[Hugh R]

All great ideas guys! Thanks! My fish guy say the airstone is minimal ,the hang on the side biofilter with cascading water is best followed by the side powerheads that have an air tube to the surface (one problem with the powerheads is that I have a really big leopard pleco and it knocks the air hoses of on occasion, so I can't depend on that). Heater isn't a real problem here in SoCal. I'm going to borrow an amp meter from by brother and determine exactly what load demands are. I can run a 5 minute on 5 minute off timer, but the suction tubes on the biofilters tend to pop out with loss of power and you have to manually push them back in place. Solar is an idea, but believe it or not, we do get clouds (entire month of June for the most part, every year), and believe it or not, rain in the winters. An Optima with a relay may be the way to go. I want/need to have 3-4 days of backup power if I'm out of town during an earthquake or some other scenario where I could lose power. I'll let you know as I progress.

Thanks again for all the great input.