Crappy Day

So I woke up this morning with a little discomfort in my side. i walked out to the kitchen and took some pills, then went back to bed. This was around 6a. My alarm goes off around 6:45 and I get up and start getting ready for work. I walked out and clicked the button for the lighting for the tank....nothing happens. The it struck me that none of the pumps are running. I have no clue what time the stuff went off but the current tank was off and so was the new 55G i am in the process of cycling. So I checked the GFIs and non of them were tripped. I walked done to the breaker panel and see one of my breakers is tripped. I turned it off and back on, but it won't stay on. So I walked back up and checked the power strip and the GFI again. Everything is good. I grabbed my phone and called an electrician friend. I sat down on my recliner in the basement and while talking to him i noticed my outlets in the basement are not working either. I went into the furnace room and tried the breaker again, this time it works. He laughed and said you must have just had to get me on the phone. So at this point I figure out that the previous home owner, who claims he is a general contractor. The breaker panel was about 15 feet from the closest outlet. So instead of putting the outlets on they're own circuit he decided to put 12 outlets on 1 circuit. So I woke up the wife and told her to check on it when she gets up. I let for work.

About 11a the wife calls and says well it was off again when we got up, but I reset the breaker and it worked for about 5 minutes then went off again. As i am talking to her she goes down stairs and I hear the breaker trip again. i asked if she just reset it again and she says, "yeah". I told her to let it alone I will look at it, but to stop clicking it on and off cause obviously something is wrong, and all she is going to do is stress the fish and burn up pumps.

So I left work and headed home. I removed the breaker panel cover and checked the wiring hoping the previous owner at least ran the wiring back to the panel but tied it to the same breaker. No such luck and it's 14 gauge wire, so I can't move to a 20A breaker. So I left to go to Lowes to get a new breaker, of course some dude ran his Hummer H3 into the back of a Fedex semi trailer right at the red light I need to turn at to get to Lowes. So I get by that mess and picked up the new breaker. I headed back home and installed it. i just talked to my wife and its been fine for about 3 hours now. I grabbed the amp clamp at work and will check the current drawl for that circuit when i get home. The new tank heater and return pump are the only things i have added to that circuit recently. The part that pisses me off most is i am leaving for vacation very soon and will be gone for over a week. The wife will still be home, but I won't be there to fix anything.

One the cycle is complete on the new tank the old one will be getting shut down, but that maybe another 3 weeks or so. My basement is completely finished so i will have to start cutting into the walls in order to figure out where the lines were spliced into. Then disconnect them and run a new line from the breaker panel. ****ty day today.... I am ready to spend some time on the lake catching some fish......

 

I just got home and checked the current drawl on that circuit and it's only reading about 5A. I am guessing, either something was not happy last night and surged or the breaker has been weak for awhile and finally bit the dust. I will keep an eye on it for a few days before vacation, but so far everything looks good.

 

Electricity sucks sometimes. Hope it works good for you

 

I was wondering if you resolved this issue because I had a similar problem. I couldn't figure out why my breaker kept tripping a week before I went on vacation. I noticed about two weeks later that my heater was dead, and it was brand new like 3 weeks old. I have replaced it since, and have not had the problem since. What caught my attention is that you mentioned your heater was on this breaker. I have wondered if at the time my breaker was tripping, was it the same time my heater could have been shorting out, since like you it also happened at 6am when my tank would be quite cool.

 

Your wife probably messed with it since you are leaving without her.

 

I posted another thread where my power head blew up in my tank killing everything except my 2 clown fish. I believe the power head started to go, and popped the breaker, the breaker was old and probably getting weak. I replaced the breaker with a new one a few days before I left for Canada. When I got back from Canada I found the blown power head and I figure the power head blew the breaker because it was weak, then when the new one was put in the power head took itself out. Everything has been fine since. Good luck.

 

Why not just run new wire through conduit instead of cutting into the walls? What a bummer.

 

I didn't end up cutting into the wall. There are too many outlet on the circuit, but I used an amp clamp and I am only drawing about 5 amps. The breaker is a 15A, so I am using 1/3. Plus I will be shutting down the old tank once the new one get finished cycling.