Summer Season-Back Up System

[Zoous]

Alot of people here have invested alot of money into this hobby. With summer coming I'm just curious to know if anybody has invested in any back up system just in case we have another blackout like a few years ago.

If you weren't prepare what steps would you take to minimizes any major damage to your precious fishes and corals?

Anybody have a step by step contingency plan? I think it would be very helpful to alot of people here just in case of an emergency.

THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT ARE UNCONTROLLABLE AND UNEXPECTED!!!

 

[DevIouS]

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7530&highlight=blackout

 

[pecan2phat]

I invested in a battery start 4000 watt gasoline generator last summer and had cali_reef help me wire up a female outlet on the side of my house so that I can just wheel out the generator from the garage, shut down my main breaker and all secondary breakers on the panel, plug in the cable from the generator to the outlet and start up the generator and go back to the breaker box to turn on the breakers that control my tanks, fridge & some house lights.
I work 5 minutes from the house so if there is an area outage, I can easily get back to turn on the backup system.

But after cali_reef lost a bunch of fish in his 150g reef tank a few months ago due to losing power for about 6 hours in the middle of the night without knowing, I'm going to utilize my Tunze Streams as efficiently as possible. I use two 6000 (15w each) on my 102g reef and recently added a single 6000 into my 90g fowlr just for circulation. I have another 6000 not being used and will most likely add this to my remaining 120g reef (don't need the circulation, using a closed loop) just so that I can have the 15w powerhead in the tank for the purpose of adding a medium sized UPS and have the four Streams plugged in. At 15w a piece and it'll probably draw less in night mode (30% power), I should be safe for a few hours until I ramp up the generator.

The Tunzes have proven to be useful in more than one way!

 

[Zoous]

Thanks DaRealDvs1...didn't know house ask the same question.

Good stuff pecan2phat...looks like your fully prepared for a blackout.

 

[House of Laughter]

I just bought a UPS that will power a PC and a 15" LCD for 60 minutes and hooked it up to my 15w Tunze. I tested it by throwing the breaker and the tunze stays on. Not 100% sure how long it will last me, but am hoping for an hour or two until I can get home to hook up the 15 amp generator I bought last year. for sure, 15 amps can power a light, the fridge and my tunze and another power head or two. Generator is good for 6 hours running with one tank of gas.

Better safe than sorry.

House

 

[pecan2phat]

When I tested the generator last summer, I had all the pumps going on all 5 tanks, the fridge, a small 6000 btu room air conditioner and some house lights with no problem.

 

[noodleman]

All that technical information on UPS's are confusing:smash: , so which one of these UPS would be suggested to run a powerhead or two for a couple of hours?

 

[Pseudo]

Any of the UPS over 300w will power a powerhead for up 12 hours depending on size of the powerhead. The more wattage you draw the less hours you will get out of it. A Tunze stream 6000 on a 500w unit will last for more than 16 hours on one charge.

I went with the APC Smart-UPS SUA1500RM2U unit (I might buy a second unit for my other stuff). It will power a 250w light and my Vortechs (when I get them) for at least 3 hours since I only work 20 minutes away from home. This will last until I turn on the generator (Honda Eu2000i 2000w unit) that will run for 8 hours at full load and power everything on one tank of gasoline.

I am lucky that I have a terrace so that I can use a gas powered generator if I need to and have no noise in the house.

Kasei

 

[noodleman]

So its just the number of watts of the UPS devided by the wattage of the powerhead basically to calculate the hours it can run? :scratchch

 

[Dace]

OK Question. not to hype up the Vortech pumps, my understanding is that in a power failure the will run up to 24 hr

Battery Backup Acessory

An IceCap, Inc. battery backup powers the EcoTech Marine VorTech Propeller Pump for up to 24-hours during a power outage emergency. is this included with the purchase of the pump. if so would we need the ups

 

[Pseudo]

The Battery Backup for the Vortech isn't out yet. So until it is I will keep the UPS on the tank. There should be a table that tells you how long the UPS will work for how many watts you are using on the APC site.

The Vortech's are a good choice if you are looking for an alternative to low power consumption, large volume of water movement without directional limitations and soon to be controllability. I understand that Tunze is the leader in the technology but... For the expense they should be less intrusive in the tank (We want to see corals not equipment) and have the ability for future upgrades as technology advances.

The Vortech's will have a battery back-up, no heat transfer, low power consumption, future wireless controller, Controls up to 10 seperate Vortech's from one controller and has a smaller footprint than any powerhead in the same GPH league (almost as small as a Maxi 1200). You also have to look at who is backing this product, Icecap... The leader in technology advancements in the Aquarium lighting industry and the best tech support and warranty around.

You just cant beat any of the Pro's of the product. The Con's are obvious. The product is just out of pre-production, not readily available and accessories are far from being available. For the price you can still get the Tunze Streams and all of the controllablilty NOW.. These will be sticking points for alot of people and die hard fans of the Tunze brand.

I am ordering 2 of them. I want to be on the cutting edge of the hobby and I like all of the features that come with it. The presentation at the swap blew me and others away considering that it was placed side by side with the Stream. The stream was a toy. And until the optional controller comes out I will use my old wavemaker as my controller.

HTH,

Kasei

 

[epares]

Just Found this little item

Hello All, I just finished reading the thread about backup power and after a little searching I found this pump that seems to solve at least for a little while the aeration problem during a blackout.. Anyone use this before??

 

[epares]

Here is the Link

http://www.aquariumguys.com/silentairpump.html

 

[wxl14]

You maybe able to hook up the UPS and hook two of them up in parallel that will double the time that it will last.

 

[epares]

Ahh, good idea, one of the pumps would have to be plugged into AC power without the ups, it would kick on first, then another pump plugged into the ups that would kick on after the ups runs out of batteries,,, that would in essence double the life of the pumps,, an inexpensive solution to a high finance problem!!