CW`s Saltwater Reef

Power out for 6hours. Verry BAD!!!

Hi ppl

As we all in VDBP know we had a bad power problem last night.

Ok, it starts like this. Me and my wife celebrated our 1year anniversary yesterday afternoon at a leke place called "Black Forest Grill"

Man the food is good.
We got home and like two little puppies that just chowed leke went to bed.

At about 15:30 we woke up.
My mom lives next door, se told us the power is down.

So ja, now im thinking. Will it be on again soon or will i have to make some kind of plan for the tank to run on battery.
Being a pc technician i have a 600va ups running on my pc all the time.

I went to the study, took the ups and hocked it up to the tank.
So i had power on the tank for the following:
1 X 3000Lph power head
1 X TS2 Skimmer
2 X Actinic 54w tubes
1 X Return pump
1 X 300w heater

This ran very well, but only for 20min about. Not good.
At this stage i started to panic a bit, messaged my friend Goby.
Asking what must run on the tank and what can i do.

He suggested the same i had on the UPS but to leave out the following:
1 X TS2 Skimmer
2 X Actinic

So i called my brother. Him being a happy camper.
His got a trailer kitted out for things like this.
A battery charger, Deep cycle battery, normal battery, fridge, lights and alles.

So when power goes out by him he just starts his mobile home and carries on with live.
While us reefers start worrying if the LS will survive he braais a leke chop.

Well he gave me a solution.
I could go fetsh his Deep Cycle battery from him.
And luckily it was fully charged at 12.60V when i fetched it from him.

So this is what ive done:

Step one - Open 600Va UPS, unplug normal 12V 7.2Ah battery,
Cut a small groove into the side of the UPS so the cables can come out.
(the + and - cable that goes to the battery)

Step two - Fetch jumper cables from my bakkie, and deep cycle battery from my brother.

Step three - go to launch, connect what you want to run onto the multiplug thats
connected onto the UPS.

Step four - Clamp the + jumper cable and - to UPS cables that i took out the side
of the UPS chassis.

Step five - Clamp the + and - jumper cables to deep cycle battery and switch on the UPS.

And whala. Weve got power PPL.

Heres some pics to what ive done.
41594d996dca8ffb2.jpg


One PC UPS, one set of jumper cables and one multiplug.
41594d996e0ab7c93.jpg

41594d996e33949e1.jpg

One Deep cycle battery in a closed plastic box.
This box is to protect where ever you put the battery. If it starts leaking accid this box will keep the mess inside.
41594d996e9c5b7f7.jpg

And there we have the battery that runs very lekke ill say.
With some fuses and hella plugs my brother uses for his fridg.
41594d996eef7df44.jpg

Some funny plug my brother charges this battery with while he drives around in his Landrover. This then keeps the battery charged and when you need it for times like these.
41594d99700627f50.jpg

41594d997060eca73.jpg

So with all that said, all you ppl are prob wondering how long the tank ran with this setup.

When i got the battery it was at 12.60 (without load)
I started the backup on the tank at bout 19:00 and it ran until 22:00 (a bit after 10)

When i cheaked the V on the battery.
12.02V (with a load)

and 12.19V (without load)

So ja, it ran for 3hours like a dream and all my LS are still 100%


CW out:lol::thumbup::thumbup::tt2:
 
Francois said:
I needed that solution as I almost lost all my fish, Got my TANGS up and running again but my two goldies didnt make it.:(
Click to expand...
Ag no man.

That sucks.
Ja that solution i used as a temp fix worked like a bom.
Whats you tanks dimentions?

The only other thing i still want to cheak is if the ups will be able to charge that deep cycle battery.

Then ive got something that will work.
I still wana see how long that battery would last if i put on a power head, heater and return.

But so far it looks good cos it ran with my setup about 3hours long.
Wich saved my LS.

Cw out.
 
DAMN Francois!

Not good.

We guys really need to find a solution - CW - we put you in charge :p

But seriosly, I was also heavily stressed last night, power out from about 16H00 to 22H00 but luckily I had no losses..

CW - I saw the anemone at the Visdam, and it looked like a bubble tip to me. Very nice specimen I must say.

Ciao.

Niel
 
Nsteyn said:
DAMN Francois!

Not good.

We guys really need to find a solution - CW - we put you in charge :p

But seriosly, I was also heavily stressed last night, power out from about 16H00 to 22H00 but luckily I had no losses..

CW - I saw the anemone at the Visdam, and it looked like a bubble tip to me. Very nice specimen I must say.

Ciao.

Niel
Click to expand...


Yeah surprising francois, as when eskom was doing power cuts two years ago i ran my tanks through all of it without any losses,although the longest cut there was six hours max.

I suggest a return pump as essential to keep the tank alive and ONLY in winter try to keep the heater on a bit if its a freezing night but turn the temp down to like 23,2 degrees drop wont be too bad....also covering the tank with a blanket helps to keep it insulated to keep temps stable in those situations.IN summer you dont need a heater on the tank in emergencies.

Lights are not critical,your corals can last two-3 days without light easily.Skimmer also not critical at these times.



Yes steyn it also looked like a bubble tip to me when I saw it at die visdam.much greener than the pics show also:whistling:

CW where's that star polyps that look different to the others,i thought you took it also when i was there?:)
 
CW said:
Ag no man.

That sucks.
Ja that solution i used as a temp fix worked like a bom.
Whats you tanks dimentions?

The only other thing i still want to cheak is if the ups will be able to charge that deep cycle battery.

Then ive got something that will work.
I still wana see how long that battery would last if i put on a power head, heater and return.

But so far it looks good cos it ran with my setup about 3hours long.
Wich saved my LS.

Cw out.
Click to expand...

My tank dimentions are 1,2 x 410 x 580. Got such a big scare last night, all of my tangs and copper butterfly fish were laying on theire sides and suffocating.

So I took each one by hand and moved them a bit until the power came back on, and decided to get a genie this morning, I don't want to see what happend last night ever in my life again. Got my first tear in ages when I saw this. But your solution also looks very rewarding going to try it myself for another back-up.

Also saw the nennie on Friday at Visdam very nice Green bubble tip nennie and very healthy, nice buy:thumbup:
 
Francois said:
So I took each one by hand and moved them a bit until the power came back on
Click to expand...

simplest thing to do in this situation is take a jug and scoop up tank water and pour in rapidly back into the tank,without moving the substrate too much though.....this aerates the water which is generally the biggest concern.a battery air pump helps with this also
 
Falcon said:
simplest thing to do in this situation is take a jug and scoop up tank water and pour in rapidly back into the tank,without moving the substrate too much though.....this aerates the water which is generally the biggest concern.a battery air pump helps with this also
Click to expand...

Thanx for the tip buddy will do so if it happens again:thumbup:
 
butcherman said:
looks like a good easy soloution CW :thumbup:

Is this a permament soloution or a once off?
Click to expand...

sorry to chip in chris but butcherman a simpler solution would be to get an invertor and a deep cycle battery like he has,this will charge the battery when power is on and switch to battery power when main lines are down


the only thing to remember that way is to get a pure sine wave invertor as lotsa people had problems with the pumps using the normal cheap ones.
 
Falcon said:
Yeah surprising francois, as when eskom was doing power cuts two years ago i ran my tanks through all of it without any losses,although the longest cut there was six hours max.

I suggest a return pump as essential to keep the tank alive and ONLY in winter try to keep the heater on a bit if its a freezing night but turn the temp down to like 23,2 degrees drop wont be too bad....also covering the tank with a blanket helps to keep it insulated to keep temps stable in those situations.IN summer you dont need a heater on the tank in emergencies.

Lights are not critical,your corals can last two-3 days without light easily.Skimmer also not critical at these times.



Yes steyn it also looked like a bubble tip to me when I saw it at die visdam.much greener than the pics show also:whistling:

CW where's that star polyps that look different to the others,i thought you took it also when i was there?:)
Click to expand...

I wanted to but dident have more ash to spend.
Man ive spend loads at Die Visdam already.

Now i have to wait a bit.

Cw out:thumbup:
 
Francois said:
My tank dimentions are 1,2 x 410 x 580. Got such a big scare last night, all of my tangs and copper butterfly fish were laying on theire sides and suffocating.

So I took each one by hand and moved them a bit until the power came back on, and decided to get a genie this morning, I don't want to see what happend last night ever in my life again. Got my first tear in ages when I saw this. But your solution also looks very rewarding going to try it myself for another back-up.

Also saw the nennie on Friday at Visdam very nice Green bubble tip nennie and very healthy, nice buy:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Thanx man, ja ive decided about taking or not taking it for days. Then finnaly i took it.
And im very happy i did.

I got a battery operated air pump for R97 when i went to durbs in feb.
It works non stop for 2days on two flash light batteries.

Very nice unit. And cheap.

Cw out:thumbup:
 
butcherman said:
looks like a good easy soloution CW :thumbup:

Is this a permament soloution or a once off?
Click to expand...

This was a temp solution cos i had to get some kind of power.
This was an idea i had or a while now but never knew what battery i would use.

Then when this happened i tried my best and just did it man.
But this could work like a bom man.

Im gona do some more tests to try and see how long this would last.
I think about 8hours will be fine.

But ill have to see what hapens with my tests.

But the ideal solution will be to get a genie.

Cw out:thumbup:
 
Falcon said:
sorry to chip in chris but butcherman a simpler solution would be to get an invertor and a deep cycle battery like he has,this will charge the battery when power is on and switch to battery power when main lines are down


the only thing to remember that way is to get a pure sine wave invertor as lotsa people had problems with the pumps using the normal cheap ones.
Click to expand...
True true but a already had that idea.

It will work but if you want to buy a good inverter your gona pay anything from R1500 and more.

A 600va ups will cost you about R450 - R650 for a nice make.
Which is a lot cheaper.
Im still gona see what the charging voltage are for the UPS.
If this is fine then charging the deep cycle wont be a problem.

So then using a UPS instead of a invertor that will work the same for less.

Cw out:thumbup:
 
UPS pricing

PCM® Black Knight Pro 600va Line-Interactive, RS232 Port, Cable, UPSMon Software, 1xRJ11 & RJ45, Surge Protector, 2x Outputs
For R550

PCM® Black Knight Pro 1000va Line-Interactive, RS232 Port, Cable, UPSMon Software, 1xRJ11 & RJ45, Surge Protector, 4x Output For R960

PCM® Black Knight Pro 1500va Line-Interactive, RS232 Port, Cable, UPSMon Software, 1xRJ11 & RJ45, Surge Protector, 4x Outputs R1440


PCM® Black Knight Pro 2000va Line-Interactive, RS232 Port, Cable, UPSMon Software, 1xRJ11 & RJ45, Surge Protector, 4x Outputs R2055

But id get the cheapest one. Cos you dont worry about the battery inside this ups.
Cos your gona put a Deep Cycle on it anny way.

Cw out:thumbup:
 
all you need is to have some water movement. All the other things, can stay off. Lights, skimmer, reactors, most powerheads, all of them, no need to run.

Most important, especially with a DSB, is just enough movement over it.

What I use is a 500GPH boat bilge pump. It pulls 1.9 Amp. That is it. It delivers 1900L/h. Enough to run as a return pump. I do not leave the pump in the water forever, but rather reconnect as needed. That did work on 2 small batteries, the same as in the gatemotors and house alarms for 5.5 hours. So on a single deep cycle, it will last a lot longer.

On a deep cycle and inverter setup, I might add one powerhead to provide a bit more movement in the display. Nothing more.
 
RiaanP said:
all you need is to have some water movement. All the other things, can stay off. Lights, skimmer, reactors, most powerheads, all of them, no need to run.

Most important, especially with a DSB, is just enough movement over it.

What I use is a 500GPH boat bilge pump. It pulls 1.9 Amp. That is it. It delivers 1900L/h. Enough to run as a return pump. I do not leave the pump in the water forever, but rather reconnect as needed. That did work on 2 small batteries, the same as in the gatemotors and house alarms for 5.5 hours. So on a single deep cycle, it will last a lot longer.

On a deep cycle and inverter setup, I might add one powerhead to provide a bit more movement in the display. Nothing more.
Click to expand...

Great adice there RiaanP.

This post can go far.
I think we can build the next great backup unit for Reefers.
Mhaaamahhhhaaa

hehe.

Im thinking of making a unit where you put a full multiplug on.
So if you want to add more devices you can. Your battery will then just not last that long.

But yea.
I love all these ideas. Great stuff PPL.

Cw out:thumbup:
 
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