Battery Backup questions ( DIY vs Icecap v3 )

[Nickcdll]

This site is to me is the greatest resource out there. I've been reading these posts for days now. So i have a 50 gallon and live in the Northeast. I'm tired of worrying about a power failure. And i rent which limit my options. Is the icecap a better solution because it's simpler overall? I read they have a one year warranty. Is that a real negative to that solution or is the fewer plugs and all in one design make it safer and thus better? I can put together a diy sealed battery backup if that's the best option, I'm just still unsure of which one.
One other thing, what's more essential, the pump, the wavemakers? Both? And I've read that heaters can kill a batteries power supply really fast. How long do you have in a cold climate with the heater off? Is a smaller heater a solution to at least get a little more time before things go south?

 

[laverda]

A DIY solution give you a lot more options for the money. You can use a much larger battery especially if you feel the need for a heater. Flow and oxygen exchange are more critical that temperature in must cases. If your worried about more than a few hours in winter there you probably want a pretty big battery so you can run a heater. I am guessing a lot would depend if your home furnace/ heater sill works in a power outage or not.

 

[Nickcdll]

No heat if the power goes out. For the most part our electric company is actually pretty good. Do you happen to know, is it better to get one large battery or is possible to get a smaller battery and add to it over time. Thank you for your answer by the way

 

[laverda]

The advantage of the one I linked to, is you can do that. Most others you cannot. At least not without voiding the warranty. It is the only one I know of without going to big buck you can have an additional battery hooked to it. This is my second one. When the batteries went in my old one I was able to find a new one for less than the cost of new batteries for it. For the battery pack I just bought 4 new batteries and put them in it. It is mostly just a pretty box for the batteries and a few cables to connect everything together.
A really inexpensive way to provide oxygenation is with the cobalt Aquatics battery back up air pump. this is the one I got, but they have other models. It turns on automatically in a power failure, but keeps running when the power comes back on. It can also run and comes with an additional USB battery. The neat thing about that in a power outage you can rechage the battery in your car or use one you might have for your cell phone. I know I have several USB batteries. I use this for my QT tank. It has come one a few times but I never needed it for long.
Another option is the Marina battery air pump. It runs surprising long on just 2 D cell batteries. I ran one of mine for 4 or 5 days on just one set of D batteries in a temporary holding tank. I could not believe it just kept going. However you have to turn it on manually.
Both of these options are so inexpensive every tank should have one!

 

[Nickcdll]

Thank you. Thats exactly what i was wondering about the batteries. I appreciate you getting back to me. I'm defiantly gonna get that marina battery air pump. I didn't even know that existed.