Every Reefers Worst Nightmare come true -Warning graphic photos

[dragoneggs]

Okay after a few more minutes of thought... I do plan to add some additional flow to the top of my tank probably using tunze nanostreams and those would be powered by my other circuit powering my lighting. This would add circulation redundancy should either GFI trip. So... maybe I do agree with you Jezz!

 

[class clown]

In my case... to do what you are suggesting means adding another dedicated circuit for just one pump. I already have two 20amp circuits and 70ft of wiring each. Mabye Ben's situation (electrical arrangement) is different and more conducive however.

Mark - can't I just use regular circuit breakers, and attached to it have a GCFI outlet and a regular non-GFCI outlet. Man I wish I knew more about electrical, but my neweste project will be a good learning expierence.

 

[Elmo18]

Hi Ben. I am very sorry for this to have happened. I hope the rest of your livestock are on their way back.

As for heaters, I only really use two kinds, although I have tried some others. IMO, the best two are these:

Marineland "Stealth" Heaters (all black casing, non glass)
and
Ebo-Jager Heaters.

Now I use both submersed completely, even though the Ebo says it isn't really fully submersible. Haven't had a problem with both.

However, that doesn't mean problems will not occur. I would complement either heater with a Ranco Temperature controller to prevent stick ons.

Best,
Ilham

 

[jesseb]

You'd have one GFCI on the circuit - it would be the "control". I have GFCI on all 5 of the circuits around my tank - but several of the circuits have 1 gfci outlet (near the tank) and non-GFCI's elsewhere on the same circuit.

When you are looking at new electric - you may want to make sure what you are doing is within code.

As for mulitple outlets - the only non-GFCI I have near the tank is for my lights - the lights kept taking out all 5 of the GFCI's when they turned on -something to do with 400W ballasts and the wierd way electric and cascaded GFCI's work. We ended up running another circuit from inside the house with no GFCI in order to fix the problem - which of course didn't occur until we were out of town for a long weekend.....

Nothing like coming home to a cool, quiet tank (though for the most part - alive)from the airport. - completely recovered now.

 

[Snowboarda42]

Ben,

Sorry Bro, that sucks what happened.

PM sent.

 

[Scooterman]

Not sure on all the local codes but anywhere water is within a certain distance a GFCI is required. So basically every outlet near a tank should be GFCI but I know of several problems that happens with lighting & some people use standard breakers for the lights. I didn't say that & I didn't say I also have regular circuits for certain things like a chiller & lights. I do have anything in or real close to water on the protected GFCI's. Lots of liabilities happen when you put a tank next to an outlet, insurance & codes require them almost certain anywhere in the US.

 

[dragoneggs]

Mark - can't I just use regular circuit breakers, and attached to it have a GCFI outlet and a regular non-GFCI outlet. Man I wish I knew more about electrical, but my neweste project will be a good learning expierence.

I don't think so. Hopefully someone will confirm but if you put a GFIC outlet in your circuit the whole circuit is protected. I also recall that it is recommended that the GFIC outlet is the first outlet in the series if you add more outlets and... you only need one GFIC outlet per circuit.

GFIC outlets are recommended (and cheaper I think) than GFIC breakers. I went with one GFIC outlet for each circuit and then plugged in my DJ100 power strips into the outlets. This gives me 16 outlets all protected by GFIC outlet (I hope!)

 

[Scooterman]

I don't think so. Hopefully someone will confirm but if you put a GFIC outlet in your circuit the whole circuit is protected. I also recall that it is recommended that the GFIC outlet is the first outlet in the series if you add more outlets and... you only need one GFIC outlet per circuit.

GFIC outlets are recommended (and cheaper I think) than GFIC breakers. I went with one GFIC outlet for each circuit and then plugged in my DJ100 power strips into the outlets. This gives me 16 outlets all protected by GFIC outlet (I hope!)

Almost! You have the option to bypass the GFCI to the next outlet & all the rest down from it, all depends on how you wire it, each GFCI outlet comes with a little booklet & the instructions.

 

[Cwazy Clown]

oh my. . i just heard of this...

damn...sorry to hear about this Ben

best regards to the healing process and i have a hunch that when you come back, it'll be better. =)

 

[Slickdonkey]

It seems that something is not quite right if you are having problems with tripping. Could be a faulty GFCI outlet or breaker?

Generally I would agree with this. However there are certain things that are best not run on GFCI circuits because of the large startup current. Things like fluorescent ballasts, large motors (see the section on "Why a GFCI should not be used with major appliances" here).

That being said I run two 1/3 HP pumps on a GFCI with no problems. But I can't get my IceCap 660 to work for the life of me so that's my only piece of equipment that isn't on a GFCI.

 

[dragoneggs]

Generally I would agree with this. However there are certain things that are best not run on GFCI circuits because of the large startup current. Things like fluorescent ballasts, large motors (see the section on "Why a GFCI should not be used with major appliances" here).

That being said I run two 1/3 HP pumps on a GFCI with no problems. But I can't get my IceCap 660 to work for the life of me so that's my only piece of equipment that isn't on a GFCI.

Huh? My IceCap 660 has no issues on GFIC but I am only running two 110W actinics so far.

 

[jsmkmavity]

one thing ive stopped doing is submerging heaters. when they fail the copper in the wire can "dose" your tank by the electrical current and even if the breaker trips the saltwater will cause copper to corrode and "dose" your tank. large water changes will dilute it but you need to test for copper to see how much is in the tank and how well you are reducing it. as for gfci outlets or breakers i dont think they will work properly unless the equipment you are plugging in to it has a 3 prong grounded plug. another common problem with stray voltage is rio pumps. ive been shocked before and unplugged one at a time and then plugged each one back in before checking the next one. i didnt find the problem till i unplugged them all and then one at a time plugged them back in. turns out i had 2 bad ones! also i found that i didnt get the tingle until i stuck a finger in that had a scratch or cut, it is way more sensitive than a healed finger.

 

[class clown]

one thing ive stopped doing is submerging heaters. when they fail the copper in the wire can "dose" your tank by the electrical current and even if the breaker trips the saltwater will cause copper to corrode and "dose" your tank. large water changes will dilute it but you need to test for copper to see how much is in the tank and how well you are reducing it. as for gfci outlets or breakers i dont think they will work properly unless the equipment you are plugging in to it has a 3 prong grounded plug. another common problem with stray voltage is rio pumps. ive been shocked before and unplugged one at a time and then plugged each one back in before checking the next one. i didnt find the problem till i unplugged them all and then one at a time plugged them back in. turns out i had 2 bad ones! also i found that i didnt get the tingle until i stuck a finger in that had a scratch or cut, it is way more sensitive than a healed finger.

Interesting - you are also worried about this copper dose. Mike pointed this out earlier and I was hoping he'd extrapolate a little bit. I think this was the extrapolation I was looking for.

Anyone nearby (Snohomish, Mill creek, everett, lynwood) have a copper test I could borrow/buy by chance?

 

[mattseattle]

hey wasn't there one in the thing i sold you? i thought there was a seachem copper kit in the TUB O' STUFF

 

[class clown]

hey wasn't there one in the thing i sold you? i thought there was a seachem copper kit in the TUB O' STUFF

Holy cow, there is.. see, knew I had to have some good karma coming my way. I'm testing it now - it takes 25 minutes.TUB O' STUFF saves the day -- thank you Matt!!!

I'm now finished with about 35 gallons in water changes. I'm making more RODI water at the moment b/c I'm all out.

keep your fingers crossed.

 

[mattseattle]

Quite welcome my friend....

I hope everything pulls through.

 

[fly guy]

Nothing to add but sorry to hear.

Good luck on saving what you can and moving on.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Interesting - you are also worried about this copper dose. Mike pointed this out earlier and I was hoping he'd extrapolate a little bit.

Ben, I am not the chemist here but I will give it a shot. More so with DC than house current which is AC, but when you run current through a soluble metal into water, you can get metal ions to flow into solution at a quick rate. We are talking more about corrosion of the copper here. This is how electrolysis works. A higher current flow (amperage) through the cell means it will be passing more electrons through it at any given time. This means a faster rate of reduction at the cathode and a faster rate of oxidation at the anode.
Corrosion is a form of electrolysis which is the process in which an electric current flowing through a water solution of a chemical breaks that compound up into its component parts. In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of separating bonded elements and compounds by passing an electric current through them.
Curt and or Scooty could explain it much better. Not sure if you had any copper dissolved into the tank, but raw copper that was energized with 110 volts concerned me.

 

[Jan]

Ben, how did the copper test turn out?

 

[class clown]

Ben, how did the copper test turn out?

The test showed no trace!! yipee! I'll check again tomorrow just to be sure - this one has me concerned - plus it's the first time I did the test, so just want to make sure I did it right.

Mike - thanks for the thoughtful explanation - you sure do know a lot about wide variety of topics. I'm impressed.