battery for operating heaters and filters during blackout

[shireen]

I am so mad at myself -- in trying to get other stuff done, i did not think about how a heavily planted tank with no lights would affect my fish. I've lost 2 and will probably lose more.

I've ordered battery-powered air pumps for next time. Hopefully it will never happen again.

But i got to thinking about winter blackouts. Does anyone know of a large capacity battery that can be used to operate filters and heaters for several days? I live in an apartment so I can't install a generator.

[Ltrepeter2000]

Get a really good battery backup, usually sold with computers and other electronics. Should be able to keep things running for at least a little while. Is your tank that heavily stocked with fish? Or are your fish that sensitive to temperature changes?

[shireen]

Hi Robert,

thanks. I'm looking online right now but any recommendations would be welcomed.

I have a 40g and 10g, both planted. The 40g is not heavily stocked and mostly has pencils in it, which are quite hardy. But I have two old flying foxes I adore, and fear that they may not survive this latest fiasco.

The 10g has a lot of Endler's Livebearers in it and so far, they seem quite unaffected by the blackout.

As far as temp. fluctuations go, it's not an issue in summer, but for winter, it will be a major problem if the heat goes out. That's why i need something to keep at least three or four heaters running and the filters active.

Next time, I need to be properly prepared to keep my fish safe.

Thanks again,
shireen

[shireen]

I'm looking into the Xantrex power pack ... anyone have experience with it? Or can i go with something smaller for powering filters, heaters, and powerheads?

http://www.xantrex.com/power-products/b ... -1500.aspx


It's $500+ which is a lot of money for me, so if there's a cheaper alternative out there, i'd rather go with cheap but functional.

I wish there was a way to harness solar and wind energy from apartments! I did find one design but it requires a balcony, which i don't have.

[DelawareJim]

No experience with the Xantrex, but for $500 you could buy a small generator and run indefinately.

Cheers.
Jim

[jweis]

I found this article online, that might be of help: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_5/ ... /power.htm

[bussardnr]

I would just get a power inverter and a car battery
it would be alot cheaper

[seiji64]

Great aquarium power outage article. Thanks for sharing...

There has been a discussion on my neighborhood forum about battery powered sump pumps with the recent power outage. Someone mentioned that the back-up system they saw (it was their neighbor's) used a marine grade battery, supposedly because they don't need to be constantly charged to maintain battery life. These systems also used a separate lower wattage pump.

I like the idea of using a cheaper battery backup system that I could plug a timer into to run the filter (and heater in winter) every hour for a couple minutes. If things got really cold, you might be able to leverage those 72 hour shipping heat packs to help keep the temps up.

I am lucky in that all my tanks are understocked and I saw no signs of stress. Not sure how the beneficial bacteria faired in my Rena XL, which was down for about 24 hours. I used my Fluval's priming pump to circulate the water in my 29g a few times during the outage - I hope it helped.

Doug

P.S. Let me know when team GWAPA perfects those 6700K candles. would like some for next time...

[150EH]

Honda makes a very small generator that quiet and would run the tanks and maybe your fridge, I don't know the cost.

We have generator but things still go wrong, out of gas, etc. but the longest time without power this time was 6 hours with no problems with my tank, with Isabel we lost power for 4 days and still no problems.

I alway try to get in a big water changes just before the storm and fill the tub with water. I've read that canister filters should have the bio media removed to save the nitrifying bacteria by placing the media over a battery operated air stone/pump but I've never tried anything like this and don't think it is needed unless you have some type of delicate species that requires really clean oxygenated water

It's just too much work for me!!!

[shireen]

thanks for the replies. For some reason, my email notification for responses is not working so i missed these comments. (I'll check my account settings.)

I'm still looking into it. My biggest concern is the water getting too cold during a weekend blackout, so i need something for heaters. And being in an apartment, i can't run anything that uses gas. I've read recommendations against using car batteries and marine batteries in an apartment, but don't know how authoritative those articles are ....

If i learn anything useful i'll post it here.

cheers,
shireen