acceptable UPS units?????????????????

[cateyes]

anyone using a UPS for emergency power backup?? i got one for christmas and gave it a test run today....
with a maxi-jet 600 and a heater on it it ran for 30mins. not an acceptable amount of run time...
also the heater kicked on as the UPS was unpluged to simulate a power loss. and didn't go off until the UPS was plugged back in... water was at correct temp before heater kicked in, it just seemed to do it just because wall power was replaced with UPS power...

does anyone have one that runs for an acceptable amount of time????and runs a heater properly????

thanks a lot,,,,,,,,,,,lisa

:) :confused:

[jdieck]

All UPS are relatively small for aquarium use. Other than running a powerhead and an air pump for a couple of hour there is not much you can do so if you tank is really small 30 or less it might worth it.
For the buck a generator is the way to go.

[Seifer]

most power outtages are for less than 10minutes unless your area is hit by a devestating storm, in that case you should probably have higher priorities than your fish tank livestock.

you might try to find a lower flowrate pump that has a lower wattage rating so that it uses less power. the lower the wattage of the pump, the less electricity it uses and the longer your sump will work.

also theres no real point to using a heater in a backup IMO. your temp might go down a little over a couple hours, but i doubt it will mess anything up that bad, the most important thing is keeping your flow going so your water doesnt get stagnate.

[hammerhead]

you can not run that heater on a ups. I have a Sola 9000 and I can run 1 Seio 620 for 8-9 hrs. These are not cheep the unit I have is 2k.

[whosjohnny]

A heater?! That's like the most power drain. I would connect the UPS to a low wattage circulation pump inside your tank such as maxis so the bacteria contact to Live Rock can still do their "wild things". No reproduction, no waste removal.

[hammerhead]

oops the model is a 4000 series and it will put out 1400w Price is 1600 online.

[djtodd]

Originally posted by seafan79
anyone using a UPS for emergency power backup?? i got one for christmas and gave it a test run today....
with a maxi-jet 600 and a heater on it it ran for 30mins. not an acceptable amount of run time...


Maxijet 600 draws 7.5W of electricity.

How many watts does your heater draw? 50W at least.

Like the others have said, just put the PH on the UPS and nothing else.

[whosjohnny]

I would get computer UPS system from Frys Electronic, they're cheap! Something like 1200 watts for $600, buy 2 of them. (don't quote me on this but I remember eyeing them at one time at Frys, calculating how long can it run my pump.) BIG GRIN.

[jacas34]

You can use this style :
http://www.jehmco.com/PRODUCTS_/HARDWARE_/Battery_Backup_System/battery_backup_system.html

[grim]

Don't run lights or heaters off a UPS if you don't absolutely need to, and in most cases, you do not. I'd rather have circulation and airation for 6 hours than heat and circulation for 30 minutes.

jb

[Conano]

yes yes heater gonna eat a UPS up big time... without heater that powerhead should run a lot longer. I was looking at one a while back,a nd it would run a single powerhead which i was gonna make the skimmers powerhead which would do two functions airate and provide wate rmovement for 30+ hours. Course i live in a hurricane state so 30+ hours is nessicary.

[cateyes]

ok then, i get the message... no heater on UPS unit.... i would like to get about 6hrs. of power using a maxi-jet 900....

can anyone suggest one that will do this?????


i took the heater off of the UPS and plugged in a maxi-jet 600 and a 900 and the unit still only ran for 1&1/2 hrs......

i work 12 hr. shifts, so 2-4 hrs. isn't much comfort to me..........

thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,lisa :)

[dcoufal]

Originally posted by seafan79
i took the heater off of the UPS and plugged in a maxi-jet 600 and a 900 and the unit still only ran for 1&1/2 hrs......

Personally, I'd shoot for keeping the skimmer running.

Let's see - if you still have the Rio powering the Bak-Pak II, it draws 9.5watts.

In theory, most $100 UPS shouldn't have any problem running a single PH for the length of time you need.

[NwG]

I keep one plugged in for longer outages... it is not hooked up to anything... if power is off for more then 2 hours I start up some pumps for 10-15 min and shut it back down.... wait 2 hours and repeat... by then it is usually pretty dead... Now what I need is some switch to make it come on 2 hours AFTER the power has gone out........?.........

[cateyes]

dcoufal,,, i have the dual bac-pac which uses 2 ph's.. and maxi-jet 1200's came with the unit.. i think 1 maxi-jet 1200 pulls 20watts so that would be at 40watts just for the skimmer..
the mj 600 and 900 pull less than that so i'm not sure that's the solution...
thanks ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,lisa :)