Welcome Hermine! Vortech Batteries Rock!

[BSJF]

Anyone else without power? I'm SOO glad I have my vortech battery backup! It's a workin' hard!

[txav8r]

Power has been off and on several times here at work. I'm sure it has gone out at the house. It always does during a big windstorm. :(

[neogenix]

UPS for the win :)

[captexas]

Power went out here, not sure how long as I was at work. Came home early to find some damage from the wind. Blew one of the wind turbines off the roof so I had a hole in my roof for who knows how long. Now I'm completely soaked from trying to cover up the hole until the winds die down. Wind gusts also picked up my back patio cover lifting 2 out of 3 4x4 support posts out of their footings with one coming down off the concrete. Luckily it didn't pull down the entire structure.

[neogenix]

Wow, sorry to hear dude!

[Mr Cob]

Power out at my house for almost 2 hours now. Wife just informed me.

Wish I had a vortech battery backup. Will hook up some battery air pumps when I get home if it's still out. Bummer. So annoying that the power goes out every time it rains with a little gust of wind in our hood.

[txav8r]

Power has been off and on several times here at work. I'm sure it has gone out at the house. It always does during a big windstorm. :(


Power out at my house for almost 2 hours now. Wife just informed me.

Wish I had a vortech battery backup. Will hook up some battery air pumps when I get home if it's still out. Bummer. So annoying that the power goes out every time it rains with a little gust of wind in our hood.

I stand corrected... Rain with a little gust of wind is much more accurate than "Big wind storm" lol! It really doesn't take much for power to go out over there.

[Mr Cob]

^the worst is the traffic lights. They frequently go out at stone oak and huebner.

[BSJF]

Fortunately it came back on about an hour ago. I was bored silly after the computer battery died.

[ballardjr2000]

Well living here in Kingsville we took the impact of it BIG time. I lost power for 6 hours no circulation anything in my tank and everything pulled through just fine. in both tanks the big one is a 90g and the small one is a 12g so for those that wonder. I had a nice gazebo type cover over my back patio that got blown to the grown (stupid cheap aluminun) but i am gonna try and stand it back up. I had one shingle flip up on the roof and got it laid back down. Thats it for damage for me as for other in kingsville everything from roofs being torn up to the DQ windows blowing in. and trees coming out of the ground. But for the damage i took MY TANKS ARE GOOD yeah.

[kkiel02]

So 14 hours later we regained power! Lost power around noon CPS quickly had us up and running again by 4 in the morning. Tank pulled through fine. One thing I learned is that tanks can go a long time without circulation. I used to freak out with a 4 hour power outage. Now I would feel fine. I did use my trusty inverter before I went to work but dont know if my girlfriend hooked it up to her car or not though.

[BSJF]

How well it does may depend on how stocked it is. I've lost all my fish before with an overnight outage - oxygen depletion. I'm glad the temps were mild. I don't know how my tank would handle a power outage in 100 degree temps.

[ballardjr2000]

+1 BSJF my 12g is only corals like a frag tank with plenty of LR and the 90g only has 8 fish and some corals and my clam in it. so not too heavy on the stock but not to light either

[Mr Cob]

I lost my Powder Blue. :(

I'm sure the stress of moving him from the half circle to 55g holding tank didn't help any and then a 4 hour power outage with no aeration put him over the top.

[RayAllen]

Whats up with the stone oak area that it can not take a hit from a storm?

Over here Far West SA all was good, no power outage.

[txav8r]

Whats up with the stone oak area that it can not take a hit from a storm?

Over here Far West SA all was good, no power outage.


We pay extra for that...

[kkiel02]

How well it does may depend on how stocked it is. I've lost all my fish before with an overnight outage - oxygen depletion. I'm glad the temps were mild. I don't know how my tank would handle a power outage in 100 degree temps.

Thats what I was worried about since my livestock from my old 180 is only in a 100 gallon. But everything was fine.

[Mr Cob]

We pay extra for that...

LOL!

[BSJF]

I'm sure the infrastructure that has to support it never saw Stone Oak coming!

[z28pwr]

I must be very lucky, we had a few sags but didnt lose power for more than a few minutes and I live 5 minutes away from Rob & Jack.

[Gseclipse02]

I must be very lucky, we had a few sags but didnt lose power for more than a few minutes and I live 5 minutes away from Rob & Jack.

no one likes them jkjkjk

[txav8r]

LOL! Thanks JT!

[Europhyllia]

okay finally bit the bullet and upped my power outage emergency arsenal.
Even though we live in the sticks we rarely have power outages especially ones that last longer than a couple of hours.
I only purchased one battery back up for the Vortech though just to keep things going.
Do you guys really have one back up for EACH Vortech?

[BSJF]

Two can be ran from one battery. I have an extra cable if you need one that I can give you a good deal on.
The battery life is cut in half by doing so, but that is still more than a day of power.

Are the vortech in 2 different tanks? If they are in the same tank, you can probably just run a single during the power outage and be fine.

[Europhyllia]

oh I didn't know that about the battery being able to go on two! That's great.
All 4 Vortechs are on the same tank

[Europhyllia]

check out what I just found. Due to a recall on the battery cables this summer you can now order the new cables from Ecotech directly for only $1.50 per cable and $3 shipping!
What a deal especially if it means that I can use 1 battery back up for tow pumps and it will run for 12 hours.
Do I understand that correctly?

[Europhyllia]

No never mind. I don't understand that correctly. They are talking about some Icecap thing...
too good to be true...
http://glassbox-design.com/2010/ecotech-marine-recall-vortech-battery-cable/

[BSJF]

Mines says 1 battery = 30 hours. "One battery can be linked to two pumps yielding half the run time." You can do the reverse by strining 2 batteries together to get double the backup.

It does cut the power of the pump in half when it converts to battery.

I would probably just put one of the vortech on the battery and then alternate which one is on periodically throughout the outage. You never know how long you will be without power and it would be a shame to be out of battery before the power comes back on.

Interesting in regards to the recall.

[Europhyllia]

I don't know if I have the IceCap one or not. Are there different kinds?
Mine says:

VorTech Battery Backup
Maintain VorTech Propeller Pump operation even during an electrical power outage. Battery Backup provides uninterrupted power for up to 72 hours with the MP10 and MP20 and up to 36 hours with the MP40. Connect Battery Backup to another unit to double the backup run time. Comes with trickle charger and necessary wiring cables. Powder-coated white aluminum housing. 8-7/8" x 7-1/4" x 3-1/8" high.

[BSJF]

Do you have the battery yet? On the front it will say IceCap at the bottom if that is what it is.
http://akamai.f3images.com/IMD/600/IC9131/IC9131_99.jpg

[BSJF]

http://akamai.f3images.com/IMD/600/EM1711/EM1711_99.jpg

And this is the other one. I know when I got mine some of the paperwork or online info said 36 hours, others said 30.

[Europhyllia]

haven't gotten it yet but it's supposed to look like the second one
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/detailed_image.cfm?pCatId=22038&large=/images/Categoryimages/larger/lg-29715-fish-supplies.jpghttp://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/detailed_image.cfm?pCatId=22038&large=/images/Categoryimages/larger/lg-29715-fish-supplies.jpg

guess I better wait and figure out what I got...

[Europhyllia]

Got it!
You all should have warned me to expect the equivalent of a car battery... HEAVY!
On the plus side though it came with TWO of the new fused cables so I am all set to run it with two Vortech pumps.
I am now anxiously waiting for the storm!!! Come on power outage!

[BSJF]

Yeah! You don't have to wait for a power outage, once the battery is fully charged, uplug your regular power and check it out just for fun!

[kkiel02]

I did that just yesterday with my new UPS from bestbuy. It has a led readout on much much battery time is left and a audible alarm incase I am sleeping or what not. I am kinda pumped to see how it does with the next outage. Probably ALOT more expensive than the vortech one but I will be running a couple different things off this bad boy.

[Europhyllia]

I already unplugged the Vortechs to see what it does (keeps running and Vortechs on battery blink green) but I think it will be even more exciting when it happens for real. :)

[BSJF]

Ok, turn out all the lights, AC, fans, TV...lol

The first time I tested mine I was out of town and got a call from my husband that the controller was flashing green. Had no idea what that meant and he couldn't read the fine print on the back of the controller. I called tech support and flashing green can mean there was a malfunction or that the power is out. SO, since the power wasn't out, I decided there was a malfunction. A few days later I came home and got ready to box it up to send it back when I saw that the GFCI had tripped.