything for an hour.

Thank you!

 

[chinw76]

Your welcome

 

[Jet915]

I have a APC battery connected to a wavemaker that will run for 4 hours in the event of an outage. I also bought a portable generator thats in my garage in the event of a longer outage.

 

[SuncrestReef]

The key thing to running on a battery is to only run the bare minimum devices to keep your tank alive and to prolong the battery run time. Heaters, large pumps, and high powered lights will drain a battery very quickly. Many people just run powerheads and air stones on battery during power outages.

If you have an Apex or other programmable controller, you can configure it to turn off certain devices when the main power goes out.

I took it to the extreme and installed a 22kW whole-house generator fueled by natural gas so my Apex and all aquarium devices can run at 100% during prolonged power outages.

 

[Reefer_Rob]

The key thing to running on a battery is to only run the bare minimum devices to keep your tank alive and to prolong the battery run time. Heaters, large pumps, and high powered lights will drain a battery very quickly. Many people just run powerheads and air stones on battery during power outages.

If you have an Apex or other programmable controller, you can configure it to turn off certain devices when the main power goes out.

I took it to the extreme and installed a 22kW whole-house generator fueled by natural gas so my Apex and all aquarium devices can run at 100% during prolonged power outages.

Id like to go the whole house generator route one day.

You mentioned the Apex. Can it really work with a battery back up (APC or Ecotec etc) and select what it wants to power (power head only etc)? Im assuming the whole Apex energy bar has to be plugged into the battery back up. How does it know its still an true outage rather than the power being restored once the back up kicks in? I always thought it was all or none but if it can select components that really has my attention.

 

[Reefer_Rob]

Double post, edited

 

[ccombs]

Id like to go the whole house generator route one day.

You mentioned the Apex. Can it really work with a battery back up (APC or Ecotec etc) and select what it wants to power (power head only etc)? Im assuming the whole Apex energy bar has to be plugged into the battery back up. How does it know its still an true outage rather than the power being restored once the back up kicks in? I always thought it was all or none but if it can select components that really has my attention.

The apex brain has an optional dc power supply. It used this to sense incoming power. Basically you put all of your APEX Energy Bars on the UPS and the DC power supply on a non battery outlet. When the brain senses a loss of power from the DC power supply, it runs the programming you create for loss of power.

When I lose power my APEX is programmed to shut everything off except one of my return pumps.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Id like to go the whole house generator route one day.

You mentioned the Apex. Can it really work with a battery back up (APC or Ecotec etc) and select what it wants to power (power head only etc)? Im assuming the whole Apex energy bar has to be plugged into the battery back up. How does it know its still an true outage rather than the power being restored once the back up kicks in? I always thought it was all or none but if it can select components that really has my attention.

The Apex can monitor for power outages if you purchase the 12v auxiliary power adapter and then configure the Apex for power management. Here are the steps:

1. Purchase this Apex 12V auxiliary power adapter: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/12v-power-supply-neptune-systems.html
2. Plug your Apex Energy Bar into your UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) battery backup.
3. Plug the new 12V power adapter into a regular wall power outlet and connect it to the Apex auxiliary power port.
   
4. In Apex Fusion, click the Apex menu, then click Misc near the bottom of the menu
5. Under the Power section, set Monitor to Enabled, then save the settings to your Apex.
   

Once these steps are done, you can configure various outlets on your Energy Bar to react when your house power goes out. Here are some examples:

Turn off return pump:

Fallback ON
Set ON
If Power Apex Off 000 Then OFF​

Turn off heater:

Fallback OFF
If Tmp < 78.0 Then ON
If Tmp > 78.0 Then OFF
If Power Apex Off 000 Then OFF​

In general, you should only run the bare minimum devices on battery power. Heaters, lights, and anything with powerful motors (like return pumps or skimmers) will drain the battery quickly, so they should be turned off.

 

[Reefer_Rob]

Ah I see. Thank you so much for that explanation!

 

[Reefer_Rob]

The apex brain has an optional dc power supply. It used this to sense incoming power. Basically you put all of your APEX Energy Bars on the UPS and the DC power supply on a non battery outlet. When the brain senses a loss of power from the DC power supply, it runs the programming you create for loss of power.

When I lose power my APEX is programmed to shut everything off except one of my return pumps.

Makes total sense now. Thank you