Battery BackUp

[geekreef_05]

Im considering a vortech backup, but id perfer a general electrical backup for the whole reef. Something thats plugged in all the time and carrys alot of juice. 

 

Whats everyone using these days for battery back up? 

 

What unit do you drool over? 

[DevilDuck]

Welcome back @geekreef_05! 

 

I have the Vortech back up just to keep water circulating in the display. I think the best insurance would be to invest in a whole house generator if power outages happen frequently in your area.

[braaap]

Totally depends on your power draw. But it isn't likely anything will keep your entire tank running BESIDES a pump or two. And it won't be all that long.

 

Personally I have a small generator. And a ecotech battery backup to keep one pump spinning.

[geekreef_05]

2 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

Welcome back @geekreef_05! 

 

I have the Vortech back up just to keep water circulating in the display. I think the best insurance would be to invest in a whole house generator if power outages happen frequently in your area.

Thanks dude! Good to see you again

[MrP]

I'm not sure how well Hydros is distributed in Canada but the Kraken will be released soon. https://www.coralvue.com/hydros-kraken-24v-power-center

[DevilDuck]

There is no good solution to keep the heater running on battery power.

 

If your power goes out during the winter for an extended period of time you'll most likely have losses in your tank.

A couple of years ago here in Texas, we had a particular cold winter that took down the crap Texas power grid. Homes were left without power for over a week. Temperatures indoors dropped into the 30's.

Most of the aquarium community took full tank losses. The few that managed to keep their tanks from dying only did so with the help with generators. 

 

2021 Texas power crisis - Wikipedia

 

 

 

[geekreef_05]

Yikes. Sorry to hear that about yourself and your local reef community. What a loss. That must have been a tough period for everyone, for many reasons.

 

Well as you point out heat and flow are key to sustaining life. And they arent easy to maintain when the power grid fails. 

 

Loosing power for over a week is just brutal. The grid shouldn't be that vulnerable but alas it is. 

 

I used to live in a newer community. Power outages were rather rare. But now im in an older place in town. We had a 2 day outtage last summer from a serve storm. And there is a scheduled 8hr outage coming up to replace the neighborhood electrical boxes. They dug up and replaced lines this summer. 

 

So im motivated to see if i can run my aquarium for 3 days with electrical backup. Without lights and heat. I have a plan to heat my home. I have a portable electrical backup unit and portable heater for that. 

 

But i don't have a plan for the aquarium heater. 

 

I may hook up the dosing pumps, mechanical filterational and skimmer to a PC battery back up system and buy a couple vortech backup for my mp10s. 

 

I need things to be automated as well since i travel for work. 

 

Anyone done that? 

[mcarroll]

21 hours ago, geekreef_05 said:

But i don't have a plan for the aquarium heater. 

Since you're already planning to heat the room, then keeping the room a degree or two (ºF) warmer than you want the tank to be might be the best bet.  E.g.  Keep the room 80ºF if you want the tank 78ºF.  

 

Just keep the room closed to airflow from outside the room and keep the room as insulated as possible – something extra to block windows and other places where heat is likely to escape.  The rest of the house can be arctic-like, if necessary, and you can wear a coat. 😉 

 

If your house water heater is natural gas powered, then that's another resource of heat you might be able to tap during a power outage.....with a little ingenuity.

[geekreef_05]

Just outta curiousity, how would you connect the aquarium upto the house's hot water line, for use during a power outage? 

 

This is something you've done or seen done successfully? 

[braaap]

5 hours ago, geekreef_05 said:

Just outta curiousity, how would you connect the aquarium upto the house's hot water line, for use during a power outage? 

 

This is something you've done or seen done successfully? 

 

I think he is recommending filling water bottles with hot water and then floating them in the display. It works. Its been done hundreds of times with great success. It is just a pain. Bill Wann uses a heat exchanger/boiler on his 20k gallon tank. So he runs titanium through his massive sump that is heated through a commercial boiler. You could always use some sharkbites and some flexible pex and make yourself a closed loop that just runs heated pex through your display. But that would be a rather large pain to setup. I'd suggest doing the waterbottles.

 

That said in times of outage your corals and fish will be stressed. Dosing isn't going to be important because growth isn't likely to occur with a light outage and cooler temps. Survival is the only goal at that point. Flow is number one. A Ecotech backup will keep an MP10 going for 30-40 hours at 15%. If the battery is good. 15% flow will be plenty for most tanks.

 

Next is temperature control. Keep the room as warm as possible. Wrap the tank if necessary. But floating hot water bottles and using a battery powered temp gauge or even a glass gauge will keep your temps close as possible. 

 

Outside of a generator or large batteries and an inverter you just won't be able to power a tank heater. Personally I have a 4k honda generator for my tank and my fridge. Everything else can get cold. Thankfully we heat with a wood stove so in the winter that isn't much a concern.

[HarryPotter]

The Ecotech Battery stinks. Not much capacity, and as a lead acid battery, lasts under 3 years before it is kaput. You are paying $40 for a lead acid battery and $160 for a fancy enclosure. 

 

DIY one. You can get a larger LiFePO4 battery & trickle charger and get twice the capacity and 3x the lifespan for about the same price. 

 

This is my setup. Left wire is trickle charger, the short wire is an example of a cable that goes to your battery, and then two Ecotech cables on the right plug into Ecotech Vortechs. 
 

[geekreef_05]

1 minute ago, HarryPotter said:

The Ecotech Battery stinks. Not much capacity, and as a lead acid battery, lasts under 3 years before it is kaput. 

 

DIY one. You can get a larger LiFePO4 battery & trickle charger and get twice the capacity and 3x the lifespan for about the same price. 

 

This is my setup. Left wire is trickle charger, the short one is an example of a cable that goes to your battery, and then two cables to plug into Ecotech Vortechs. 
 

 

Fantastic. I like it. 

 

Do you have links to the equipment you used? 

[HarryPotter]

1 hour ago, geekreef_05 said:

 

Fantastic. I like it. 

 

Do you have links to the equipment you used? 

 

30ah LifePO4 Battery (Ecotech Lead Acid is 18AH): $120 https://www.amazon.com/NERMAK-Phosphate-Rechargeable-Electric-Wheelchair/dp/B09H3BMYP8/ref=sr_1_8?crid=2F8X43Q7X2RYR&keywords=lifepo4+battery+30ah&qid=1677090269&sprefix=lifepo4+battery+30ah%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-8&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840

 

LiFePO4 Trickle Charger: $28  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MPX414R?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

Ecotech Fused Battery Cables: $5 Ecotech Part #10427, available from Ecotech or online stores. 

 

The enclosure with voltmeter and DC jacks is something I made myself. It is essentially a fancy junction box to join all the positive and negative cables. 

[Superdave]

@DevilDuck is right about the Dallas "snowmageddon" we had in 2020.  Everything in my tank survived, but I had a gas space heater that kept whole house in the mid to low 40s, which was nice considering it was legit -2 one night!  

 

I have several, small battery powered air pumps I keep on hand.  Oxygen in the water helped tremendously.  

 

To keep tanks warm, I would fill big Nalgene water bottles with tap as as hot as it would get and let them float in the tanks.  Keep the temps up nicely.  Again, this worked because I have a gas water heater and it runs even when electricity goes out.  If you didn't have that, you could always use a camp stove to heat water and then put it in water bottles.  

 

I too have thought about small generator but they are awfully pricey.  

[geekreef_05]

Great to hear the survival stories. 

 

That 2020 storms sounds like it was rough on Dallas. Glad that you were able to keep your inhabitants alive. 

 

I appreciate all the reef advice here. 

 

In my case i need an automated electrial backup solution. Its likely that i wont be home when disaster strikes, so its key that my reef has support without direct human intervention. 

 

When im deployed to the field for work, im out for 21 days at a time. So my reef needs to be automated for 21 days min including back ups. 

 

If reefing isnt complex enough that one life cavet takes it up a notch for me. 

 

Thats why i like harrypotters solution. 

Im gonna take a deep dive into that. 

[Superdave]

Fully auto-mated for 21 days is a pretty tall order.  The likelihood that during three weeks something fails, or doesn't reboot properly, etc. is pretty high to my thinking.  

 

Have you considered finding someone to do a check in at least once a week or so?  Some fish stores offer such services.  

 

I just try to think of utter, worst case fail scenarios.  Water, electrical issues can be nightmarish--would hate to have that happen to anyone.