DIY battery back up?

[jeebus]

Wow, awesome first post! Welcome to the box.

[MeuserReef]

If your powerhead is one that operates on 110V AC power (the kind that plug right into the wall socket), then you will not be able to run them off of a battery without the help of a Power Inverter.

The only pumps that I know of that can be directly wired to a battery are the DC Tunze streams (which are $$$$)

You can build a power backup using a 12V "Deep Cycle" Marine battery, a small power inverter pretty cheap (<$75 probably). The tricky part is creating the "Automatic Transfer Switch" that will detect when the power is out and switch the powerhead over to the backup power.

How big of a pump and how long you want it to run will determine the "AH" (amp-hour) capacity of the battery that will be required.

Sorry to sound so technical but I am a real geek when it comes to this type of stuff

(plus... I too am looking into building a backup for my reef tank)

[armthehomeless]

I saw that fshfrk had created one using a car battery and an old cell phone charger last year... he just spliced the wires from the powerhead to the cell phone charger and plugger it in to the battery

[myjohnson]

So hurricane season is coming soon again. I was thinking of making a battery back up pack for my powerhead to keep the water moving if the lights go out.

I don't know to much about this find of stuff, so I'm looking for any information on how to make one.

thanks guys.