Mr. Saltwater Tank TV Friday Am Quick Tip #79: Riding the Lighting Isn’t Cool
Keep electricity in its place – away from you and your tank’s inhabitants
Browse the Store! Questions?
Keep electricity in its place – away from you and your tank’s inhabitants
Browse the Store! Questions?
Good tip Mark, I found out the hard way…. 🙁
Great tip! Well done Steve! 😉
Bonus to those in the UK… horizontal rather than vertical wall sockets… 😀
What if the line is not grounded?
If the line is not grounded, you need an electrician to fix it. This is true even if you don’t have a tank or GFCI.
Reef Junkie, house built around tank.:)
I wouldn’t run a GFCI on your life line equipment for your tank, such as pumps, heater, chiller, Apex, etc. I had a faulty one and it kicked off my entire system and wouldn’t go back on. Pulling the graph the max i have ever pulled was 6.3 amps 15 amp breaker dedicated circuit. A $10 dollar GFCI is cheap and can/will fail. Best to do it at the breaker box and use a regular plug if far enough away. Also use drip loops. Luckily i was home to catch this before it turned bad.
Thanks for the tip! I have been learning a lot from your videos. I purchased that exact CFCI last night along with a titanium ground probe that plugs into an electrical socket. I also have a refractometer, RO/DI system, extra filter pack, and a TDS Meter on the way.
Thanks mark
Thank you for tip but if the plug already is in the back of the drink
I built and installed my GFCI’S in to my stand it self. I got the tank and stand i did the leak test for 2 days the emptyed out the tank then took the tank off the stand and went to work adding recepticals…. On the left i put 2 quad recptacal boxes and on the right i have my one GFCI quad box with 2 GFCI witch are protecting each quad box on the left. The whip or power cord is made of a 12awg cord that is for swimming pool nitch lighting. Work great trust me! by the way yes i am an Electrician. NOTE GFCI’S CAN FAIL AND IF YOU ARE NOT SURE YOU CAN TRUST YOUR SELF DOING THE JOB GET A GOOD ELECTRICIAN!!!!!!!!!! OR GET THE HANDY DEVICE THAT MARK IS SHOWING, WATER AND ELECTRIC DON’T MIX BE SAFE ….
I just made a standalone power circuit for my aquarium. My whole house could be out of power when my aquarium still runs (and the other way around ofcourse). Just to make sure any power fluctiation from broken household equipment won’t shut down my aquarium.
Hey mark, i noticed you sit on the floor alot, did your chair not make the move?
haha … like that one Alexander… 😀
This tip actually hel
that’s funny Alexander!
you know i heard of this guy hes on youtube who is using small electrical current to help grow coral faster… in the real ocean hes trying to re build reefs with this type of small electrical current so it cant be all bad… though i am sure our house hold is way to much and would hurt us lol
An important note from http://www.thekrib.com/TankHardware/gfci.html :
It is worth noting that some GFCI devices require a manual reset if the power
supply TO the GFCI is stopped — for example, by a power outage that might
occur during a thunderstorm. GFCI receptacles that are installed as wall
sockets are designed NOT to require a manual reset after a power outage —
when the power comes back on, the GFCI is still send power to operate a load.
Portable GFCIs, such as on extension cords that comply with OSHA standards
require a manual reset after even a momentary power outage — these cords
are usually the heavier cords that might be found on a construction sight or
at Home Depot. On a construction job site, this feature prevents your circular
saw, for example, from starting up accidentally when the power supply is
restored after an outage. If your aquarium filters, heaters, etc. are
connected downstream from such a GFCI extension cord, you will lose life
support for your fish after a power outage until you manually reset the GFCI.
Mr. Viviano, I am surprised by your advice. Is it code where you’re from to use multiple GFCI outlets on the same circuit? Only one is needed per circuit as it will protect all outlets on the same circuit. Of course you would have to wire it up correctly to begin with… all outlets past the GFCI wired to the load side. Also, they are not made to last forever and should be tested on a regular basis. At least once a quarter and replaced if needed.
Mark
Excellent topic but not all GFI’s are equal. and with plugging it in the wally adds a chance of it getting bumped very easy. With the investments in our tanks you might want to tell folks to grab a electrician and have them add a GFI to the actual electrical box where you can isolate the entire circuit and have a hard connection. The GFI breakers are pretty cheap and not really that hard to install but still grab a electrician. These are great at also grabbing stray voltage. You might want to add a discussion on grounding to the quick trips. that tiny voltage is also not a good thing in a wet environment.
Chris
If you want a more permenant solution, there are GFCI wall outlets that can be purchased from any hardware store. They replace the whole wall outlet so they maintain the low profile and tend to be a little more robust.
[quote]Mr. Viviano, I am surprised by your advice. Is it code where you’re from to use multiple GFCI outlets on the same circuit? Only one is needed per circuit as it will protect all outlets on the same circuit. [/quote]
I think the idea, Jim, is to have multiple GFI’s so that if one fails (or one piece of equipment fails), power will still be supplied to the rest of the tank equipment. If one powerhead goes out, the other will still be running, for example.
i was wondering what equipment do you use to film? i do freshwater and was wanting to start a freshwater channel on YouTube like yours because i’ve noticed theres really no channels that help with fresh water.
Bbrown, multiple GFCI outlets on the same circuit will not help and in many cases will not allow them to operate correctly. If the GFCI trips, the entire circuit will go down.