Battery backup

DiverGirl82 · Dec 14, 2015

Last night I had my first power outage since the tank has been up. Thankfully it was only a few minutes. Before I could even call the power company it came back on. I've been procrastinating on getting backup power but I guess it's time. I'm looking at this at Best Buy. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apc-back-ups-1080va-ups-black/8074044.p?id=1218863885653&skuId=8074044. Is that enough? I would like to get a small generator eventually but it's not in the budget at the moment. I thought with this I could run the heater, the return and at least 1 power head. We don't get power outages extremely frequently. Last night it was from a wind storm and I've heard it's supposed to be a stormy winter here in SoCal.

KingTriton · Dec 14, 2015

12v AGM battery would more appropriate. What type of powerhead do you have?

TheEngineer · Dec 14, 2015

That's not going to last long. What's the power draw of the components you want running?

mrtian97 · Dec 14, 2015

I am using similar but only running the powerhead. Mine will last ~6 hrs. Also in SoCal, hopefully our winter won't be that stormy

DiverGirl82 · Dec 14, 2015

KingTriton said:
12v AGM battery would more appropriate. What type of powerhead do you have?

Jebao. I'm kinda thinking about the jebao backup unit too.

DiverGirl82 · Dec 14, 2015

mrtian97 said:
I am using similar but only running the powerhead. Mine will last ~6 hrs. Also in SoCal, hopefully our winter won't be that stormy

I guess that El Nino or La Nina, whichever was supposed to make it a wet winter. My leasing company even sent out an email telling tenants where they can get sand bags if they need them. But it's been fairly nice so far (knock on wood).

DiverGirl82 · Dec 14, 2015

icecool2 said:
That's not going to last long. What's the power draw of the components you want running?

Honestly I'm not entirely sure how to tell

shoelaceike · Dec 14, 2015

The Jabeo doesn't have much juice. Check this out.http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-XP2260-Instant-Portable-Source/dp/B004EIAADG

As far as power comparison. All the below use lead acid batterys....

Jabeo - 3.6 Ah

Ecotech - 18 Ah

Above - 22 Ah

None of them will run a high wattage heater for a while but you certainly can run a power head for quite a while....

njtiger aquariums · Dec 14, 2015

If you don't lose power much I won't be too worry about heater (I'm in NJ and my power doesn't go out much but my tank never drops temp too much). I have a old CyberPower UPS which runs my two Jabeos RWs for about 90 mins at full power. Some of those battery backup run power heads at 50% or less.

The APC is a good and could aid you. Do note that they will not run forever, a couple of hours, depending on the load. Like I said I only run my power heads and hope my power comes on within the 90 mins. Some good notes on UPS is that they run in line, which means they kick on once the power drops (good for when your not home), they also 'clean' the power coming in which can help improve the life of your equipment.

njtiger aquariums · Dec 14, 2015

One draw back to UPS which can drive one nuts is they beep when on batt. They are design to allow a user to shutdown their equipment nicely during a power outage. The beeping is to alert the user it's on batt and like I said that could drive someone nuts lol.

Aussie paul · Dec 14, 2015

Twin outlet designed to run computers hrs

shoelaceike · Dec 14, 2015

For instance using the Jabeo backup, a 100 watt heater will run for about half hour....

shoelaceike · Dec 14, 2015

Using the Schumacher battery, you could run a Jabeo RW-8 for at 50% for about 40 hours....

DiverGirl82 · Dec 14, 2015

So all I really need to keep running are my power heads?

DiverGirl82 · Dec 14, 2015

shoelaceike said:
The Jabeo doesn't have much juice. Check this out.http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-XP2260-Instant-Portable-Source/dp/B004EIAADG

As far as power comparison. All the below use lead acid batterys....

Jabeo - 3.6 Ah

Ecotech - 18 Ah

Above - 22 Ah

None of them will run a high wattage heater for a while but you certainly can run a power head for quite a while....

I like the price on that. Thank you. So would I just keep that pre-charged? Or does it come already juiced up?

shoelaceike · Dec 14, 2015

DiverGirl82 said:
I like the price on that. Thank you. So would I just keep that pre-charged? Or does it come already juiced up?

You should charge it before use and also charge it every once in a while if its not used....as far as heaters go, it all depends on temp in the house......if its above 68 you should be ok .....if you need to run heaters, especially for an extended period of time, you will need a generator.

wcharon · Dec 15, 2015

It will not turn on automatically if the electricity in the house goes out.

Fin · Dec 15, 2015

I use a VorTech MP-40 with the battery backup. I believe that water movement is the key to tank survival when power is lost, so I don't really want anything running, except the MP-40. The battery backup kicks in when the power goes out and reduces the speed of the MP-40 to extend the battery life. The powerhead can run up to 30+ hours on a fully charged battery. You can also daisy chain two or more backup batteries to increase run time. I believe the Gyres also have a similar backup available.

njtiger aquariums · Dec 15, 2015

Now I have no experience with them but read multiple people discovering those Jabeo and other batt backups run their power head at lower power even when the power is on. Again like I said I have no personal experience so would like to see what others say about that.

Wesley42079 · Dec 15, 2015

I'll be following along. We had a power outage here in Northern Cali last week.

I've been thinking about buying the Vortech battery backup for my 2 mp10's and possibly a generator to keep my temps steady.