UPS battery backup question

[BC564]

Really a UPS is a pretty cheap piece of equipment to buy. The surge protection itself is worth a lot as you know we have a lot of money invested in our equipment. The only reason I bought a 1500VA UPS was to run my basement sump in the event of a power failure during a heavy rain so not to flood my house. It worked but now its winter and put it on my display tank for the same reasons we are discussing. Check on ebay for one. I got mine on there for $98 US. Even if you only want to run one powerhead for water movement, you can still surge protect other equipment.

[Coasting]

Originally Posted by hillegom

I think one of the best things you can do in the case of a power outage is to create water movement, which is what u wanted to do with that 5W pump.
You might want to think about running a battery powered air pump.
Mine is plugged into 120V, the wall outlet. When the power goes out, the air pump starts automatically. D batteries run it for at least 24 hrs.
The air line goes under a rock.
Under $15

I have 4 or 5 battery powered air pumps actually, but none of them plug in.
Where do you find one that plugs in and runs off battery? That might work for my goldfish actually.... I cant STAND the constant splatter of salt water on everything that you get with an air pump in a salt tank so I don't think I'd be able to run an air pump all the time in there. Would drive me nuts. I even have foam at the water line for my drain lines in the sump so I don't get any down there either haha.

Originally Posted by BC564

Really a UPS is a pretty cheap piece of equipment to buy. The surge protection itself is worth a lot as you know we have a lot of money invested in our equipment. The only reason I bought a 1500VA UPS was to run my basement sump in the event of a power failure during a heavy rain so not to flood my house. It worked but now its winter and put it on my display tank for the same reasons we are discussing. Check on ebay for one. I got mine on there for $98 US. Even if you only want to run one powerhead for water movement, you can still surge protect other equipment.

I admit I wouldn't be upset if I had to replace some of my equipment due to surge loss, what I have honestly isn't that expensive LOL. Perhaps just my lights and skimmer are worth protecting....
Definitely an idea.
We still need to upgrade the house to whatever the modern standard is LOL
I've got so much crap plugged into a single outlet on that wall, I think I need to run a powercord from another outlet that's on a different circuit to disperse some of the load.

Either way I still have to settle on a UPS I like that suits my needs. CAD sucks right now, I don't think the price difference is worth it, but I can check. I do plan to head down to the states In January sometime once or twice for some light shopping.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Coasting

I have 4 or 5 battery powered air pumps actually, but none of them plug in.
Where do you find one that plugs in and runs off battery?

Search the net for Penn Plax Silent Air B11. It is a low cost Auto On Battery Powered Air Pump.

J&L have this version in stock, looks like an exact knock off:
http://www.jlaquatics.com/dry-goods/...-air-pump.html

I have 2 B11's on my 77 gallon sump-less tank, no UPS or any other sort of battery powered back up. One of these days I'll get around to building a battery backup for my VorTechs. Having never experience an outage here that lasts more than a few hours, I've become complacent in that regard.

Anyhow, with the penn-plax or aqua top, hook the flexible air tubing to a rigid line that will expel the air near the bottom of the tank when the pump senses an outage & switches on. The rigid air line is secured with a magnetic clip so it doesn't wander to the surface when air is on. Don't use an air stone. This set up creates larger bubbles that travel from the bottom adding O2 & creating at least a little bit water movement in the process.

There's actually another little gizmo you can build using rigid air tube & some pvc specifically designed to move water using an air pump. Don't recall the terminology at the moment, but it's essentially a pvc elbow at the top of a short piece of straight pvc tube. The straight tube is cut at an angle at the bottom & a hole to accommodate a length small diameter rigid air tube is drilled into the top of the elbow. The air tube is pushed through the hole in the elbow to just above where the angle cut starts on the straight piece. The assembly is attached to the side of the tank with the opening of the elbow half in & half out of the water. When air is pumped through the air line, it creates upward turbulence in the pvc tube which is transformed into water movement at the elbow opening. Would probably be the bees knees for your gold fish or any small tank, breeding tank etc. Just enough water movement, no splashing etc. I have some photos of this rig & built a couple, but have no small tanks atm so they're just lying around gathering dust. I'll post up a photo when I find it.

[mike31154]

Found the gizmo photo. It's called an air lift. I saw a post on a forum some years ago where a chap used a bunch of these to create a circular flow in a small tank.



I chose not to use these on my B11 backups since they are bulky & my sump less display already has enough gear distracting the view of what's important in there, so just use the small rigid tube. You could buy a hockey sock full of the battery air pumps for the price of a UPS & probably be fine with them during an outage until you got home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airlift_pump

[Coasting]

Oh that's pretty cool. I didn't know ones with cords that only turned on when the power went out even existed. I know what I'll be buying!

I'm having trouble picturing how that pvc tube works.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Coasting

Oh that's pretty cool. I didn't know ones with cords that only turned on when the power went out even existed. I know what I'll be buying!

I'm having trouble picturing how that pvc tube works.

Yes, the electrical cord that plugs in goes to a small relay inside the pump. As long as the cord is plugged into the wall, the set of contacts that completes the circuit to run the pump from the D cell batteries are held open. Once the outlet the cord is plugged into loses power, the contacts close, completing the battery circuit et voila, the pump runs on the batteries. Similar concept to what happens in a UPS, but much simpler.

As for the air lift, the wiki I linked to doesn't explain the principle well enough?? The only difference in the article graphic Figure 1 is that they have the air supply line feeding through the vertical tube at the bottom through a bulkhead. My gizmo photo has the air supply tube fed through a hole in the top of the elbow. Works the same way. Of course the wiki article also goes on to show the modified/improved geyser version. The advantage to the version in my photo is the air tube can be adjusted up or down inside the pvc tube to fine tune the air lift effect. The version shown in wiki with the tube entering the bottom in a fixed position does not allow for that.

EDIT: One more thing to note, although I did explain in my original post about airlifts, is that in our case, the opening of the elbow at the top of the assembly will be half submerged. In the wiki figure they show the elbow above the water surface. Their application has the water being pumped/lifted out of the tank. In our case, with the elbow half submerged, the water is discharged back into the tank at the surface, creating a moderate flow.

[mike31154]

Here's a link to one of the better vids I can find on the workings of an airlift. A bit lengthy, but should leave few questions unanswered. These things clearly have a lot of applications. Most of us likely have the parts needed kicking around the house already, so not a lot of effort to slap one together & see how it works.

https://youtu.be/_j0tmCc5Z3Y

In essence, the construction is similar to an air stone skimmer. Micro bubbles in the skimmer pick up organics & transport them to the surface, the air lift uses larger bubbles to bring water to the surface more effectively. The elbow at the top either discharges the water back into the container, or out, depending on the application. I wonder if a venturi part way up the riser pipe would improve lift efficiency.... a patent in the making??

Here's my skimmer, shows the rigid airline inside the skimmer body, same idea for my version of the airlift: