barderer Posted May 15, 2008 Share Posted May 15, 2008 Hey guys, Well last night my house was mowed by the thunder gods as golf ball sized hail ripped through our windows(yeah broke the windows!) and dinged up my car!!! Of course who cares about my sports sedan my freaken bad *** fish tank has no power! Still no power. I ran a 300ft extension cord to a distant neighbor that was spared by GOD. So its ok for now. Only lost one fish. The most expensive one of course (My wonderful dwarf lion fish, my fav and over 1.5 years old). My question is, What sort of systems do you guys have in place to keep just the pumps running in times like this? How long can a standard computer UPS keep a 40watt pump running? Ideas? Can't be loosing $60 fish, and my coral gets exposed to air when the pumps turn off. Thanks, Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted May 15, 2008 Share Posted May 15, 2008 From what I have read in other forums, small gas generators. I was thinking about UPS backup batteries/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bozack Posted May 15, 2008 Share Posted May 15, 2008 yeah, depending on your load you can go the generator route but usually keeping your powerheads at least going will help things alot and you can run those off a computer UPS system. Heck, I have my tanks on UPS systems, my home theather system just so I don't have to reprogram anything or worry about power spikes and even my garage door openers are on back up battery APC and Tripplite love me :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 I am thinking about a small UPS for my Koralias. Even just keeping one going would be enough for a while IMO. At 10-15 watts for 1 pump I bet a small UPS could keep it going for at least a hour. In my case I would just like to keep the pumps from clacking everytime the power blinks on and off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 Long before I has fish tanks I had decided to start buying meat a month's supply at a time. So we have a deep freezer. There was only one solution: find a good Honda Generator (bout the size of a lawnmower) and keep the refrigerators running during storms. the added side effect: I got my *** covered when it comes to my heavy investment reef tank. (Remember the ice storm of what was it: 1996?) We lived in Cedar Park back then, and it took 3 days to get power back on == we lost everything in the frigerator, freezer, and we had no way to cook.. Not even Microwave. And no damned heater too. Forget it.. get yourself a genny. -Kepp er gassed up and run her once in awhile (at least twice a year) to keep her in top shape. The small ones are not that expensive. - even less than a skimmer. If you get a 6500 watt like I got, you can run a lot of crap off of it for 11 hrs on a few gallons of gas. We ran an air conditioner window unit, and the fridge, the deep freezer, the reef tank(s) and had spare power to run some lights at night, and a TV too. Better than sittin in the cold and dark smellin your food rot and watchin your corals and fish die. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barderer Posted May 16, 2008 Author Share Posted May 16, 2008 agreed generator is the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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