UPS - Battery Backup: what should I plug in?

[RaymondL]

I got a new UPS that can offer 8 hours of battery life, so I'm planning on what items to plug into the 'Battery' side of things. My thought is the following:

- Heater
- Wavemaker or Return Pump - one or the other(don't know which would be better)
- Auto-top off

Is it okay to not have the light fixture on the battery side? I'm assuming the corals can go by without light for days without - is this correct? I think someone told me that a week without lights for soft and LPS corals is fine, but how true is that?

Thanks all!

 

[Dom]

All power heads and circulation pumps should be supported.

 

[RaymondL]

All power heads and circulation pumps should be supported.

Hmm, my thought was to save battery power and choose between the wavemaker or the pump....is both necessary?

 

[KStatefan]

Return Pump

 

[Dom]

Hmm, my thought was to save battery power and choose between the wavemaker or the pump....is both necessary?

You want circulation and agitation.

For short outages, the pumps are enough. But as outages wear on (days) then lights and heating will need to be supported. I use a generator for that.

 

[dangles]

Our tanks can go DAYS without lights, and you can top off manually. Even filtration can be off for days, so the return pump isn’t a super high priority. Heaters depend on the time of year and where you’re at in the country. They will however drain your battery backup FAST. But without oxygenation your tank will die REALLY fast. Power heads that keep the surface agitation are the single most important thing to put on battery backup.

With that said, UPS aren’t the best tools for the job. They can do on a pinch, but there are far better options. Check out Telegraham on Instagram. He’s got lots of great info on power backup solutions.

 

[areefer01]

As dangles noted above a UPS/APC type battery typically found for home compute devices is not an optimal solution for life support for our reefs. It won't last long at all.

Thread below here talks a bit about it. Generator is always a great option. When you are home or have someone available to help if not.

A discussion about my new battery backup system

I've replaced the two batteries on my tank which are responsible for keeping the system running during power outages. The batteries are (2) Duralast deep cycle marine batteries, each rated at 65 amp hours. I have them connected in parallel for a total of 130 amp hours and have cross connected...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Dom]

As dangles noted above a UPS/APC type battery typically found for home compute devices is not an optimal solution for life support for our reefs. It won't last long at all.

Hard to say how much time you would get out of a backup without knowing the size of the backup battery and the wattage of the devices supported.

 

[Rjukan]

I got a new UPS that can offer 8 hours of battery life, so I'm planning on what items to plug into the 'Battery' side of things. My thought is the following:

- Heater
- Wavemaker or Return Pump - one or the other(don't know which would be better)
- Auto-top off

Is it okay to not have the light fixture on the battery side? I'm assuming the corals can go by without light for days without - is this correct? I think someone told me that a week without lights for soft and LPS corals is fine, but how true is that?

Thanks all!

To me the return pump is the most important since it will move water in both your sump and display, and the cascading action of the water through the pipes helps a lot with oxygenation. Next is wave makers. Imo heaters aren't worth it since it will drain the UPS very quickly, and you're still getting a little heat in the system from the pumps.