# Battery backup air/water pumps.



## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Wow, I got hit hard last night (thankfully after dinner was 95% done) ~2100-0400 was when the power outage hit us here. We had a few times when the power came back on but only for about a few seconds then it powered off again in my neighbourhood. I think the power surge of everything on then caused it to overload the power company.  

Anyways, so I was about 7hrs without power. Thank goddess I had backup flashlights and some camping stuff/emergency supplies handy in case it was a long outage I could still boil water and what not (I did boil some water  ).

I went ot my fish tank and put my battery backup pump to the test for the first time. I got this air pump a while ago at Petsmart thinking I'd use it as a portable air pump when I was transfering fish back home.

Well last night while walking in the dark I took it out (had batteries in it before (Duracell Pre-charged LSD 2000mAh batteries) ) and put it into the fish tank. Well it's 0835 now so that means it was running ~11h35m (at least 10hrs) so it passed the test and trial by fire as I never did a test run of it before.

Now I'm wondering if there are any battery backup water pumps that can go on when the power if off? My air pump has a power plug on it which is good if you plug it in the wall so when the power goes out it instantly goes to battery mode.

Now to try and built me a small sponge filter with an air lift system so when the power goes out that air pump can do double duty by filtering the water and aerating it as well.

Lets also hear others black out stories and suggestions.


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

I have never heard of a battery powered water pump or any other sort of filtration device or heater for that matter. I have heard that for longer power outages that insulated blankets are great for protecting your tanks from a temperature drop. Also a small UPS like used for computers can be used to power your lower voltage devices, not lights or heaters though.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

I think azoo makes battery powered air pumps.

I see many people talking about battery powered air pumps on PF.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

There are a lot of battery powered air pumps. Hagen makes them, as do a number of other companies:
http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/skus/ap/APPP-SAB10.asp?L+scstore+yvhg2146fff58ff5+1249925017
http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/skus/ap/APPP-SAB11.asp?L+scstore+yvhg2146fff58ff5+1249925017
http://www.petsandponds.com/en/aquarium-supplies/c5943/c152231/index.html

As for battery powered Water pumps, I don't know of any myself, but I'm sure someone makes one.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

KnaveTO said:


> I have never heard of a battery powered water pump or any other sort of filtration device or heater for that matter. I have heard that for longer power outages that insulated blankets are great for protecting your tanks from a temperature drop. Also a small UPS like used for computers can be used to power your lower voltage devices, not lights or heaters though.


Well you can have lighting as well if you want. Just not full power lighting that is. A single high power LED is capable of producing ~272lumens at 1Amp (3W IIRC). Or at the minimum 100-110lumens at 350mA.

I guess for those that want the lighting to enjoy the blackout while watching thier fish. I dabble a bit in the DIY lighting. You can run a high powered LED at 350mA (1W) on 4xAA for about ~4hrs using a 2000mA battery. 

It'll be brighter on smaller tanks of course  but a nice night glow on larger tanks using 1-3 of those LED's.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> There are a lot of battery powered air pumps. Hagen makes them, as do a number of other companies:
> http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/skus/ap/APPP-SAB10.asp?L+scstore+yvhg2146fff58ff5+1249925017
> http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/skus/ap/APPP-SAB11.asp?L+scstore+yvhg2146fff58ff5+1249925017
> http://www.petsandponds.com/en/aquarium-supplies/c5943/c152231/index.html
> ...


Thanks for the links.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Ok just wanted to run this by you guys here and have the collective here see if they can answer this as I could be fuzzy on my calculations.

A filter that consumes 6W of power is hooked up to a UPS power backup device be it Triplite/Ultra/UPS how do I calculate how long it would run for in a black out?

Say a UPS like this one. I'm assuming you take the 1200W and do the following calculation :

1200W / 6W = 200hr / 24hr = 8.333 days runtime.

Is this correct?

If not how do you calculate the run time? 8 days if true is a good safety net if you have.

I'm looking at my backup plan again. Can anyone tell me if that calculation is correct?


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## Aquatic Designs (Apr 2, 2006)

Water does not go out with the power. If the power is out longer then 2 hours or a see signs of stress in the fish I do a water change. Just a normal one. But when I put the water back i use a valve to increase the pressure from my hose so that the water aerates as it is returned to the tank. I also use cooler water as it contains more oxygen.

I wouldn't worry about the temperature getting too cold for the fish. Worry about the fish dieing from lack of oxygen. 

Also, never let a canister turn back on after a long power outage. If the bacteria dies before it comes back on you could lose everything in the tank when it pumps all the dead BB into the tank.

I always phone the power company and ask what is the longest the power could be down. If they say an hour don't worry about the filter. If it could be more then 4 hours, empty all the water out of the canister. You can safely let it sit wet and empty of water for days without risk of die off. 

There are battery power pumps. But not in the aquarium world. And they are very expensive. UPS are cheap and will keep most filters and air pumps going for hours if not days.


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## petee_c (Jan 4, 2008)

AquaNeko said:


> Ok just wanted to run this by you guys here and have the collective here see if they can answer this as I could be fuzzy on my calculations.
> 
> A filter that consumes 6W of power is hooked up to a UPS power backup device be it Triplite/Ultra/UPS how do I calculate how long it would run for in a black out?
> 
> ...


Looking at the tigerdirect page, it says it can run half load (so assume 600W) for 7 minutes.....

So you basically have 4200W-minutes.... If your appliance requires 6W, I think it could run 4200w-minutes / 6W = 700 minutes or just about 12h. Say 10-12h to be safe.

P


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Aquatic Designs said:


> Also, never let a canister turn back on after a long power outage. If the bacteria dies before it comes back on you could lose everything in the tank when it pumps all the dead BB into the tank.


+100


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## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

Instead of a UPS you could try one of the booster packs for cars. They come in various sizes and usually have a regular outlet on the front. This would only work if you were home and could plug everything in.


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