Using a UPS with a reef tank

[Joshua Kerstetter]

2200VA RMUS unit is what I'm using currently, it uses a 48v 4x 12v block kit of 5ah models, before that I was using a 1500VA 24v system with 4 7.2ah batteries that also worked well. The 1500 was a pseudo sine wave, where the 2200 is a pure sine wave unit. The Smart Power series tends to be a higher quality unit and is either pseudo or pure sine wave, that's important for powering DC pumps. I've never tried replacing batteries in anything but a APC brand unit, as the cheaper units I've never had success with. Battery quality itself is also of concern, when shopping on amazon I've just read all the reviews to see what others say. Or locally I've gone to batteries plus that gives you a core exchange and I've never had issues with any of their batteries in many APC brand units, and cost wise they were the same as amazon.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I use the term lightly for people to understand the purpose. It however does not power the Apex. The Apex gets its power from the eb32 or similar. That DC power supply has only one function, sense power on the line its plugged into.

That is NOT true, the AUX power supply is just that, Auxillary power. It provides additional source of power. When you yank the power cable from your EB or simply lose power, the extra power supply keeps the APEX running. If you plug it into the UPS you can keep monitoring the tank while the power is out for as long as your UPS runs. While running off of UPS you can get your inverter connected to a car battery or generator started without losing programming and ability to monitor your setup.

IMHO the extra power supply is an absolute must and Neptune should bundle one with every APEX sold. Additionally, this extra power supply plugged in via UPS, can provide far more stable environment and protect your investment considerably. I also strongly believe that a lot of the silly glitches people experience with their APEX can be avoided if one provided clean power to the APEX brain in this very fashion.

 

[Ocelaris]

Yeah, I have an apc smart ups 1500va, but when you swap batteries, it knows how it can draw down on the batteries, so it won't accept larger capacity. So I'm wondering how yours reacts. My smart ups is pure sine wave and takes the generator better than the cheaper brand that isn't happy with dirty generator power.

Have you done a full draw down of it with the larger batteries and seen how long it will go? Mine has some internal knowledge of how long its supposed to last, so changing out the batteries for larger ones may not work.

 

[Ocelaris]

That is NOT true, the AUX power supply is just that, Auxillary power. It provides additional source of power. When you yank the power cable from your EB or simply lose power, the extra power supply keeps the APEX running. If you plug it into the UPS you can keep monitoring the tank while the power is out for as long as your UPS runs. While running off of UPS you can get your inverter connected to a car battery or generator started without losing programming and ability to monitor your setup.

IMHO the extra power supply is an absolute must and Neptune should bundle one with every APEX sold. Additionally, this extra power supply plugged in via UPS, can provide far more stable environment and protect your investment considerably. I also strongly believe that a lot of the silly glitches people experience with their APEX can be avoided if one provided clean power to the APEX brain in this very fashion.

I stand corrected, everything I had read said that it was meant only for detecting the power outage situation, but clearly in the manual it says:

"The base unit accepts power from two sources - the EB8 via the USB looking AquaBus connection or via a DC adapter (Neptune P/N PS12, 500ma output, 12v, 2.1mm tip, center electrode positive). To insure you keep power long enough, get a small UPS. It only needs to be big enough to power the base unit, your router and modem and your PC (assuming you don't use a laptop). A UPS in the 300 - 500Va capacity should be more than enough."

I think the point is if you hook that up to your UPS, you can't "detect" that power is out, so although it CAN be used to power the Apex, 99% of the time people just use it as a power outage detector, and hence forget that it can actually be used to power the UPS.

So I still would never plug this into a UPS, since the EB8 etc... would be plugged into the UPS, and that would power the Apex in a power outage situation. Otherwise you'd have no way to detect power outage. Anyways that's how I have mine set up and it works well.

 

[BZOFIQ]

To the OP, this question comes up all the time. Search for UPS or battery backup and read them all.

I have 2 UPS units serving my tank needs at the moment. They are smart APC UPS with full on network management so I get notified of any events (power failure, system checks, power restored, defective/spent battery, etc) via email and SMS.

To run heaters for any meaningful amount of time you'd need a huge and expensive unit. Heat loss is secondary worry during power outage, water movement/oxygen exchange is #1 priority. The heat loss can be addressed by other means if need be.

One thing to remember if you are still using AC pumps and powerheads; they will not run properly on cheap UPS units because these are not Pure SineWave. Same goes for cheap generators!

Once the line power cuts off and the units starts running off bettery they (the pumps) will rattle instead of properly spinning; this may even cause pump failure. Most cheaper UPS units provide whats called Modified Sine Wave power which is not good for anything sensitive. I've noticed that DC pumps arent affected by this because their power supply will "clean" the power for them. As is the case with other sensitive computer equipment, a cheap UPS with modified wave output can even destroy them.

Hope this helps.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Have you done a full draw down of it with the larger batteries and seen how long it will go? Mine has some internal knowledge of how long its supposed to last, so changing out the batteries for larger ones may not work.

I haven't tried this yet but certainly will once I get the new setup up and running. Technically speaking it should be possible and many people have done it. I believe a run-down calibration could be initialized to re-calibrate the SmartUPS. It would probably take a day for the UPS unit to fully charge these larger batteries after a power outage once the power is restored.

 

[Joshua Kerstetter]

I have not yet actually hooked up larger batteries *yet*. I wanted to experiment this weekend, but the batteries I was going to use didn't turn out to be good before I got them installed. I have the wiring, just haven't gotten there. I have done several load tests with the unit I have, I have everything connected and configured in the way Neptune recommends, so I simulate a outage by killing the breaker that supplies the UPS and Apex, I also have the network management card, and all my network equipment is also UPS supplied, so it allows me to test that all my programming is good, the alerts come out and I can simulate a run test. I work for a telecommunication company and a significant part of my job is doing monthly power and alarm routines. I can't stress enough, its all well and good to have a backup, programming, alarms, etc.. but if you don't actually TEST things in real world situations and know they work as expected its useless.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I think the point is if you hook that up to your UPS, you can't "detect" that power is out, so although it CAN be used to power the Apex, 99% of the time people just use it as a power outage detector, and hence forget that it can actually be used to power the UPS.

So I still would never plug this into a UPS, since the EB8 etc... would be plugged into the UPS, and that would power the Apex in a power outage situation. Otherwise you'd have no way to detect power outage. Anyways that's how I have mine set up and it works well.

The EB832 has power monitoring built into the power strip. If programmed correctly it senses outage even if AUX power is connected.

I have the older APEX Classic (probably one of the first) with EB8s and EB4 so I use the APC UPS to notify me directly.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I can't stress enough, its all well and good to have a backup, programming, alarms, etc.. but if you don't actually TEST things in real world situations and know they work as expected its useless.

Agreed. Test every few months to make sure all works as planned.

One thing to remember, don't run the UPS all the way down for testing or you will shorten their useful capacity and battery life.

 

[BZOFIQ]

So to expand on what I already said. I have all my powherheads and APEX AUX on one UPS and my return pump on the second unit.

In the future I will change this where I have an Automatic Transfer Switch to run down one UPS and then auto switch to provide power from the second unit.

You can get a cheap Xantrex ATS from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-8080...56337&sr=8-1&keywords=xantrex+transfer+switch

or go all out and get an APC or CyberPower branded unit but for this purpose it might be a bit overkill.

I use these for IT environments

https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-P...&sr=8-4&keywords=automatic+transfer+switch+1u

Keep in mind that you cannot plug multiple UPS units into one-another (in series) to extend their run time.

With my current setup it gives me or somebody else about 3+ hours to come home to connect my ...... pure sine Honda Generator.

 

[don_chuwish]

I too have set up my Apex following their guide for use with a UPS. After some testing I found that the return pump, even slowed way down, was causing too much draw. So now I have Apex set up to kill the power to everything except one Tunze power head, and reduce that to 35%. An even better option for prolonged outages would be a battery powered air pump like the Cobalt Aquatics Rescue Air.
Maintaining heat without a generator would require a huge UPS.

 

[kswan]

Can you give more details on that? I would love to cannabalize my old ups instead of buying the mini batteries.

I got an APC XS 1500 free from work with dead batteries. They were hooked up with simple spade connectors so I used some matching wire and extended them to reach two deep cycle marine batteries wired in series to get the 24v required by the UPS. I have not done a full drain down but I probably should. From what I have read it may be required to get the UPS to recognize the additional capacity. My eb832 is plugged into the UPS and the aux power is plugged into the wall so the Apex will know when power is lost. My router is also plugged into the UPS.