Xyzpdq0121;168267 wrote: Merlin... I would take your skimmer out of the write-up... For the power it is going to use, your tank should be ok without your skimmer for a day or so. (Heck, I have been SLOWLY switching skimmers and have been running my 55 pretty much without a skimmer for a few months now. No real problems.) Might bring down that cost a bit and extend that battery life by about 35%!
Yes I was thinking the same thing, and maybe only running my return.
wbholwell;168303 wrote: Merlin, what equation did you use to perform your math? I got very different run times.
And I agree with Brandon; your tank will be fine w/o a skimmer for a few days, so you may want to consider leaving that out.
Yes it was late and I was just estimating but here's the website I used to look up the equations.
http://www.solardirect.com/pv/batteries/batteries.htm">http://www.solardirect.com/pv/batteries/batteries.htm</a>
Its a few paragraphs down under "watts, volts, amps"
"To convert a battery's amp-hour capacity to watt-hours, multiply the amp-hours times the voltage. The product is watt-hours."
"To figure out how much battery capacity it will require to run an appliance for a given time, multiply the appliance wattage times the number of hours it will run to yield the total watt-hours. Then divide by the battery voltage to get the amp hours."
For example, running a 60-watt lightbulb for one hour uses 60 watt-hours. If a 12-volt battery is running the light it will consume 5 amp-hours (60 watt-hours divided by 12 volts equals 5 amp-hours)
105amp-hoursx12volts= 1260 watt-hours
117w/12v =9.75 amp hours used per hour.
I'm getting 10.76 hours with this equation. Is this right?
If instead I just run two of my 6045's they should run for 78.94 hours.
[QUOTE=][B]mfliin;168309 wrote:[/B] From an earlier thread---Ups
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I bought an old used APC UPS from a used computer dealer, the battery was dead and needed to be replaced. I then wired two marine deep cycle batteries to this (I was able to find one with a 24 volt inverter) 1400 APC UPS. I am able to run two powerheads for at least 8 hours, which keeps my two large tanks up and running and oxygen levels up.
I invested around $50.00 for the used UPS and spent the major money on some really good deep cycle marine batteries, as well as float chargers. Having a 24 volt system, I am told will help run the system for longer periods of time.
I lost some very close fish I had for a really long time, due to a faulty timer....Throw away those analog round dial timers.......it's only a matter of time before your power is cut off when the lights try to come on of go off, they are crapola!!! I researched a lot of this before trying it and it works great, not even a flicker when the power changes.
I actually went a step further and rewired my house so each outlet to my aquariums is on a separate circuit breaker and I use at least two pumps now per tank to keep water flowing, one of these is on the UPS. Triple backup...So, I would have to have a complete power loss for the UPS to kick in.
This project was well worth the money invested, just too late for me...But my new fish will appreciate it!!! I can drop you some pics or give more details if needed!
Mike[/QUOTE]
This is great. I would love to know more about your project. Does this UPS produce true sine wave? Pics would be awesome.
[QUOTE=][B]etoh_is_good;168227 wrote:[/B] don't know much about this, but when i was getting UPS at my old job, the vendor wanted to know the amp draw more than the watts. don't know why, but we had to crawl around twice looking for watts first, then amps second.[/QUOTE]
Yeah all the batteries I was looking at are all rated in amp hours and volts, so I was a little stumped trying to figure out how to come up with watt hours.
[QUOTE=][B]Roland Jacques;168312 wrote:[/B] What benifit are you going to get buy running the return pump durring a 72 hour power outage? If you have a refugium it would be good to have circulation...i guess it matters what you have in your sump.
Long power outages the only issue ive seen is gas exchange & temputure. Most reef tanks could go a VERY long time with just good circulation and stable temp.[/QUOTE]
It's kind of a show sump. I keep sun coral down there and collect macro algae like some collect Acropora.
Yes I only just started running a skimmer. But it's an addictive toy and I'm already hating the thought of it not running.:) I would not be connecting heaters to the back up, they just use to much power and I figure I can always float hot water bottles.
[QUOTE=][B]KRB;168337 wrote:[/B] generator with autoswitch - problem solved[/QUOTE]
I'm moving my tank to New Orleans so I'm already thinking of going this route. I would still want a ups to keep things running until I got home and could turn on the generator. Once I own my own house I would definitely wire a generator in or maybe just install a solar system.
