EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
Or, look at Vintage's post 
Wattage Calculation for Battery Backup?
- Thread starter cdw79
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EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
You're very welcome. I have the Houston knowhow, but Vintage has much better info on the power sources.
If you want to pm me with any additional "Houston" questions, feel free
cdw79
Well-Known Member
Much appreciated! I've just recently moved back so knowing someone who knows what they're doing AND understand the rollercoaster that is reefing in Houston is invaluable. Really appreciate you both!You're very welcome. I have the Houston knowhow, but Vintage has much better info on the power sources.
If you want to pm me with any additional "Houston" questions, feel free
VintageReefer
2500 Club Member
Portable Gas generators are not really the magical answer either. As I have both
My gas generator is 4000 running watts. It takes 4 gallons of gas I think? And it’s loud as a tank, needs a shelter to run in the rain, pumps out poison carbon monoxide gas, and lasts about 10 hours
So figure to run one full night/day, I need 8 gallons of gas
To run a week, I would need like 50 gallons of gas stored round the clock ready to go, with fuel stabilizer added to keep it from breaking down
Hint. I do keep approx 30-40 gallons of gas stored in metal milgrade cans…but this is dangerous in itself. It’s a lot of gasoline to store in a garage.
It you want the ideal solution. Like you are in a potentially dangerous area, and need completely ideal. You need a house with solar panels or a in ground generator plumbed to natural gas, propane, etc
These run forever and are safer and automatic
My gas generator is 4000 running watts. It takes 4 gallons of gas I think? And it’s loud as a tank, needs a shelter to run in the rain, pumps out poison carbon monoxide gas, and lasts about 10 hours
So figure to run one full night/day, I need 8 gallons of gas
To run a week, I would need like 50 gallons of gas stored round the clock ready to go, with fuel stabilizer added to keep it from breaking down
Hint. I do keep approx 30-40 gallons of gas stored in metal milgrade cans…but this is dangerous in itself. It’s a lot of gasoline to store in a garage.
It you want the ideal solution. Like you are in a potentially dangerous area, and need completely ideal. You need a house with solar panels or a in ground generator plumbed to natural gas, propane, etc
These run forever and are safer and automatic
Not sure you really need to power the return pump. but rather just one or two small wave makers and maybe one in your sump if you have a refugium there. You really just need to keep the surface of the water agitated so it remains oxygenated for at least the hurricane situation. It is the loss of oxygen that kills the tanks during a power outage. This would reduce you power demand significantly and allow for a much longer run time on the batteries you are considering.
Kmst80
Well-Known Member
Here is my approach for a power outage, not necessarily a whole week though. It'll run my two wavemakers to keep water moving.
I got 2 50 Ah batteries, a trickle charger, a converter to convert the 240 volt and a battery protector.
Luckily I got a mate that knows what he's doing hooking it up for me.
The trickle charger will charge those batteries consistently while the wavemakers running of it. If power is cut the batteries will still run the wavemakers and since I got 100 Ah I can run both wavemakers about 20 hours on full since each has a output of 2.75 A. If you get bigger batteries you obviously could run them longer.
Cost for me was about 150 Au$ plus some labour at my mates place.
I got 2 50 Ah batteries, a trickle charger, a converter to convert the 240 volt and a battery protector.
Luckily I got a mate that knows what he's doing hooking it up for me.
The trickle charger will charge those batteries consistently while the wavemakers running of it. If power is cut the batteries will still run the wavemakers and since I got 100 Ah I can run both wavemakers about 20 hours on full since each has a output of 2.75 A. If you get bigger batteries you obviously could run them longer.
Cost for me was about 150 Au$ plus some labour at my mates place.
Natural_Reefer
Active Member
Wow, what kind of generator do you have? That is not very efficient at all (unless you loaded everything and maxed out at 4,000W).
I have a Honda 2200i which I converted to tri-fuel. I could run every equipment on the 100gal fish tank and some small portable electronics for over 17hrs on a single gallon of gas or about 20hrs on a single Propane tank.
I also have the Ecoflow Delta 1260wh. Which I use as back up for just the return pump when we are out of town. I have tested several times and the battery will last about 15hrs running the Sicce SDC 9.0 drawing 61W. These Portable Power Station is not very efficient when the loads are small. In this case, about 915wh (out of 1260wh) used by the pump; the rests lost to efficient and Inverter Self-consumption.
VintageReefer
2500 Club Member
I have this. It’s a older generator
www.samsclub.com
Most of the time I use battery backup stations for power outages, I just checked and my return pump on 50% power (it’s everyday setting) uses 21 watts. I usually bump this down to 30% power during an outage which is only 13 watts. This lasts me 19 hours on a 300wh backup, providing my reef circulation, aeration, and filtration
Black Max 3,650W / 4,550W Portable Gas Powered Generator - Sam's Club
Buy Black Max 3,650W / 4,550W Portable Gas Powered Generator : Generators & Accessories at SamsClub.com
www.samsclub.com
Most of the time I use battery backup stations for power outages, I just checked and my return pump on 50% power (it’s everyday setting) uses 21 watts. I usually bump this down to 30% power during an outage which is only 13 watts. This lasts me 19 hours on a 300wh backup, providing my reef circulation, aeration, and filtration
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