junglejim83 Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 This comes in the wake of seeing my brother's 60g cichlid tank crash. What happened was he was away and his canister filter stopped pushing water, in turn all his fish accept for his pleco suffocated. If he had a h.o.b. or a PH agitating the surface they probaly would have survived. I know this isn't a concern for most of us (including myself) b/c we have multiple powerheads and filters. However i have seen plenty of systems running on one pump or PH.If you have a smaller tank and you are using on PH w/ a spray bar or only one source of current and aeration or a big tank with a pump that has several outputs please listen! get some other source of current etc in case the one dies , or doesnt start up right b/c of a power outage while you are not around. This is something which seems like common sense but is never really a point that people look at (especially beginners) when setting up their tanks. Just my thoughts, Jim Link to comment
Korbin Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 redundancy is the word for it... If one dies, there is another to take its place. To take it a step further, I was thinking of hooking just one of my powerheads to a battery backup. Whatcha think about that? Think a single backup would have enough juice to to run a powerhead for a long time? Link to comment
Vincerama Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 Try the Penn Plax battery op air pumps! I plan on getting 2, one for my FW and one for my nano. They only turn on when the power is cut, so put it on the same powerstrip that your pumps and filters are on, and if the power cuts (like in New York last month) then your fish will still be safe! They cost about 15 bucks! V Link to comment
blk_g20 Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 i was able to score a battery backup for free before i started my tank. the one i have is an APC unit. 3 plugs are battery-backed with surge protection and 3 other with just surge protection. on the 3 bat-backs, i plug in my 2 power head and 1 hob. and 2 lights and 1 heater in the other 3. the APC was rated to run 300w PC with monitor, so i figure 2 ph @6w a piece with the HOB should be able to run for a while. Link to comment
Dingo Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I had a batery backup on my powerhead and heater, but they pull alot of juice, so it would probably only be good for an hour or so. Link to comment
blk_g20 Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 its probably the heater drawing all the juice, sinces its at least 50W. i figure it'll take a while for my 20H to drop for its normal 80* down to dangerously low temp so i dont back up the heater. powerheads shouldn't draw too much. Link to comment
MrKrispy Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I had a power outrage over the weekend, a co-worker told me my battery pump only lasted an hour. Of course no one called me and told me there was a "weird sound" from the tank. Turns out my power strip died, the other with the lights and heater and fan are ok. So my tank went without circulation for about 8 hours. 4 days later all corals and snails and hermits are okay. I found a couple of dead super small shrimps and worms on the gravel that I hadn't seen before. I did an immediate water change, have been testing the water every day, no probs. Amazing and lucky. I will put new batteries in my backup this time. Link to comment
undawahta Posted September 16, 2003 Share Posted September 16, 2003 I lost two montipora frags and two variety of xenia ( not to mention tank stability ) to lack of flow, heat, and light for over 24 hours because of that outage this weekend ( tripped the gfci's ). Still not sure how to fix that from happening again though. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.