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Coleus · #1 10-20-2009, 05:54 PM

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 · #2 10-20-2009, 06:02 PM

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 · #3 10-20-2009, 06:37 PM

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 · #4 10-20-2009, 06:53 PM

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 · #5 10-21-2009, 04:10 AM

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 · #6 10-21-2009, 04:20 AM

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 · #7 10-21-2009, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by medhatreefguy

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.

StirCrazy · #8 10-27-2009, 06:14 PM

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 · #9 10-27-2009, 06:30 PM

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 · #10 10-27-2009, 07:09 PM

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.