ups systems
 

what do you guys run for ups systems any recommended brands. any to stay away from

What is a ups system? Edit.I just googled and I still can't help you.

Uninterrupted Power Supply,
Canadian Tire brand has been mentioned often. Staples has some. Thats where mine come from.

How long do powerheads run on these?

It all depends on how many powerheads what size they are and how big of a UPS you buy.

I've been using an APC ups for a couple years. Works great I have a couple powerheads and a heater running off it and I'll get about 6hrs of run of it. It really depends on what size the battery is and how much power the things plugged into it draw.

like this just older lol:
http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ.../10148528.aspx

draw will be 1 return pump air pump ( i run glass tops ) and a heater

I have seen some at Memory Express as well. But you will need to do your research on size to price ratio.

This has been discussed at length in the past but briefly, you need to decide what you're trying to protect your tank from. Then, you need to know what minimum systems you can get away with. Then you need to know how much power those systems take. Then you need to decide how long you might want to run those systems. Then you need to size a UPS to match.

Here in Calgary, it is VERY rare for a power outage to last more than about 30 minutes. Most tanks can survive with nothing running for that length of time.

In the event of a serious outage (say, a day or more), then you're not interested in having something kick-in immediately and run for an hour or 2 and then die; you want something you can run for maybe 30 minutes every 2 hours (i.e. not a UPS)

Of course, if you're around, then a generator is an obvious solution, but what if you're not at home ?

If you have a really big investment in a large system then what you really want is:

a) a UPS
b)a monitoring system (connected to the UPS) to alert you to a power failure
c) a generator.

Then you've got the bases covered. Probably.:mrgreen: