UPS Suggestions for 15-gal

[czar]

Newbie to the site, lots of great info here.

Just wondering what a good UPS would be. Have just cycled my tank and have 2-fish. My bother jut let me know that the power was out and I'm a little worried. Was going to get a UPS but thought I could hold off a little while. Would like to keep the HOB filter (sorry can't remember the size and I'm at work right now) going as well as the 50W heater.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks

 

[roka64]

WELCOME TO AA!!

Please do not cycle with live animals, can you take the poor fish back and do a fishless cycle?
I would add up the total Watts and buy accordingly.

 

[czar]

Just completed the cycle actually...with fish though. I didn't know much about cycling and the guy at the LFS seemed to know what he was talking about, he has been very helpful through the cycle. The fish seemed to do good through the cycle but now that I know about the fishless cycle I wouldn't do it again.

Thanks for the help.

 

[tecwzrd]

Welcome to AA

The $200+ UPS units will run a low watt ph for a couple of hours. You can usually forget about a heater which drains them in minutes. If you have regular power outages for hours/days at a time then a portable generator is a better investment to keep from loosing the tank.

Since the tank is 15 gal it may not be worth buying a backup option. Fish in a properly stocked tank (1" per 5 gal) will do fine for 3-5 hours but beyond that they start to run out of oxygen.

Sent you a PM which goes into filtration in depth.

 

[czar]

Thanks for the help.

Power is back on and everything seems ok. Was out for 4-5hrs. We don't usually get power outages in the area that is why I hadn't purchased anything yet. Actually this is the longest power outage that I can really ever remember having.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Vancouver BC, eh? You must be getting walloped by the same wind we are! But we haven't lost power, amazingly.

Xantrex PowerSource 400. I've got one and it's great.

Home

You can get them at Best Buy for around $150. Watch your sale flyers... sometimes they have pretty good deals on them.

It's hard to tell exactly how long it would keep a 50W heater and small HOB running. The HOB is probably no more than 10W constant, and the 50W heater is probably running maybe 30% of the time? My guess is you'd get 6-8 hours or so out of this unit.