Backup power

I have 75 gallon reef tank and summer is here. We lose power a couple times a year and this has me wondering about back up power. I was just wondering if I should have it or not? Any suggestions or thoughts? I may be just a bit paranoid. Thanks.

 

Yep I would advise it. You should always keep a source of back up power in the event of an emergency

 

I think that backup power is a great idea. Some peole actually have a power generator just in case of a major power outage. We put a lot of money into our tanks and a backup power is well worth it. I got one from Bestbuy. Its good for 90 min and I paid about 100 for it. Try to plug only the essential items like a pump and heater into it because the more you have plugged into it the faster it will suck down the reserve power.

 

I was involved in hurricane Ike. I have a 2 stroke generator that ran 2 tanks no problem-Cost was about 150.00 ea. 1 gen ran two tanks (filter pumps skimmer and heaters only) a T.V. and a fan.
Amazon.com: Blue Max GEN 1250 1,250-Watt 2 HP 2-Cycle Gas-Powered Generator (Non-CARB Compliant): Home Improvement

 

Thanks for the fast response from everyone. Next purchase is a generator, and thanks for the generator suggestion.

 

They are great for camping too....They run about 8hrs on 1 gallon

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/emergency-back-up-batteries-66003.html

 

Thanks for the link. I have been doing research from it for about an hour. Lots of great info. Still learning quite a bit about my fairly new hobby; would hate for us to get a storm and lose everything over a couple of days. Thanks again.

 

honda is a good one to thats what i run

 

just an Idea here
My power demands on my tank are relatively low when not considering lights, so this was practical for me.

I have two car batteries hooked up in parallel(110aH each), which is kept charged using an intelligent 10a/trickle charger. With a 300 watt load, that would draw 30amps of 12v power. Ideally, this would give me about 7 hours of run time.
This seemed practical to me as I have access to batteries that don't meet a specific set of standards.
Now i just need to find a automatic transfer switch when I have the money...