I am not happy at all. Last night we had a power failure. I have had as many as 17 tanks set up at one time, with a battery charger adapter that will run the filters and air pumps. I have also always used this product to move fish, or when I add fish to a tank. Well now I only have one 48 gallon tank with orandas. The power went out over the night, and even though the adapter worked to break up the ammonia, and keep the aeration, I still lost 4 out of 6. Does anyone know of a better product that would keep a tank running when the power is lost... Any ideas???

How long were you with-out juice???
I am thinking that you already have this setup. But this is a good time for a refresher for everyone else.
First you need to look at all of the manufacture lables on all of the filters, pumps and heaters and such. Get the amp rating from the labels. Make a list of these, and note if they run all of the time or if they cycle on and off.
Then this is where it gets tricky. For you younger folks take a parent with you. Find 3-4 different computer or electronics dealers in your area. Take your list with you and ask them to recommend a UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) for your requirements get a couple of different model quotes from each, and then compare..
Some things that you will have to keep in mind are, are there any extra items that are not critical to the survival of your fish. Such as do I need to have the light on if I have a heater on in a tropical set up..No. it is not neccesary.. How long are you ususally out of power?? 15 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, 2 days..
Once you have all of the different possibilities covered, then you have to set down and wiegh out the different UPS units with the cost... And yes they are, or can be very costly...

What a UPS does is you plug it in to a wall outlet, and it charges an internal battery, at the same time it passes power out to a plug on the side of the unit, and this is what you plug your appliance (pump, heater,etc) into.. If the power goes out to your house the battery that is charged, will power what you have pluged into it for some time... How long depends on how much you want to run off of it.. That is why only the most critical gets plugged into it, the rest get left in the wall outlet.. Some units come with an alarm on them so if the power does go out, the alarm will alert you that you are on battery. Works great if power goes out in the middle of the night.

One thing that may help with allowing you a smaller UPS is to wrap the tank in a blanket or comforter in the case of a power outage, to keep the tank from losing heat and allowing you to only run the heater at a as needed basis to keep the tank at the proper temperature.
Maybe not what you were looking for borzoimom, but a chance to help others

My husband said it was a UPS but it might have been too low. I dont put the light- just the filter and the air pump. It was out for 10 hours that I know of. I do wish I had had an alarm to insure it was running the whole time.

The system is 4 years old. Its updated from the old one. I use it to put new fish in from the petstore, as a back up for power loss, and transporting ( If i have to) fish from one location to another.

10 hrs is a long time for most... They are more of a temporary type thing for computers. Usually about 4 hrs or so. They are ment to keep a system powered up long enough to save your work and gracefully shut it down, or long enough to get a generator hooked in... So when you start looking at long term usage, the cost start to rise with the time of use and the power output.....
I think in this case the only thing that may have helped is a small generator.

Probably so. I was hoping someone would know something else I could use. We do live on the top of a mountain, and we have a generator, but its set up for the refrigerator, water pump heater, etc.

I was afraid of such a senario. The area my parents live, went through an ice storm over Thanksgiving day weekend. Alot of people and towns were without power for days... A couple of areas were out for 10 days... One 15 mile stretch of road only had 3 power poles left standing.... The price of living in the great rural outdooors.. Makes you think that maybe we do not have it so bad..

yea- we will have to adjust what is connected to the generator instead of a portable model.