The Puffer Forum

J-P wrote:depending on the load, you can get a good 3 hours of continuous output with a car battery. We had to do that with our lights once.

Most Aquaclear filters only use 6 watts and I bet most other HOBs and powerheads use about the same amount of power.


A small car battery is rated for about 50 amp/hours and according to the site below it will run an inverter for 83 hours with a 6 watt load. Most canister filters are around 25 watts so this setup would run one for close to 20 hours. And you wouldn't have to run it continuously which would give you even more time, or allow you to shuffle from tank to tank.

Looks like a power inverter is a great idea and you can get a 400 watt for about $30. It would be good to have one for other reasons too...Like running your PC, modem, or phone charger.

http://www.dcacpowerinverters.com/faq.htm

http://www.harborfreight.com/400-watt-c ... 66814.html

Pufferpunk wrote:I lost most of the fish in my reef after 4 hours without flow.

That's a reef tank though, it has constant higher oxygen and flow demands. If you are tanking the typical FW tank, even a low stock marine tank, you can get by for a while.

Hey, PP, have you had to use the rented generator this go-round?

Nope, although the electricity went off 9x during the storm, it always went back on after a minute. I did have to rent it for 2 days ($60) because the store was closed the day after the storm. Well worth the $$$ for peace of mind.

I think we have been accustomed to the snow here in Canada (or it?). I put it in my yard 4 feet of snow, snow, 6 feet of snow in some places, where they have cleared the high street. We just keep on shipping .....

Shipping what? It says you are in NY, not CAN?

I bought my Harbor Freight power inverter a while back so I am ready. I hope I don't need to use it but if I do I'll post the results.