UPS for tank??

W

wbaker01

AC Members
Dec 26, 2005
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Parker, CO
We are in the process of setting up a 60g tank and I am wondering about electrical connections. I'll have dual heaters, dual filters and two lights to plug in and instead of using a power strip, I'm curious to see if anyone has used a small UPS like an APC 500 to plug their electrical gear for their tank into.

Thanks,
Bill
 
Doesn't work too well with aquarium equipment from what I have heard. I inquired about the same thing after a 6 day loss of electricity. I can't remember everything that was said, but it was enough to make me not consider it as a good idea any longer.
 
My husband doesn't see any reason why it wouldn't work and we've been using UPS units since 1994. Aquarium eq does not require near as much power as computer eq does, and so on and so forth. He's the electrical/networking guy and if anyone can make it work, he can.

We are hooking several UPS units up to our tanks in March.

This thread:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29736

The key is to get a UPS that is big enough to do the job. Don't skimp on size or money. If you can, look into buying a generator. The UPS we purchase is an intermediary until we can fire up the generator that runs the first floor of our house. Hopefully we'll be replacing that with a gas powered one this year.

Watcher, sorry, I didn't see that thread you are referring to. Looking for it now -- unless it's the thread I linked?

Roan
 
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This is the one:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30278&highlight=UPS

One thing that RTR mentioned is this:
I have two dozen tanks, most with 2-3 filters each. UPS to support that would be far more expensive than a whole-house generator. Besides, many/most UPS will not operate canister motors well (square wave vs sine wave) and will die fast if required to operate heaters.
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And beviking stated this after he tested a UPS:
Well THAT was disappointing! We have a CyberPower 825AVR with 3 backup outlets. I plugged my Filstar XP3 and lights (One 2 bulb shop light, One 4 bulb shop light) into it. I can't say exactly when it ran out (ran into the basement for 5 or so minutes) but it was right around 20 minutes! That's it, 20 minutes!!
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And tomm10 stated this:
RTR is right about the backups. I looked into this a little while ago. The ones you get cheap for your pc won't handle the power needed to turn your filter motors. For that you need the big boy UPS and those go for around $1000! Ouch. You can get a nice generator for less if power loss really concerns you.
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I was an advance electronics technician in the Navy and I am a networker/IT professional now, so I understand the electricity concerns and possible solutions that are available. This idea just did not sound feasible to me. But if someone has a solution I would love to hear it.

From everything I looked up a generator would work much better and be much cheaper.
 
Absolutely. A generator and transfer switch. If you get one big enough you can run necessary parts of your house like RA.

Mark
 
Yep, transfer switch is the way to go. We'll be upgrading the generator so that we can run the central air. It can get pretty hot down here and I don't want a power outage in 110* weather.

We originally bought the generator for the ISP we were running in MI in 1996, and brought it with us to VA. We used it more up north, but have had to use it three times down here. We lost the power for 2 days during Isabella. Without a generator it would have off'd all the fish if I had them back then. I was glad we had it because we ran a cable to our neighbor's house for their newborn, who was pretty sick.

As for the UPS, yah, read that thread today for the first time. Kris is gonna take a look at a way to convert sine/wave and see what he can do. He has a vested interest since he's in the middle of setting up a 92g reef tank.

Heaters -- not too worried about that since we have the furnace on the generator. The fish can take a 4* drop in heat and the house won't go below 74*, which is where I keep it winter or summer (unless my mother-in-law is here complaining that it's "too cold" for her :rolleyes: )

Our goal, as I said, was to have something in place that would kick in immediately and run some sort of alarm system that everyone could hear (I'm hearing impaired). The generator would take over after that.

Watcher -- you and my hubby would get along great! He's big into military stuff, loves blowing things up (was an organic chem major with an overtly curious sense of "what would happen if I mix . . ."), Networking Engineer, blah blah. I hope he comes up with something and will share with everyone if he is successful, or not.

Roan
 
Couldn't agree more...... Most consumer/small biz UPS's are for the short term use in order to save files and then shutdown. ..Or in the corporate world, to filter power, and provide a few minutes of run time for a generator to spool up.

I guess you'd have to rank what's most important before plugging stuff into a UPS.

1. would probably be filtering
2. Heat
3. Air

Lights and air would fall by the wayside, though air pumps in home aquariums don't take a whole lot of power.

I don't think it's a bad idea to have some sort of UPS on your filters so they don't stop during shorter outages, and then fail to restart.
 
The main problem with most UPSs for computers is the sine vs square wave problem. Computers have no problem taking square wave approximations of the sine wave because they run on DC current internally anyway. So the power goes through a rectifier before it leaves the power supply and goes into the vital components of your machine.

*However*, the electric motors that run your filters are highly susceptible to the square wave approximation. They may run slower than normal or have other weird effects, but mainly the problem is heat buildup. The motor will overheat when exposed to the square wave for extended periods and could lead to damage of your precious Eheim or whatever.

It shouldn't have any effect on lighting (although the ballast might choke on it, I don't know... any double Es out there?) And since your heater is just a fancy resistor, it will do just fine. Although being a resistor makes it a terrific energy drain. Picture those CF displays at the home store where they have the spiral CF vs an incandescent light on a power meter, you get the picture...

If you have a lot of tanks and are prone to outages, a generator is the way to go. Even a little putt-putt type that you run outside with extension cords would be worth the investment given how much time and money you've spent on fish and equipment.
 
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wackydan said:
I don't think it's a bad idea to have some sort of UPS on your filters so they don't stop during shorter outages, and then fail to restart.
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The filters are the very thing I would *not* hook up to a UPS. It will most likely damage the motor in the filter if it were on for more than a few minutes.

You're really better off getting battery-backup airpumps for the cost of a UPS that will run your filters. They switch over automatically and they'll run for quite a while. And they run on standard D cell batteries. So if they go dead while operating, you just have to swap them out. Just be sure to keep a supply of D cells on hand.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/prod...<>ast_id=2534374302023693&bmUID=1140446457839

I'd much rather have to keep an eye on battery airpumps than worry about my filters burning up.
 
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