Mando77 April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 I was looking to get a battery backup this afternoon for aquarium/apex and wondered if anyone preferred a certain brand or type. This was the one I was looking at (CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series GreenPower UPS CP1500AVRLCD). It's on sale at Microcenter $140. They also have a smaller version that is $80, but not sure of how much power is actually needed. Any help would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 I have an AQ3, not an Apex, and I ended up having to buy two UPSs in order to make the email notification work in the event of a power failure. One UPS for the AQ3, and another for the wireless router. I went with less expensive UPSes becuase I don't plan on running anything else off them. They were about $50 each at Staples. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimboy123 April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 I've worked in the Mission Critical industry an APC by Schneider Electric is about the best you can get in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay April 19, 2011 Share April 19, 2011 I have gone through a few of the geek squad ones. I like them because they have a nice display which shows you how charged the batteries are, how much runtine you have with the existing load, and other things. I recall buying them on sale and getting a good deal. They seem to die after 2-3 years. I am not sure if this is a normal lifespan or not. At least I know they are dead because I can use the display to see the batteries are no longer fully charging. I have had previous problems where I thought a UPS was good but it was dead. I would recommend whatever UPS you buy to make sure you can determine how charged its batteries are in a way that is simple enough that you will actually do it periodically. Don't take this as a recommendation to buy geek squad UPSs, just my experience. In the end, I got annoyed that I had to buy a new one (or at least a new battery) every couple years, and just stopped using one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimboy123 April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 FYI, the average life of a VRLA UPS battery (which most of these are) is usually 3-5 years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 How do you get around the chicken and egg scenario of the controller being able to send an email when power is lost, but yet it has not lost power itself since it is powered by the UPS? I wouldn't bother investing in an UPS to run the tank itself. Buy a good generator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimboy123 April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 A generator is only good if you have it hard wired into your tank with an ATS (automatic transfer switch). A UPS with battery back with the controller downstream can still send messages in case of emergency as long as the internet or wireless connection is still available. Obviously you wouldn't put your lights, protein skimmer, etc on the feed but your secondary, smaller pump to have some circulation could be of use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 How do you get around the chicken and egg scenario of the controller being able to send an email when power is lost, but yet it has not lost power itself since it is powered by the UPS? The Aquacontroller has two power inputs: one for normal use, and one for battery backup. I bought a second "wall wart" adapter and plugged it into the UPS. When the regular power is lost the Aquacontroller automatically switches over to the second power input from the UPS, and sends the email to your router. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 A generator is only good if you have it hard wired into your tank with an ATS (automatic transfer switch). A UPS with battery back with the controller downstream can still send messages in case of emergency as long as the internet or wireless connection is still available. Obviously you wouldn't put your lights, protein skimmer, etc on the feed but your secondary, smaller pump to have some circulation could be of use. My 1100VA UPS didn't last very long when we had a 23 hour power outage. I wish I'd already bought my generator. An ATS is another nice to have in case the power fails when you're away, but it's an order of magnitude greater cost than the generator I fire up myself. The Aquacontroller has two power inputs: one for normal use, and one for battery backup. I bought a second "wall wart" adapter and plugged it into the UPS. When the regular power is lost the Aquacontroller automatically switches over to the second power input from the UPS, and sends the email to your router. Clever! I didn't know that's was what it was for. Maybe I'll move my UPS back down near the tank after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 The only other thing I have plugged into the UPS is an X10 alarm module. So if the house circuit breaker trips and cuts power to the tank, the alarm goes off and someone will hear it. Our tank isn't on the main floor so a power loss could go unnoticed for a while, and I don't carry my Blackberry around the house with me to receive email alarms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS April 20, 2011 Share April 20, 2011 Clever! I didn't know that's was what it was for. Maybe I'll move my UPS back down near the tank after all. A 9V battery and appropriate plug will also do the same thing. Just need it to stay on long enough to send out the alert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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