[MintyFresh]

I would like to get a UPS for my Fluval 3.0 since we tend to get a lot of brief power outages here(they only last for a second or two) that result in me having to go into the app to get my settings back up but from what I've read about the one I would like to buy, it needs to be in a grounded outlet.

The outlet I plan on using is not grounded. It has the two slots and the pin but there is no grounding to the outlet as the home I'm living in is old. Only certain areas of the house are grounded and the area I'll be using the UPS in its not.

Can I still use the UPS in an ungrounded outlet or should I just forget about getting one? I do not have the money to have the entire house rewired.

 

[jeffkrol]

I would like to get a UPS for my Fluval 3.0 since we tend to get a lot of brief power outages here(they only last for a second or two) that result in me having to go into the app to get my settings back up but from what I've read about the one I would like to buy, it needs to be in a grounded outlet.

The outlet I plan on using is not grounded. It has the two slots and the pin but there is no grounding to the outlet as the home I'm living in is old. Only certain areas of the house are grounded and the area I'll be using the UPS in its not.

Can I still use the UPS in an ungrounded outlet or should I just forget about getting one? I do not have the money to have the entire house rewired.

UPS's work fine on un-grounded outlets BUT not sure if all functions i.e surge protection work the same or at all.
Apparently the "work around" for surge is a zero surge unit and UPS.

Adding a $200 no ground needed surge protector to a ups isn't really a great answer.


https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...perly-on-an-ungrounded-2-wire-circuit.222542/

 

[MintyFresh]

UPS's work fine on un-grounded outlets BUT not sure if all functions i.e surge protection work the same or at all.
Apparently the "work around" for surge is a zero surge unit and UPS.

Adding a $200 no ground needed surge protector to a ups isn't really a great answer.


https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...perly-on-an-ungrounded-2-wire-circuit.222542/

Thanks Jeff. The main reason I want it is for the backup battery so I think I'll skip on getting a zero surge unit.

 

[ahem]

The UPS should work fine without a ground.

I have the Fluval 3.0 LED (a pair of them) and a UPS. I have the UPS also run one of my two canisters. Surprisingly water filtration systems use little power, I think less than the lights. My 200 GPH Aqueon Quietflow only requires 30 watts. Since the UPS has about 100 watt hours of battery, I can run water filtration for 2-3 hours if I power down everything else. It worked during a recent 2 hour power outage, my lights kept their programming and filtration continued. I did go to the aquarium and manually touch the lights to move them to soft off (red) to save power.

The Fluvals have a gotcha that if the power is hard cycled (unplugged), they go back to a default 24 hour schedule that fades between night and day. If you are not paying attention it can go unnoticed for a while. I've inadvertently done that doing maintenance and straightening up wires and tubes, in my case it makes my aquarium algae blooming bright since I have two of them. You have to remember to check the app every once in a while and make sure the light is still on your program. I also notice the lights seem to revert sometimes to a prior programming.

 

[MintyFresh]

The UPS should work fine without a ground.

I have the Fluval 3.0 LED (a pair of them) and a UPS. I have the UPS also run one of my two canisters. Surprisingly water filtration systems use little power, I think less than the lights. My 200 GPH Aqueon Quietflow only requires 30 watts. Since the UPS has about 100 watt hours of battery, I can run water filtration for 2-3 hours if I power down everything else. It worked during a recent 2 hour power outage, my lights kept their programming and filtration continued. I did go to the aquarium and manually touch the lights to move them to soft off (red) to save power.

Thanks!

My Fluval is the 32w but mine is only set at around 27% intensity so it most likely uses a lot less than that. I too have considered adding my filter(it's only used for circulation) which uses 6 watts but being new to UPS's, I didn't know if both the light and filter would drain the battery quickly. The UPS I bought is for 225 watts.

The Fluvals have a gotcha that if the power is hard cycled (unplugged), they go back to a default 24 hour schedule that fades between night and day. If you are not paying attention it can go unnoticed for a while. I've inadvertently done that doing maintenance and straightening up wires and tubes, in my case it makes my aquarium algae blooming bright since I have two of them. You have to remember to check the app every once in a while and make sure the light is still on your program. I also notice the lights seem to revert sometimes to a prior programming.

Unfortunately, I've seen that happen with my light. It happens when we get those brief power outages which is why I looked into a backup battery. The last thing I want is for my lights to go out while I'm not home, especially if I'm on vacation.

I only have one setting saved, aside from the presets and I've never seen it switch to any of the presets before.

 

[en7jos]

I have all my tanks running on a UPS, mainly because the fuse board in our place is old and often trips, so filters get left off all day until someone comes home and notices! I don't run my lights via the UPS though to conserve battery power, but if the light controller does odd things after a power out, then this of course makes perfect sense.

I would go for a very basic model UPS to basically just give you the battery backup function. The fancier the UPS with the more protection features, then the more likely it is to not like being without a ground connection. The dumber the UPS the better in this case!

The advice I found when recently upgrading my PC UPS was to not use a surge protection device with a UPS - either one or the other. Most decent UPS's have surge protection already, and apparently an addition surge protector in the line can stop both working properly. I didn't understand how or why, but not mixing the two seems to be agreed best practice.

 

[MintyFresh]

I have all my tanks running on a UPS, mainly because the fuse board in our place is old and often trips, so filters get left off all day until someone comes home and notices! I don't run my lights via the UPS though to conserve battery power, but if the light controller does odd things after a power out, then this of course makes perfect sense.

I would go for a very basic model UPS to basically just give you the battery backup function. The fancier the UPS with the more protection features, then the more likely it is to not like being without a ground connection. The dumber the UPS the better in this case!

The advice I found when recently upgrading my PC UPS was to not use a surge protection device with a UPS - either one or the other. Most decent UPS's have surge protection already, and apparently an addition surge protector in the line can stop both working properly. I didn't understand how or why, but not mixing the two seems to be agreed best practice.

Thanks.

So far, the one I bought works great but I have noticed that the LED driver for my light makes a humming noise. The thing is, I don't know if it's always done that or not since the filter sometimes makes similar noises. Does yours make a humming sound too? I think I might post this question to hear from others as well. I can't see why a UPS would negatively affect something like that.

 

[en7jos]

Can't think how the UPS might cause the LED driver to hum either. Humming is usually from the transformer stepping down the voltage from mains to DC 12v (or something like that). A basic UPS has teh output connected directly to the supply when power conditions are normal, so it won't actually be doing anything until there is a power outage. (More expensive UPS's are "line interactive" which mean that they are always engaged and controlling the output supply, but I don't think that's what you have, right?)