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[Coleus]

I am looking for a power backup solutions for my tank in case of no power.

What is a good battery and minimum power to back up that can run 4 power head (12W each), a return pump (70W)and 2 heaters (1000w and 250w) for 10 hours? Is it even possible or i need a generator?

I probably will buy the generator but looking for a battery in case i am out of town for half a day.

Thanks
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[tlo]

I have norma 1800, it will run 2 powerheads for 8-10 hours. I think if you want to run a return pump and heaters, you will need a generator.

[mr.wilson]

Canadian Tire puts the Noma units on sale periodically. Some of them can be used with a daisy chain of deep charge marine batteries. Car batteries are not suitable because they are shallow charge designed for multiple short runs (starting vehicles).

If you have a huge tank, wallet and other requirements for power for the rest of your family, then a natural gas generator is the best option. They start at around $4000.00.

The easy option is a DC air pump with a power outage sensor. Air lifts can be hidden in your reef and be on standby. Air lifts are more efficient than powerheads. The only reason we don't use them all the time is noise, salt creep, and aesthetics. None of these are issues when the power goes out. Air driven protein skimmers that drop right into the tank are also a good idea if you live in a remote area where power outages are potentially more frequent and longer in duration.

[Coleus]

I live in city and don't experience much power outages. If it happens, only last for couple hours or so. So any Battery back up will work for 4x power head and 3500W gas generator is good enough?
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[viperfish]

I was checking out the NOMA at Canadian Tire on the weekend. I am in the same position and I am thinking a generator would probably be the most bang for the buck. Any recommendations on a nice compact and powerful generator?

[russp]

last winter we had a 8 hour power outage , I went to Napa & bought a 1000watt gas generator for $179.00 . It worked great running 2 koralia 4 pumps , heater , lights , skimmer. 1 tank of gas lasted about 4-5 hrs.

[fkshiu]

I was checking out the NOMA at Canadian Tire on the weekend. I am in the same position and I am thinking a generator would probably be the most bang for the buck. Any recommendations on a nice compact and powerful generator?

Honda. But I doubt you'd want to put in that much $ for a back up generator unless you plan on using it all the time. CanTi and Costco sell a bargain brand call Champion which is affordable.

Don't forget to run the generator OUTDOORS. It's something a lot of people forget about when they're in a panic setting one up.

The other consideration is "what happens if the power goes out and you're not home"? A generator is useless in this scenario unless you have it hooked up to your household power with an auto-start. Using one of those Noma units purely as a life support system (i.e. just your return pump - which will last for hours and hours) is probably the best, most economical bang for your buck.

[Coleus]

is Champion a good brand when needed? Won't use much only when powertage is out.

Noma unit is $400 at CT and Champion generator is 400 at Costco

Don';t have budget to get both right now. Hmmm
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[fkshiu]

Don't know much about Champion but I have heard of at least one person who bought one from CanTire and it didn't work. Then when he tried to return it they told him he couldn't because he already put gas in it! It took a lot of complaining before they allowed him to exchange it I think.

Anyway, it'll probably work fine. But like all bargain equipment the chances of it not working fine or not being very reliable are worse than with other, more established brands.

One more thing - cheap generators are very loud. Since you have to run them outdoors, be wary of local noise ordinances especially at night. Some dude in the neighbourhood a while ago decided to do some renovating late at night with various power tools. Somebody actually called the cops (not me) who came and told him to STFU. Needless to say that was the end of his reno work that night.

[mr.wilson]

The nice thing about an air pump backup system is it will cost you less than $20 and it comes on automatically when the power goes out. The air lift is more effective than a powerhead because it moves just as much water but does so from the bottom to the top rather than the less efficient side-side pattern of a powerhead. You can hide a few air lines within your rock work. When the power goes off, the ac plug switches the battery operated air pump on. You will get many hours out of the battery. The B10 model is just an air pump, while the B11 model has the auto-activation when the power goes out.
http://www.mops.ca/pdf/2007cat_p01.pdf

[fkshiu]

The nice thing about an air pump backup system is it will cost you less than $20 and it comes on automatically when the power goes out. The air lift is more effective than a powerhead because it moves just as much water but does so from the bottom to the top rather than the less efficient side-side pattern of a powerhead. You can hide a few air lines within your rock work. When the power goes off, the ac plug switches the battery operated air pump on. You will get many hours out of the battery. The B10 model is just an air pump, while the B11 model has the auto-activation when the power goes out.
http://www.mops.ca/pdf/2007cat_p01.pdf

Has anybody tested how long these puppies last before the batteries die?

[mr.wilson]

Has anybody tested how long these puppies last before the batteries die?

Someone told me once but I forgot. It was well over 12 hours though. This model may last longer than the B11. http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18280/si3811879/cl0/pennplaxbatterybackupairpump

This one claims about 72 hours of battery life (two x D). http://www.seaquestmarine.com/Life_Air_50_Battery_Air_Pump_p/won_la50.htm

[Snaz]

Has anybody tested how long these puppies last before the batteries die?

I have one of the double-D cell air pumps running my ATO and I am using the original batteries since I installed it early last summer. Typically it runs for 2 minutes every hour and certainly more on hot days. I think the 72 hour run time is probably accurate with a new set of duracell. Damn things are loud as hell though as they are piston driven and not diaphragm. :)

[mike31154]

Ha, ha, yeah, I have the "SilentAir" B-11. It's anything but silent, however, that can be a good thing, alerts you right away when the circuit trips.

[mr.wilson]

Ha, ha, yeah, I have the "SilentAir" B-11. It's anything but silent, however, that can be a good thing, alerts you right away when the circuit trips.

Yeah, it may not have an iphone ap, but it lets you know you have a problem :)

[Coleus]

Ok ordered the Slient Air B-11

Going to buy the Champion Power Generator 3000W at costco for 275 (on sale $75 off this week). I think it should be a great back up with Costco 100% satisfaction guarantee
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[mr.wilson]

Ok ordered the Slient Air B-11

Going to buy the Champion Power Generator 3000W at costco for 275 (on sale $75 off this week). I think it should be a great back up with Costco 100% satisfaction guarantee

That combination will give you more bang for the buck. Personally, I find gas generators to be overkill and impractical (noise, space, and maintenance) but at least you are covered for a longer period of time and it's there for other family emergencies and projects. You can run the air pump for the first few hours then set up the generator if it looks like a long haul. Tell your neighbours about the sale so they don't come around with an extension cord when the power goes out :)

[Coleus]

Thank you for all usefull advices btw
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[StirCrazy]

the only way you are going to be able to power all that for an extended time is to buy a bunch of bateries and build your own back up. to run everything you listed for 1 hour you are going to need 114amps of 12V power. if you buy a good deepcell battery say 245AH then you will get a little over 2 hours out of it, so 6 of them will give you 12 hours of running. if you only use your 250 watt heater you would only need 368ah to run for 12 hours so you could get by with 2 batteries.

so you would also need a good trickel charger about 30 bucks, a 700 watt inverter about 50 bucks and some sort of change over.

a more simple way to do it would be to get a 45amp converter from a RV and set it up to charge the batteries and run thoes thing of an inverter all the time, this way when power goes out nothing changes. would probably cost about 600.00 to buy the stuff, using real good quality batteries.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

just to add, you can go to batteryworld in Cowtown and get Trojan T-125's, check with a rv place for a used 45 amp converter, or new depending on the price, and then get a good pure sine wave 500watt inverter. with out your big heater your only drawing a little over 300 watts.

Steve

[mr.wilson]

I used to volunteer to water the hanging baskets in my town (they told me there were 48 of them, stretched out over 2 miles after I had done so). I used a reservoir in the back of my pickup and a Rio pump that put out about 1200 GPH. I ran it with a cheap Noma 400W power converter from Canadian Tire ($100). I used it for two hours non-stop and it lasted about 5 days, for a total of about 10 hours.

Modern powerheads and air pumps will last a long time. You could heat the area with a well vented/filtered propane heater if you wanted to save the gas or battery power.

[freddy]

Bought a noma 400 from canadian tire.Power was out for 6 hours,it ran my 500 aquaclear,skimmer,heater and one powerhead,no problems,one thing I like about battery backup is that when the power goes out,it dosen't skip a beat everything keeps running as of the power never went out,well worth the money.

[mr.wilson]

Bought a noma 400 from canadian tire.Power was out for 6 hours,it ran my 500 aquaclear,skimmer,heater and one powerhead,no problems,one thing I like about battery backup is that when the power goes out,it dosen't skip a beat everything keeps running as of the power never went out,well worth the money.

Yeah, UPS (uninterrupted power source) systems have that definite advantage. You can always daisy chain more deep charge batteries to it for extended outages. Once you get into days, rather than hours you have bigger problems than your tank crashing :)

[mark]

here's a nice UPS (http://www.gcsurplus.ca/mn-eng.cfm?snc=wfsav&sc=enc-bid&scn=37514&lcn=180385&lct=L&srchtype=&so=ASC&sf=ferm-clos&lci=&str=1&ltnf=1&test=1), might be a little big but can probably pick up cheap. Well maintained (can trust me on this)

[Chipie]

We lost power last winter for over 16 hours. Boy was i happy to have a generator. It may sound like a lot of $ for something you might not need but if you do. You'll be happy you bought one. I would have lost much more than the few hundred bucks the generator cost me.