DIY UPS setup for Aquarium

@JCL: "In that case one would need to look into the long term effect and how it effects the life-span of the pump." Implying that running a UPS on any type of equipment would be damaging too it. Hence my statement.

16 hours off a single charge for my filter is 16 hours more than you would have if your power failed. And 16 of filtration that could possibly save my livestock in my tank, and considering that this extended 16 hours of filtration cost me nothing except some DIY, which really is the point of DIY, then I can safely say this is a win for me and the livestock.

The DIY worked like I wanted too and I am happy with the results, as if and when there would be load shedding or any type of power outage 16 hours would be more than enough in a normal scenario. As for the batteries info I did state that the manufacturers don't give those details and that you need to open up the unit to look at them.

 

Had a local power outage for about 3 hours this morning while I was gone, just as I was walking in the power went back on again the UPS was still running my two filters perfectly.

 

@Swagasaurus. I have two ups systems with no cables where can a get cables for them?

 

Most computer shops will have them for sale, you are looking at male to female kettle cords.

 

Thanks. Will have a look over the weekend

 

Added a second UPS for my canister filter so now both my filters are running on a UPS which gives me roughly about a day's worth of operation.

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Hi I went with a 1000w inverter and a 102amp deep cycle batory. Works well for me.

These are kept in another room not far from the tank.

 

Tag

 

Nice setup, I would have liked to go that route but problem is space and the wife would moan about it sitting on the floor. So I went the UPS route. And with winter coming I can see load shedding returning.

 

OK guys on this topic. I have one of these aswell and due to my VERY unstable school like knowledge of series and parallels. I don’t have a problem with this standing open, I will make a plan. Here is my question. Since this UPS has 2 battery’s in parallel what is stopping me from adding maybe another 2 of the same type of battery’s into the array thus making it a 4 battery setup instead of 2?

 

@ROEKSTE: It should be fine but, they have to be the exact same type of batteries or you might end up blowing the whole thing. And never daisy chain two UPS together.

 

Thanks for this but any idee on how far one can safely expand this type of unit(2 , 4, 6 or 10 battery's)? Thinking of the UPS managment system that is configured.

 

Thanks @Swagasaurus it was a little on the expensive side but worth the effort when it came to the power being cut. My question to all that has responded. You all seem to have a rather good understanding of how power works so let me ask you. With regards to the deep cycle battery, it is a self containing unit. Does it require discharging of some kind? How do you maintain it? The company that I got it from told me that I should not leave it disconnected from a charge for a long time that is all.

Any thoughts?

 

@dash: Here you go: Battery School | Batteriesnorthwest.com | General deep cycle battery care procedures

 

Thanks mate. A little hard to understand but I will work my way threw it.

 

@dash: Not that hard to grasp once you get the basic down.

 

@ROEKSTE, the theory is sound (as long as you use exactly the same batteries), but the problem is that the UPS electronics are not designed to charge four discharged batteries. When the batteries run down completely, like when the power is down for 11 hours, they will all draw a significant in-rush current to charge when the power comes on again. The UPS is designed to handle a maximum in-rush current to charge two batteries. Adding another two will eventually overheat the charging circuit and pop it.

Hope this answers your question.

 

@JJFury - Jip thanks.

 

Busy setting up the second UPS for use on the second filter, took a male to female kettle cord and lobbed off the female part and attached an two way adapter to it:

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The male part goes from the UPS's output to the filter.