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Posted by Edward Cowling London UK on February 16, 2006, 6:36 am
Please log in for more thread options I guess we take continuous power for granted in the UK, and perhaps we
shouldn't. My part of North London lost power from 10pm until 11pm last
night.
I've several tanks of fish and I wasn't unduly worried as the central
heating worked ok (once I took it off the timer), and I had confidence
it wasn't going to be off for hours.
But despite my tanks not being over stocked I noticed the poor old
Platys looked very unhappy after an hour without the filters going. The
Silver sharks for some reason started trying to jump out of the tank
once the filters started up again. I had to put a book on the tank lid !
I'm assuming they didn't like the water quality :-) But after a few
minutes they seemed ok.
Is there a commercially available Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) for
the home aquarium ? I would imagine it wouldn't take much to keep the
filters going for an hour or so.
--
Edward Cowling London UK
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Posted by =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=A7tudz?= on February 16, 2006, 8:19 am
Please log in for more thread options
Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
> I guess we take continuous power for granted in the UK, and perhaps we
> shouldn't. My part of North London lost power from 10pm until 11pm last
> night.
>
> I've several tanks of fish and I wasn't unduly worried as the central
> heating worked ok (once I took it off the timer), and I had confidence
> it wasn't going to be off for hours.
>
> But despite my tanks not being over stocked I noticed the poor old
> Platys looked very unhappy after an hour without the filters going. The
> Silver sharks for some reason started trying to jump out of the tank
> once the filters started up again. I had to put a book on the tank lid !
> I'm assuming they didn't like the water quality :-) But after a few
> minutes they seemed ok.
>
> Is there a commercially available Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) for
> the home aquarium ? I would imagine it wouldn't take much to keep the
> filters going for an hour or so.
>
>
I would guess any UPS would work, you can buy cheap second hand ones,
which have been used in computer server rooms, I'm not sure where I last
saw them though.
§tudz
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Posted by PABBY on February 16, 2006, 8:57 am
Please log in for more thread options §tudz wrote:
> Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
>> I guess we take continuous power for granted in the UK, and perhaps
>> we shouldn't. My part of North London lost power from 10pm until
>> 11pm last night.
>>
>> I've several tanks of fish and I wasn't unduly worried as the central
>> heating worked ok (once I took it off the timer), and I had
>> confidence it wasn't going to be off for hours.
>>
>> But despite my tanks not being over stocked I noticed the poor old
>> Platys looked very unhappy after an hour without the filters going.
>> The Silver sharks for some reason started trying to jump out of the
>> tank once the filters started up again. I had to put a book on the
>> tank lid ! I'm assuming they didn't like the water quality :-) But
>> after a few minutes they seemed ok.
>>
>> Is there a commercially available Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS)
>> for the home aquarium ? I would imagine it wouldn't take much to
>> keep the filters going for an hour or so.
>>
>>
>
> I would guess any UPS would work, you can buy cheap second hand ones,
> which have been used in computer server rooms, I'm not sure where I
> last saw them though.
>
> §tudz
Be careful if you invest in a 2nd-hand, ex-commercial UPS. The batteries on
them are like any other rechargeables - they lose the capacity to store
charge after a while and that's the reason they're no longer wanted by their
owners.
A well-used UPS claiming it has a full battery charge may, in fact, run out
of power after just a few minutes. And they ain't cheap to replace either,
e.g. £120+ for an APC Smart-UPS 1400 battery replacement against £300+ for a
new UPS of a similar capacity. Ok, this model is a bit beefier than you
would need, but you get my drift. Having said that, one of these, fully
charged, would easily run a few tanks for several hours, so it may we be
worth the investment if you tot-up the cost (and hassle) of replacing the
contents of your tanks.
Paul
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Posted by Mr Fixit on February 16, 2006, 10:06 am
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"PABBY" <AsIfIWould> wrote in message
> §tudz wrote:
>> Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
>>> I guess we take continuous power for granted in the UK, and perhaps
>>> we shouldn't. My part of North London lost power from 10pm until
>>> 11pm last night.
>>>
>>> I've several tanks of fish and I wasn't unduly worried as the central
>>> heating worked ok (once I took it off the timer), and I had
>>> confidence it wasn't going to be off for hours.
>>>
>>> But despite my tanks not being over stocked I noticed the poor old
>>> Platys looked very unhappy after an hour without the filters going.
>>> The Silver sharks for some reason started trying to jump out of the
>>> tank once the filters started up again. I had to put a book on the
>>> tank lid ! I'm assuming they didn't like the water quality :-) But
>>> after a few minutes they seemed ok.
>>>
>>> Is there a commercially available Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS)
>>> for the home aquarium ? I would imagine it wouldn't take much to
>>> keep the filters going for an hour or so.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I would guess any UPS would work, you can buy cheap second hand ones,
>> which have been used in computer server rooms, I'm not sure where I
>> last saw them though.
>>
>> §tudz
>
> Be careful if you invest in a 2nd-hand, ex-commercial UPS. The batteries
> on them are like any other rechargeables - they lose the capacity to
> store charge after a while and that's the reason they're no longer wanted
> by their owners.
>
> A well-used UPS claiming it has a full battery charge may, in fact, run
> out of power after just a few minutes. And they ain't cheap to replace
> either, e.g. £120+ for an APC Smart-UPS 1400 battery replacement against
> £300+ for a new UPS of a similar capacity. Ok, this model is a bit beefier
> than you would need, but you get my drift. Having said that, one of these,
> fully charged, would easily run a few tanks for several hours, so it may
> we be worth the investment if you tot-up the cost (and hassle) of
> replacing the contents of your tanks.
>
> Paul
>
>
the only problem with most computer type ups's they are not designed to run
for hours just long enough to cleanly shut down the computer
check below these are designed for home use running TV's
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BI800I
not sure if these are available to the UK
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Posted by PABBY on February 16, 2006, 12:25 pm
Please log in for more thread options Mr Fixit wrote:
> "PABBY" <AsIfIWould> wrote in message
>> §tudz wrote:
>>> Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
>>>> I guess we take continuous power for granted in the UK, and perhaps
>>>> we shouldn't. My part of North London lost power from 10pm until
>>>> 11pm last night.
>>>>
>>>> I've several tanks of fish and I wasn't unduly worried as the
>>>> central heating worked ok (once I took it off the timer), and I had
>>>> confidence it wasn't going to be off for hours.
>>>>
>>>> But despite my tanks not being over stocked I noticed the poor old
>>>> Platys looked very unhappy after an hour without the filters going.
>>>> The Silver sharks for some reason started trying to jump out of the
>>>> tank once the filters started up again. I had to put a book on the
>>>> tank lid ! I'm assuming they didn't like the water quality :-) But
>>>> after a few minutes they seemed ok.
>>>>
>>>> Is there a commercially available Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS)
>>>> for the home aquarium ? I would imagine it wouldn't take much to
>>>> keep the filters going for an hour or so.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> I would guess any UPS would work, you can buy cheap second hand
>>> ones, which have been used in computer server rooms, I'm not sure
>>> where I last saw them though.
>>>
>>> §tudz
>>
>> Be careful if you invest in a 2nd-hand, ex-commercial UPS. The
>> batteries on them are like any other rechargeables - they lose the
>> capacity to store charge after a while and that's the reason they're
>> no longer wanted by their owners.
>>
>> A well-used UPS claiming it has a full battery charge may, in fact,
>> run out of power after just a few minutes. And they ain't cheap to
>> replace either, e.g. £120+ for an APC Smart-UPS 1400 battery
>> replacement against £300+ for a new UPS of a similar capacity. Ok,
>> this model is a bit beefier than you would need, but you get my
>> drift. Having said that, one of these, fully charged, would easily
>> run a few tanks for several hours, so it may we be worth the
>> investment if you tot-up the cost (and hassle) of replacing the
>> contents of your tanks. Paul
>>
>>
> the only problem with most computer type ups's they are not designed
> to run for hours just long enough to cleanly shut down the computer
> check below these are designed for home use running TV's
> http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BI800I
> not sure if these are available to the UK
[/geek mode on]
A computer UPS is usually controlled by either software on the host computer
or, in the case of models from the last few years, on-board software
controlled via http or telnet. Unless a calibration of the UPS has been
performed, then the default time is generally only a few minutes of uptime
when on battery. The consequence of running a calibration is to find out
exactly how long the UPS can support all its connected devices on battery
whilst retaining a battery charge of approximately one third capacity. Once
the calibration has been performed, it is then normal to reconfigure the
software with the actual time the UPS can support its devices in the event
of a power failure. A UPS controlled by external software will almost
certainly stay on-line until its batteries are exhausted.
[/geek mode off]
Paul
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> shouldn't. My part of North London lost power from 10pm until 11pm last
> night.
>
> I've several tanks of fish and I wasn't unduly worried as the central
> heating worked ok (once I took it off the timer), and I had confidence
> it wasn't going to be off for hours.
>
> But despite my tanks not being over stocked I noticed the poor old
> Platys looked very unhappy after an hour without the filters going. The
> Silver sharks for some reason started trying to jump out of the tank
> once the filters started up again. I had to put a book on the tank lid !
> I'm assuming they didn't like the water quality :-) But after a few
> minutes they seemed ok.
>
> Is there a commercially available Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) for
> the home aquarium ? I would imagine it wouldn't take much to keep the
> filters going for an hour or so.
>
>