Adding another Battery. One Gel or 2 Deep?

[Mhiggins]

I have a 79 sportfish with 454s. The current setup is 2 31 series batteries from DEKA. The starboard engine battery is for that motor starting and all the house and the port motor is all by itself. I am upgrading hopefully the sonar and GPS, head unit radio, adding a 400 watt amp ( 70 watts x 4 ) for the new four 6x9 speakers and adding a new airhorn. Should I get an Optima 31 gel battery or run a bank of 2-27 series deep cycle batteries? I would like each motor with the DEKA 31 series and the house and another battery or bank. I don't go out all night or overnight just anchor and relax with the tunes every weekend, and alittle fishing but I troll with one motor running.

[Rawleigh]

The gel needs a charger that has an AGM charge setting. I don't know of any that can charge different types of batteries at the same time. Usually all the batteries need to be of the same type (ie. flooded or AGM). I love my gels though.