power outage

plecoboy · Post by **plecoboy** » 12 Nov 2006, 17:15

A number of you guys out there have lots of tanks. What are your backup plans in the case of a power outage? Just wondering.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 13 Nov 2006, 12:56

I moved this subject, as I didn't think the topic had much to do with plecos, and more to do with Tank's...

Where I live, power-outages are fairly few and far between, so I don't worry about it myself.

I know some people do one or more of the following:
- Keep a "computer UPS" to power some or all of the equipment.

- Battery powered "emergency" air-pump.

- Petrol/diesel generator.

The primary concern would be for the filtration/aeration of the tanks. Second, heaters, but for anything shorter than 2-3 hours, the heater is no big deal [unless your fish-tank(s) are in a very cold room]. The lights are the least of your concern - they will matter for plants, but by the time that matters, you've not had electricity for several days...

Petrol/diesel generator is definitely the most secure way, but also rely on either an automatic starter that senses the electric being off, or a person being there to get it going. And the generator makes a lot of noise and needs to be placed outside (or at least have an exhaust-pipe leading outside). Also, if you don't run the generator for a long time, it'll probably not start immediately on it's own accord, particularly not the petrol version - petrol tends to evaporate, leaving a "varnish" of solid components in carburettors etc. Diesel isn't quite as bad, but still you are best off starting the generator every now and again.

UPS has the advantage that it's completely automatic, but don't last quite as long as a generator would (but the generator will need more fuel at some point).

Battery powered air-pumps work well for keeping the tank aerated, but if you have a big external filter on the tank, that will still die off due to lack of oxygen.

If you're home most of the time, all of the above are well and good to rely on manual indication. However, if the tanks are left unattended during the day (say you go to work for 8-10 hours a day), then you need some way of "knowing" that the power is off too...

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Mats

grokefish · Post by **grokefish** » 13 Nov 2006, 16:28

This is going to be more of a problem for all of us in the in the future.
Generate your own power the green way and it will not be a problem.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 13 Nov 2006, 16:30

grokefish wrote:This is going to be more of a problem for all of us in the in the future.

Is that to mean that power-cuts will increase in frequency, or what?

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Mats

plecoboy · Post by **plecoboy** » 13 Nov 2006, 23:09

Thanks for the responses. Most of my tanks are in the basement and I had a 1 hr scare recently. I did notice in a flyer from a company called Harbor Freight Tools, a solar panel that appeared to have an outlet set up so you could plug in a tv,computer,etc. It was about $200, but it might be worth the investment. I'll have to research it.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 14 Nov 2006, 10:04

plecoboy wrote:Thanks for the responses. Most of my tanks are in the basement and I had a 1 hr scare recently. I did notice in a flyer from a company called Harbor Freight Tools, a solar panel that appeared to have an outlet set up so you could plug in a tv,computer,etc. It was about $200, but it might be worth the investment. I'll have to research it.

HFT sells some good stuff at good prices and some stuff that quite definitely isn't worth the money - make sure you know which it is when (before) you buy!

Solar panels work well if you have sunshine, but you'd need some way to store the energy if you're going to use it for fish-tanks permanently, or you'd have the filter stopped for an average 12 hours every day (yes, it's longer in winter and shorter in summer, but average is 12 hours all over the planet).

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Mats

plecoboy · Post by **plecoboy** » 14 Nov 2006, 23:22

My thinking was to just have it as a back up. I don't know how much energy can be stored.

Crazie.Eddie · Post by **Crazie.Eddie** » 15 Nov 2006, 08:01

Solar panels just create energy, you still need away to store it. Otherwise, just hope and pray the next power outage you have is in the middle of a bright sunny day.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 15 Nov 2006, 10:26

Crazie.Eddie wrote:Solar panels just create energy, you still need away to store it. Otherwise, just hope and pray the next power outage you have is in the middle of a bright sunny day.

Exactly - now in my experience, power-outages more often than not happen when there is one or more of:
1. Heavy winds.
2. High demand.
3. Lightning.

Not saying that all of these are mutually exclusive with sunshine, but they aren't exactly "typical sunny weather conditions".

You'll need a way to store the sun-power to use a solar panel to power anything. There is probably a way to do that which can be purchased from some mail-order company, but you will need a fair bit of gadgets to make the DC power that comes out of the solar panel into DC power in an accumulator (rechargable battery) and then into AC power for your fish-tanks usage (some of it may run on DC too, but for sure the air-pumps and water filters are literally relying on the AC behaviour of the power to operate correctly).

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Mats

M@RS · Post by **M@RS** » 15 Nov 2006, 11:15

A possibility is to have a sponge filter in each tank and run it from an air pump on a UPS.

This way each tank has some level of filtration. My 600 VA UPS can provide 10 watts for about 6 hours. My 6 Watt air pump is powerful enough to power a few sponge filters.

(I don't have many tanks, but we sometimes have regular power failures here).