Universal Power Supplies

[Derek]

While sitting at home watching my tank today, the power flickered a few times. The flickering scares the crap out of my fish (I have to get one of my wrasses out of the overflow). When the power was flickering I was thinking about universal power supplies and how long one could keep the pump going on the tank.

Do any of you use a universal power supply on your tank? If so, what kind and how long does it keep the pump running when the power is off?

[OgreMkV]

We have an older APC 500 UPS (I have an APC 750 for the computers). I run the Aquaclear 70 HOB filter, the heater, and the koralia 1 Powerhead. The other powerhead and lights are not on the powersupply. The lights here went out about a month ago and the power was out for about 3 hours. Everything was still running.

You can figure out how much you need here: http://bugclub.org/beginners/miscellaneous/upscalc.html

Koralias are nice because they don't use a lot of power and since you can't put any equipment on them (like sponge filters), there's no extra power draw on them.

I hope that helps.

[jestep]

I use an APC Smart UPS 3000 on my Discus tank. I can keep 2 large Eheims running for 6 - 8 hours, and small powerheads virtually indefinitely. We use these for company servers as well. The refurbs are a few hundred $, compared to $1500 - $3000 for new ones. A little ugly but they work really well.

I picked mine up from a refurb IT company up in Leander.

[Derek]

Ah cool. Thanks everyone. I will keep it in mind.