Won't last in a hurricane, but it may buy you some time.

[Ken]

About power loss to a tank... I live in Southern California, so along with
earthquakes and fires we also now have to deal with brown outs, black outs,
and power surges. The solution I found for my computers, and the one that I
will be going to for my more expensive electronics like my stereo and fish
tank, is to use Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units. They normally
start out around a couple hundred dollars for a small unit that will get you
a half an hour, but if you do like I do and buy them at your local computer
show, you can get them for around $50.



Ken

[Rich R]

get a real small generator is your best bet,,,they power as long as you keep
them running , much better than a half hour of watching your fish slowly
die!
www.reeftanksonline.com


"Ken" > wrote in message
...
> About power loss to a tank... I live in Southern California, so along
> with
> earthquakes and fires we also now have to deal with brown outs, black
> outs,
> and power surges. The solution I found for my computers, and the one that
> I
> will be going to for my more expensive electronics like my stereo and fish
> tank, is to use Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units. They normally
> start out around a couple hundred dollars for a small unit that will get
> you
> a half an hour, but if you do like I do and buy them at your local
> computer
> show, you can get them for around $50.
>
>
>
> Ken
>
>
>

[DD]

I use a UPS unit with one of the auxilliary pumps for the reef tank. This
way if the power goes out, at least the water will circulate for a few
hours.



"Rich R" > wrote in message
...
> get a real small generator is your best bet,,,they power as long as you
> keep them running , much better than a half hour of watching your fish
> slowly die!
> www.reeftanksonline.com
>
>
> "Ken" > wrote in message
> ...
>> About power loss to a tank... I live in Southern California, so along
>> with
>> earthquakes and fires we also now have to deal with brown outs, black
>> outs,
>> and power surges. The solution I found for my computers, and the one that
>> I
>> will be going to for my more expensive electronics like my stereo and
>> fish
>> tank, is to use Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units. They normally
>> start out around a couple hundred dollars for a small unit that will get
>> you
>> a half an hour, but if you do like I do and buy them at your local
>> computer
>> show, you can get them for around $50.
>>
>>
>>
>> Ken
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

[Henry Etteldorf]

>> show, you can get them for around $50.

A UPS has a limited time it will run (especially a $50 one). That limits
its usefulness.

For long power outages, you will run out of juice and your tank will start
experiencing problems.

For short outages, it won't make any real differences.

For medium length outages it will. But these I believe are the least
likely. By this I mean your more likely to have a 0-5 minute outage (not
problem to tank) or many hours to days (your UPS goes dead long before it is
over). You should be able to request from your power company (or find on
their web site) the duration's of there outages to verify this.

A generator will be able to last as long as you have gas.
If you don't want to buy a generator, but use the UPS you setup, I would
recommend you plug in as little as possible. A heater and small pump, most
likely.

[kryppy]

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 08:31:00 -0500, "Rich R" >
wrote:

>Yea that works I guess as long as its not to long, I rather not worry about
>it and have a generator
>www.reeftanksonline.com


I have both. :)

I also have a 1500 watt inverter with a slew of large truck batteries.

[PaulB]

From what I have heard, a computer UPS lasts a surprisingly short period of
time. Much less that you would expect if you calculate the number of watts
of load vs. the battery capacity. As in 20 minutes or so for a small
powerhead.

I think the inverter is not efficient at supplying small amounts of power.




"Henry Etteldorf" > wrote in message
m...
>
>>> show, you can get them for around $50.
>
> A UPS has a limited time it will run (especially a $50 one). That limits
> its usefulness.
>
> For long power outages, you will run out of juice and your tank will start
> experiencing problems.
>
> For short outages, it won't make any real differences.
>
> For medium length outages it will. But these I believe are the least
> likely. By this I mean your more likely to have a 0-5 minute outage (not
> problem to tank) or many hours to days (your UPS goes dead long before it
> is over). You should be able to request from your power company (or find
> on their web site) the duration's of there outages to verify this.
>
> A generator will be able to last as long as you have gas.
> If you don't want to buy a generator, but use the UPS you setup, I would
> recommend you plug in as little as possible. A heater and small pump,
> most likely.
>
>

[DD]

Here in Southern California we typically have power outages about once or
twice a year, typically from a few minutes to a few hours. It usually does
not go beyond a half a day. In this case having a UPS with an auxilliary
pump has worked quite well to fill in for this intermediate outage
timeframe.



"Henry Etteldorf" > wrote in message
m...
>
>>> show, you can get them for around $50.
>
> A UPS has a limited time it will run (especially a $50 one). That limits
> its usefulness.
>
> For long power outages, you will run out of juice and your tank will start
> experiencing problems.
>
> For short outages, it won't make any real differences.
>
> For medium length outages it will. But these I believe are the least
> likely. By this I mean your more likely to have a 0-5 minute outage (not
> problem to tank) or many hours to days (your UPS goes dead long before it
> is over). You should be able to request from your power company (or find
> on their web site) the duration's of there outages to verify this.
>
> A generator will be able to last as long as you have gas.
> If you don't want to buy a generator, but use the UPS you setup, I would
> recommend you plug in as little as possible. A heater and small pump,
> most likely.
>
>