I'm looking into purchasing a large battery powered air pump (or several smaller air pumps) to protect my 300 gallon datnoid tank in the cases of LONG POWER OUTAGES. I live in South Florida and in the past with smaller tanks (75 gallons, 125 gallons) a few (3 to 4) Penn-Plax worked fine in keeping my fish alive for over 14 days with no power, albeit they were very loud and annoying, they got the job done. However, i just experienced a short power outage today and when I went to turn on these back-up's, 2 out of 4 were no longer working (granted they are 10 years old, they did their job at 9.99 a piece).
I realize keeping a 300 gallon tank well aired enough for a long period of time (1 day, 4 days, 2 weeks ) will require either MULTIPLE units of these Penn-Plax air pumps which while they last a long time on a pair of D batteries (over 8 days in a row when I used them in the last hurricane outage) Im unsure of how many would be needed for a tank of this size, or if there are better options.
Please share your stories or recommendations. And a PS - I have thought of buying a rather expensive UPS Battery Backup unit to power perhaps one pump on my tank (tank is plumbed with dual over-flows running two MAG 12's) but even the very most expensive units won't keep pumps like that operating more than a day or so. I'm looking for a solution that can last at least a week if not more.
Thanks MFK!
I realize keeping a 300 gallon tank well aired enough for a long period of time (1 day, 4 days, 2 weeks ) will require either MULTIPLE units of these Penn-Plax air pumps which while they last a long time on a pair of D batteries (over 8 days in a row when I used them in the last hurricane outage) Im unsure of how many would be needed for a tank of this size, or if there are better options.
Please share your stories or recommendations. And a PS - I have thought of buying a rather expensive UPS Battery Backup unit to power perhaps one pump on my tank (tank is plumbed with dual over-flows running two MAG 12's) but even the very most expensive units won't keep pumps like that operating more than a day or so. I'm looking for a solution that can last at least a week if not more.
Thanks MFK!
