Backup power?

[shereth]

A (very brief) brownout last night had me a little panicked about the tank, and I got to wondering what would happen in the event of a protracted power loss. I understand that there are certain things that can be done to put a tank on life support during a power outage, but these methods are of limited use during an outage lasting a whole day or more, or worse, when no one is around.

I wonder how useful a computer battery backup/UPS would be in this circumstance? It's been a while since I've used one but I don't remember them being much good, other than giving me enough time to save my work before it went kaput. Was I just using a bad backup? What kinds of solutions do some of you use for this contingency?

[Toadally]

Battery backups are ok, but correct they don't last long. If your tank is stocked heavily with fish the most important thing is oxygen. You can buy the small battery powered air pumps and use them temporarily and that would help. Sticking your hand in the tank and moving it around would do the trick as well.....for corals.

I would say the best thing to have in a situation like that would be a generator. hth