New Back up battery for air pump

[Robcope]

Purchased APC Network Battery Back up today, Model BGE90M. This unit is dirt cheap at a little over $23.00 on Amazon. It is a small 75 watt unit with three standard outlets (none grounded), and two USB ports. Based on the fact it has 4.5 hour run time for modems and routers and the fact that most air pumps are between 3 and 6 watts, it should power the air pump for at least 4 hours.

I will test it, once the battery is fully charged, but for the price, I couldn't pass this up. I will post more after I test it.

Seems like a cheap battery back up to keep 6 Discus alive if the power goes out. It will keep a large sponge filter and bubble wand running.

Thanks, Rob

[LizStreithorst]

Sounds good to me. Looking forward to hearing more after your test run.

[Robcope]

Doing a small test tonight. It has been running on battery for more than two hours. I say small test because I am off to bed soon. Will see if I get to three hours.

[fljones3]

Doing a small test tonight. It has been running on battery for more than two hours. I say small test because I am off to bed soon. Will see if I get to three hours.

Does it beep when power is off?

Frank

[Robcope]

No beep

[Swedgin]

It’s a good thing to have, Rob, 100% agree.
I’ve also been looking into larger UPS units to keep everything running (filters, air and heaters, not uv or lights etc), but over here they cost an arm and a leg. But being reminded by you now, it is nagging on my conscience again thinking I’m trying to save money at the wrong end. Definitely will look into it again today, even if it’s just the smaller ones for the air pump.

Tobi

[Robcope]

So far the back up has been running a fluval air pump for 8 hours and 9 minutes on battery power. Please remember I am only running a 4 watt air pump. I was sold at 5 hours. I am going to let it run until it beeps, telling me the battery only has two minutes of life left or I take my old *** to bed. I am in west Texas, so a heater isn't a big deal. Keep in mind most filters are between 6 and 14 watts, so decent life should still be achievable. So, I will be buying three more for the rest of our fish tanks. Running a sponge filter should be all that is required to keep them alive until power is restored.

[Robcope]

It is time to get some sleep. Unfortunately, I have to plug the UPS back in. I think this thing is great. It have been powering my 4 watt fluval air pump for 10 hours and 8 minutes. I am sold. As stated above; I will buy three more for our other tanks. Just checked Amazon and they still have it for just a bit over $23.00. Well worth it.

[LizStreithorst]

It is great, indeed!

[brewmaster15]

Rob,
Sounds like you have a good backup for the airpumps you are running. You might find this thread interesting..

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?133318-DC-Airpumps-recommendations

. Also look at the links for our Inverter discussion in it.


UPC backups can be very useful.for low draw equipment like small air pumps but generally the battery capacity in them is not very large. The one you got looks great and has great reviews just be careful if you try it with sensitive equipment like some LCD monitors. One of the QA guys there said it produced square waves (modified sine waves.). not pure sine. Thats fine for airpumps but I would not use it on pc or LCD. Just a heads up.



Tobi if you are looking for something like a UPC backup thats high capacity you should research inverters used with 12 volt deep cycle batteries..Ie Diy battery backups/generators. They are basically the same thing as UPC systems but you design the battery size and inverter needed. I can walk you thru it if you want. Drop me a pm on it.

Al

[Robcope]

I just care about the fish tanks. My computer has a battery. I can live without technology for awhile, but the fish can't live without at least the air pump running. As far as the deep cycle battery and inverter idea, way more than $23.00. It took a month to find something this simple, and I think these are perfect for aquarium use. The longest outage we have had in the last 22 years has been two hours.

[brewmaster15]

It was for information sake. Glad you found what you need for your tanks. You must have a very good power company there. You are lucky! Out here in the Northeast we can get hit with storms that knock out our power for days to weeks. Quite a few members here have been through that nightmare. Generators and Deep cycle batteries with inverters here are more along the lines of what we are forced to rely own to keep our fish alive.

al

[Robcope]

We are very lucky, as we live on the southern end of tornado ally. May upgrade to something better later. After the new year we will probably get a generator for camping. If we're home and power will be out for a while, we will have that.

[Swedgin]

Rob,
Sounds like you have a good backup for the airpumps you are running. You might find this thread interesting..

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?133318-DC-Airpumps-recommendations

. Also look at the links for our Inverter discussion in it.


UPC backups can be very useful.for low draw equipment like small air pumps but generally the battery capacity in them is not very large. The one you got looks great and has great reviews just be careful if you try it with sensitive equipment like some LCD monitors. One of the QA guys there said it produced square waves (modified sine waves.). not pure sine. Thats fine for airpumps but I would not use it on pc or LCD. Just a heads up.



Tobi if you are looking for something like a UPC backup thats high capacity you should research inverters used with 12 volt deep cycle batteries..Ie Diy battery backups/generators. They are basically the same thing as UPC systems but you design the battery size and inverter needed. I can walk you thru it if you want. Drop me a pm on it.

Al

Thanks Al. Even with your guidance, chances are I will burn the house down in no time ;)

Might get back to you on that though, but luckily we are connected to the company/compound gen set, so we are usually never without power over 10 mins at a time.

[Tuterosso]

the best is Pure sine wave inverter and gel battery its so many hours

[brewmaster15]

the best is Pure sine wave inverter and gel battery its so many hours

Pure Sine is definitely a better choice for sensitive electronics but for heaters and pumps its usually ok to go with modified sine inverters.The only time you may run into problems in a aquarium scenario is some fluorescent lights have trouble with modified sine. Pure sine inverters are very costly compared to their Modified Sine wave counter parts.

As for the Gel batteries. They really arent a good choice for backup power in aquarium systems,imo.... They are better at slow low draws...Economically your best bet is a deep cycle marine type battery or solar battery..These can be typical wet acid batteries. The next option up would be AGM batteries... Which are also lead acid batteries with glass mats.. these batteries are SLA BATTERIES...they are sealed and spill proof whereas the wet cells are not. Gel batteries are also SLA batteries with a gel matrix. They are harder to charge and maintain and not very popular.

info here on The difference between AGM and GEL BATTERIES...
https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/gel-vs-agm.html
hth,
Al

[Robcope]

I was simply looking for something that would keep the fish alive for 5 or 6 hours and at $23.00, I felt it was a great choice. I plugged my cascade 1000 canister into it to see how it would handle it. Well, it didn't handle it well. Sounded like the magnet was slapping the side of the motor. I have four tanks, so this will be moved to our Cichlid tank and I will get the APC 850va for the Discus tank. But this $23.00 UPS was well worth it.