Reef nutrition

Ecoflow battery w/ Apex EB832

finalphaze987

finalphaze987

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Curious if anyone has had an Ecoflow, or any other back up battery, plugged into their EB832 as an emergency power source for equipment.

In my case, I was thinking of having two gyres plugged into the ecoflow then have the ecoflow unit plugged into the EB832. In the event of a power outage, I'm thinking the pumps would still function off the battery then when power is restored, the battery would charge up again.

With prime day ending and blackfriday coming up, they have been having some decent sized units with attractive pricing.
Screenshot_20241009_233041.jpg
 
derek_SR said:
I have this exact unit, although I am not using Apex. My hydros wave engine is plugged into it, and when power goes out the Ecoflow battery takes over with no interruption.

Mine runs return and 2x gyres for about 10hrs.
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Nice! This is what i was hiping it would do with the apex. I haven't experienced a long power outage where I live since the Napa fires, but, with your experience with it did the 10 hours fit your needs during the majority of the outtages you've been through?
 
finalphaze987 said:
Nice! This is what i was hiping it would do with the apex. I haven't experienced a long power outage where I live since the Napa fires, but, with your experience with it did the 10 hours fit your needs during the majority of the outtages you've been through?
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After a couple years free of outages, we've had two in the last couple months - the Ecoflow worked flawlessly, and neither outage outlasted it. It's a pretty solid product, and the prices have come down quite a bit lately too. It's also not physically super large (about 12" tall for the one we're discussing) so I have it stashed in the bottom shelf of my cabinet. It also has an app that I don't really use, but it allows you to monitor things remotely so you can see if you have a power outage while you are away and (I think) set up notifications - haven't explored this much myself yet.

A lot of people recommend the smaller river units - but I think the extra couple hundred bucks for a full 1kwh is worth it with a larger tank. Keep in mind that including your entire EB832 will likely drain the battery significantly faster if you've got a heater connected - you can do the math yourself in terms of wattage draw.

That's one reason I like the hydros so much, the WaveEngine is a standalone component that is the ONLY thing plugged into the delta, so 100% of the battery is dedicated to maintaining flow.
 
I have the river pros and no i don't recommend them for large tanks over 50gallons automated. A small nano tank is fine. I have the Delta 2 on my IM 150 ext. I shut everything off and just run the return pump. I've had 3 power outages down here in SJ this year and one of the times lasted 8hrs. . I had one outage this week for 3 hrs. So I could run the tank full tilt in the delta for about 4 hrs, maybe. I'm getting the Delta 2 Max because there's a great Amazon Prime sale rn. Use Hobotech on YouTube for an extra coupon.
 
JerryG said:
I have the river pros and no i don't recommend them for large tanks over 50gallons automated. A small nano tank is fine. I have the Delta 2 on my IM 150 ext. I shut everything off and just run the return pump. I've had 3 power outages down here in SJ this year and one of the times lasted 8hrs. . I had one outage this week for 3 hrs. So I could run the tank full tilt in the delta for about 4 hrs, maybe. I'm getting the Delta 2 Max because there's a great Amazon Prime sale rn. Use Hobotech on YouTube for an extra coupon.
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If you plug in the pump via the DC connector , not through ac plug, the battery last way longer . No loss via DC-AC-DC conversion.

My tiny 300 wh battery will run the flow pump for over a day
 
@finalphaze987 Not sure if I read the plan correctly. But keep in mind if you plug the battery into an Apex outlet and then plug pumps into the battery, your Apex no longer controls your pumps. If you turn it off in Apex it’ll keep going on the battery power like an outage. In that situation, I don’t see the advantage of including the Apex.
 
JVU said:
@finalphaze987 Not sure if I read the plan correctly. But keep in mind if you plug the battery into an Apex outlet and then plug pumps into the battery, your Apex no longer controls your pumps. If you turn it off in Apex it’ll keep going on the battery power like an outage. In that situation, I don’t see the advantage of including the Apex.
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I have my eb832's connected to my ecoflows directly and Apex controls work fine unless I misunderstood your post.
 
JerryG said:
Oh sorry. Just having a conversation. Didn't mean to impose. Think I'll just leave this group now.
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What? Why? I’m not annoyed or anything. No reason to leave. Just clarifying who I was replying to so no one gets the wrong idea. Your input on this thread has been helpful. It’s too easy to misread text-only, in person is better. Hope you are coming to our swap in a week and a half.
 
We Had a outage this morning I was informed of it while at work it was just my neighborhood. A transfer blew up. Wifensaid it listed hours. I got my kids to put my small battery fish keeper bubbler in the tank and rotatenit between the tanks. I need to get one for each tank and consider a backup power option in case one goes on for much longer.
 
MichaelB said:
We Had an outage this morning I was informed of it while at work it was just my neighborhood. A transfer blew up. Wifensaid it listed hours. I got my kids to put my small battery fish keeper bubbler in the tank and rotatenit between the tanks. I need to get one for each tank and consider a backup power option in case one goes on for much longer.
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I have a 300wh battery if you like to borrow. I’m 10-15mins away from you. You have my number
 
PjFish said:
Their prices seem to be cheaper then amazon on their home website. Delta 3 are out now.. plus
EcoFlow DELTA 2 Smart Extra Battery doubling your wattage is $300 off now so 499 for the battery.
us.ecoflow.com

EcoFlow DELTA 3 Series Portable Power Station | EcoFlow US | EcoFlow

Get next-level battery safety & performance with X-Core 3.0 Technology. Fast-Charge using Solar, Grid, 800W Alternator, Inverter Generators.
us.ecoflow.com us.ecoflow.com
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Everytime I look into it I see the prices dropping. It'll come up on slickdeals or the new models come out, dropping the price of previous ones.

For what we would be using it for, I think I may have to jump at it and pick one up...thanks for the heads up on the better deal!
 
JVU said:
@finalphaze987 Not sure if I read the plan correctly. But keep in mind if you plug the battery into an Apex outlet and then plug pumps into the battery, your Apex no longer controls your pumps. If you turn it off in Apex it’ll keep going on the battery power like an outage. In that situation, I don’t see the advantage of including the Apex.
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You bring up a very good point. I planned on having a toggle switch for a feed mode which would shut off flow....with my current plans on hooking up the gyres to it, that may all be moot.

I do have MP-40's that I have hooked up to the ecotech battery back up..if I were to hook up the battery back up plug to the ecoflow, then control the MP-40's via MXM, do you think that would work?

I would then have a back up battery to my back up battery, extending the life of the MP40s in the event of a power outtage,, but still retain the ability to have a feed mode.
 
I have both of my tanks on ecoflow batteries (Reefer 500 and a 60ish gallon frag tank).

I split things to two separate power supplies (kasa hs300 power strips):

Code: 
AC Power (wall)
    -> EcoFlow AC Outlet
        -> Critical power strip
                -> return pump
                -> one heater
                -> controller
                -> other misc small power usage and useful things
                -> battery backup bubbler


    -> Misc power strip
        -> lights
        -> other heaters
        -> other powerheads
        -> everything else

That means if my power goes out, the big power draws (lights) drop out immediately and my main life support things continue running.

If my ecoflow battery dies, then the battery backup bubbler will automatically turn on (it kicks on when it sees the power drop).

I have my units sized to give me many hours of battery that way. The biggest gotcha is the heater, which can massively burn through power, but I mitigate that by using a smaller sized one and have enough battery backup to last awhile. One can reasonably argue only have a powerhead on the ecoflow, but I sized up because I didn't want to do that.

Disclaimers on the ecoflow:
  • I have had mine turn off when it shouldn't have. I can't explain why, but even with AC set to always on I have had at least once it turn off.
  • It can work this way, as effectively a UPS, but it will affect the long-term life of the battery.
  • Run this way it always is making you waste power, since it's internally doing some power conversions. What I read is you might be expecting a > 10% loss.
  • It has a DC outlet, which I think is only 12v. Useful, but not super useful. That should in theory have less power conversion losses, but I never use it given it's only 12V
 
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