bATTERY BACK UP HELP

[NYfan78]

Hi all and hope all is well! Seem like this year I have lost electric alot so far and pretty sick of it lol. I would like to get a battery back up for my tank so I don't have to worry no more. I have a Red Sea Max 130 (34 gallon). What all would you recommend? Thaks in advance!

 

Scott

 

 

[Coral Hind]

What all are you wanting to run? The whole system or just a simple powerhead for circulation? You need to add up the wattage to find the right UPS unit.

[NYfan78]

Yeah i was hoping to run the 2 return pumps, heater, skimmer, and lights (entire system). Is that too much to run off a ups? If so what should I be running on the back up system then?

Edited August 13, 2012 by NYfan78

[OldReefer]

That is a lot to run off an UPS. A good starting point is to run your powerheads first and then figure out the rest later. Your tank will go for 10 to 12 hours easily if you have good circulation.

If you have a Vortech or a Tunze I can hook you up with a simple and cheap fix.

Edited August 13, 2012 by OldReefer

[NYfan78]

OLDREEFER--I onlt have the stock return pumps(x2) in teh tank. So if only ran the return pumps, what size ups you think then?

[OldReefer]

You still need to figure out the wattage if this return pumps from the factory specs. They are probably not that big so you might be able to run a few hours on an affordable size backup. Coral Hind can help you if you get those numbers. He oes this sort of thing for a living.

[Jon Lazar]

There are two return pumps, at 9W each.

[Origami]

Scott, you need to match the load to the performance of a particular UPS to get the expected run time. For example, Best Buy sells an APC unit, the BR700G (just one of many available), and the technical spec can be found here:

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR700G

 

Again, this is just for example, not a recommendation.

 

Anyway, there's a graph on the page that shows how long the UPS should be able to run a certain load. In your case, the two pumps eat up 18 W (or close to 20 Watts). The graph shows you should probably be able to get about 90 minutes of backup operation out of that particular unit which costs around $120. You can also look at the runtime charts to get the same information in table form.

 

http://www.apc.com/products/runtime_for_extendedruntime.cfm?upsfamily=27

 

In any case, that's what you have to do to get an idea of how long a particular UPS should run a piece of equipment. The more you try to run, the less time you'll have on backup before the backup battery is depleted.