I'm wondering how many of you are using a battery back up system on your reef tanks. I've lived in FL now for about ten months. I'm experiencing a large number of momentary power failures. There not the type caused by hurricanes. Those last for days, weeks. These are one second or less breaks in the power that cause computers to shut down, lose unsaved material and cycle back on again.

At the same time, the aquarium power does a blip and the lights, pump, UV and chiller go out for one second and then back on. This has happened during blue bird days but, especially during storms like Saturday. I held a local club meeting and while we were admiring the tank we had a storm rolling through and in less than ten minutes, BLIP - BLIP, two power blips. One of the guys said I needed a power back up and that wouldn't happen. Well, of course my computer was affected, too. So, I went out and bought on for the computer and happy I did because yesterday we had one of those afternoon short storms that FL is famous for and BLIP the power was off and on again. The tank did it's thing, off and on again but, the computer never even knew the storm existed. One reason for having a battery back up is MH lights are not supposed to fire back up without a cooloing down period of about ten minutes. If I'm home this is not an issue but, when I'm gone it is. The unit I bought for the computer was well worth the $200 bucks.


Finally to my questions. How many of you use a battery back up system? What brand? How has it performed?

I dont use a backup yet, but here in athens,ohio the power goes out all the time. well when i was the sys admin for a wireless internet company we ran a few tests on our towers. expensive test. but anyways we set up two towers one with just a backup and one with a backup plus a isulation transformer. also the both towers had the excact same equiptment and after a week we started running our tests. the tower with just the backup lasted 34 minutes and the one with the isulation transformer lasted 57 minutes. we ran tests for about two weeks and the tower with the transformer won hands down everytime. im not sure why and both companies dont know why either but from that day on we used transformers and always got a longer battery life. its pretty expensive. the transformer i beleive is $250 and the backups we were using were $150 but i thought i would share that with everyone....

i do have a battery backup, but i don't remember the name or brand, will check when i get home.

but at this point the only thinkg it will be running (not fully hooked up yet) are a few powerheads.
Both my MH ballasts are designed to allow for a "cool down" period before firing again. this way i don't have to worry about that.

Are most MH ballasts designed for cool down? Or most electronic MH at least?

most newer ballast should be..
all of my ballasts are magnetic and they have this cool down period

inow have battery backups on both of my tanks

I was hoping to get some discussion on my questions.

What brands?

How has it performed?

Here's a couple more. Where did you get it?

How do you determine what size to get?

no prob, now that im home, i can get that info

i have a CyberPower 625AVR
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&tag=talkingreefpo-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&location=%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB000CS2USA%2Fref%3Dnosi m%3Fn%3D172282

i havent put it through its paces to get performance info, but i do know it ran a power head (maxijet 1200) for over 30 minutes.. but that was not an intension test.. ;)

I use a Huge Ups from Compaq I bought 3 used from a company that closed down in the area. I use them to power 2 Tunze's in the display if I loose power. I have a extra on if some one is interested.

....I have a extra on if some one is interested.

feel free to post it with details in the selling forum if you want to get rid of it.. ;)

Around here in North Carolina, most people don't have units for their tanks, and almost everyone with a computer does. In fact my family has two. But with the heat wave lately one could have saved me alot of trouble with my 55g freshwater setup. Everytime the power blipped i would have to reestablish the siphon on the filter. At my LFS they wish they had one too.

By the way, this is my first post. I'm new to this place, and don't have a saltwater setup yet. But Im deffanitely counting on getting one as soon as I get the dough. Most people around me count me as the local afficianado. odd isnt it?

I use one ever since my first monsoon season with my 16 gal. nano. TOO much lightning. Anyway, works great, less chance for problems.

I'm looking in getting one. Like Dick I was hoping there would be a discussion of some sorts. I was wondering what everyone was using and if they were happy with it. I am looking for something that will power my sio 1100 when the power goes out. Any suggestions?

sound like i need to run some tests to get some more info here..
i know my UPS will keep things running if i have a "blip" (which we dont really get here)

but i would like to see how long of a "blip" it will handle

be carefull with that blip. we beleive we fried two backups testing them. and from what i understand the blips that it can handle are less then a half of a second. in which case we couldnt manualy duplicate. however we were trying to acomplish a voltage pike. where i live we have them at least once a week. ( a real pain ) thats why we went with the isulation transformers they "cleaned" up the spike enuff where it didnt effect the UPS.

I would like to see what you come up with. make sure you let us know :)

im just palnning on unplugging the thing and seeing ho wlong it will run my pumps.. :)

oh ok. :) feel free to delete my post lol.. :)

oh ok. :) feel free to delete my post lol.. :)
nah,.. we can leave it..

besides it does highlight some important points. these units will protect for both power outages, and power spikes. (spikes usually happen when power is restored after a black/brown out)

The other thing to be aware of is (at least on the APC UPS that I have at work) that a power spike can overload the unit and cause the circuit breaker to trip. Then as soon as the battery is depleted you have no power at all.

I bought two APC UPS units (XS 1500s). One for the computer and one for the MHs. We get a lot of momentary "blips" in our electric power even during bluebird days. I hate when my computer and/or MHs go off and then back on in a second. Anything you haven't saved on the computer is lost and the MHs are supposed to have a cooling off period before restarting. The APC units have worked flawlessly so far. We've experienced several stormy days and electrical outages and the units have restored power immediately. With the computer it doesn't even hiccup. It isn't aware of the power failure. The MHs do go out once in awhile but I learned, as you mentioned above Rob, they have a built in cooling down period.

Rob,

Did you do the test? I'm curious to know how long the UPS would run 1 or 2 powerheads, no heater, nothing else. What type/size powerheads?

Thanks

Hi BradJ,

:welcome: to TR.

Brad welcome to TR

Rob,

Did you do the test? I'm curious to know how long the UPS would run 1 or 2 powerheads, no heater, nothing else. What type/size powerheads?

Thanks
no i have not, but thanks for the reminder i will try and get to it this week or weekend

I am still interested too.

Dick,
As you know we just moved here from Florida. I can tell you the whole state of Fl is in an uproar about good old FPL. They have been giving big - and I mean big - bonus money to the execs instead of upgrading the infrastructure. It has caused tons of problems. The Blip is just one. I had the same Blip problem very often. I used 3 UPS systems on my tank. One was on the lights, one the pumps, and one for the rest of the equipment (filters, heaters, etc.) The UPS solve that problem well. Granted the main purpose was just to even out the power so the blips didn't interrupt operation of the system. If I did have a full blown power outtage they didn't last very long. It would vary on what was plugged in but it was something like 30mins to an hour or so. I think it all depends on the size of the UPS and what's plugged in. I learned quick living in FL about the power system, I had UPSs on TVs, PCs, and all Aquariums.

On a side note my power here in North LIttle Rock has been awesome - it is ran by the city - so they aren't really looking for a profit. They are always out and about, changing old poles, lines, and transformers. At least I don't have to worry about those brown outs anymore!

no i have not, but thanks for the reminder i will try and get to it this week or weekend


:bump:

Here's another point to ponder:

An UPS providing continous power would continue to run if the GFCI trips. How fast will an UPS breaker trip? Is it fast enough to do the job of the GCFI?

I didn't find any answers, but I did also read a couple mentions that some UPS can cause a GFCI to trip when they switch to battery, so when the power came back the GFCI would still be off.