Back up power?

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Ian14

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Oct 1, 2013
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I have 3 cichlid tanks, a 120, 125, and a 46 gallon. Does anyone have a backup up if the power goes out just to keep the heater and a pump running? I need some ideas to get a backup for my tanks
 
I have 3 cichlid tanks, a 120, 125, and a 46 gallon. Does anyone have a backup up if the power goes out just to keep the heater and a pump running? I need some ideas to get a backup for my tanks

I would buy a small generator, the smaller ones run for about 200$-300$ or a power inverter that connects to your car battery
 
Heater require a lot of energy, a car battery contains about 700 watthours. So that's not a good option, as he will have to start the car each 4 hours to prevent total battery energy out, so he's unable to start the engine to charge batteries again.

I would recommand a UPS for this usage. You plug heater and pumps into the UPS, and you plug lights and other accesories into the wall plug.

Do this only if you have fish sensitive to low temperatures like discus, they are not given too $$$
 
I have mbuna and south/Central American cichlids
 
Do you often have power failures ?

My clownfish survived well a 12 hours power outage, the water was at 15C° at the end without aeration, don't see why cichlids would not tolerate this.

For aeration, it will depend on your bioload.
 
It depends, once or twice a year at least. I have a big bioload on both tanks
 
Generator and woodstove. We had a major ice storm here and we have no power. Likely won't have back for days with all the trees down everywhere!
 
I bought a generator for $300, it will run my 3 tanks and the fridge, tv, charge phones..
 
We don't get storms like that here but I have a natural gas heater I use when it gets too cold and there is no power
 
Here we never have power outage more that 12 hrs consecutive... So I didn't planned any backup for this.
 
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