Important safety...please read

Recently there has been a lot of discussion on safety and the reef aquarium and about handling the coral and different safety precautions related to such....but I want to discuss something of even greater imporatance....fire hazzards associated with the equipment that we use.

About 7 months ago I had a fire in my old tank due to a "cheap" powerstrip. The strip became overloaded and instead of shorting out, in went into flames. I was very fortunate that I was home and was able to trip power to the strip right away.

That is when a friend of mine told me about the GFCI strips. These strips shut off immediately upon water getting into them. These are the same outlets that are installed in your bathrooms. He also told me about the hazards of using "cheap" powerstrips.

So that was when I went out and purchased all GFCI strips for all my tanks. And trust me...I have tripped them several times since. I also purchased fire alarms and placed them right above my tank and a stray voltage thingy. (like my technical terms)

Well I do trip my circuits to my main tank fairly easily. I need to hire an electrician to come to my house to give my tank its own circuit...as I can not even watch TV while the lights are on.

But I felt safe because I spent $40 per powerstrip and they are GFCI

Well, tonight my feeling of safeness has ended. A couple weeks ago one of my GFCI stopped working. I did not think much about it, it tripped but I was not able to get it flipped over. So I bought a new one. It ran fine. Then today the tank shut off. Thinking I blew another circuit and went down stairs to flip it back but it did not come on....the circuit never blew. So I looked at the powerstrip and the power button was turned off. I flipped it back on and went about my day...thinking the dogs had accidently stepped on it.

Well later on, the same thing happened....but this time I touched the plug and the strip and they were BURNING UP they were both so hot to touch. The little sticker that says it is a GFCI had blistered up.

Soooo....the purpose of this thread is to remind people DO NOT OVERLOAD powerstrips.....even if they are high joules one. Dont rely on a GFCI to protect you.

So tonight I went back to the hardware store and I am going to spend my evening redistribuiting plugs until I can get an electrician out. I also purchased a overload guard powercenter with dual circuit breakers that will be connected to a seperate GFCI plug. I am going to distribute these plugs to various outlets.

So please pay attention to the rating of your powerstrips and make sure you do not overload.

 

You may just want to check that you have 12 gauge wiring to your outlet and not 14 gauge. If you have 12, (and depending on the distance to your electrical panel) you can in most cases swap out the 15 amp breaker that you keep blowing for a 20 amp breaker. A circuit wired with 14 gauge wire should be limited to a 15 amp breaker for electrical safety reasons, and it's probably also required by code.

 

wow! really good advice that most of us are guilty of. I was telling hubby our next project after the hood is installing more gfci outlets on a few new 20 amps breakers just for and behind the tank. I hate cords all over the place! and yeah I don't feel safe using power strips!

Glad you were ok!!!!!!

 

It is easy to over load power strip most only handle 10 or 15 amps and that is not alot. I would in your case add up all of the amps you are using and try to distribute them through many circuts and not just one power strip. I know you are going to have electriction come out. But good heads up for everyone out there.

 

OK you guys have me concerned, is this for higher wattage lights/powerheads?? I just set up my 18 gallon, and have 2 Korallia 1's a Korallia Nano, a 100 watt heater, and an Aquaclear 50.... all on the same strip, along with some kind of wierd powerhead but i dont know how strong it is. Anyone think i'm worrying too much?? cause i dont want to overdue it.

 

No matter how fancy your power strip is, it isn't going to be able to hold more than 15 amps considering the outlet it is being plugged into is 15 amp.

IMO lights should not be plugged into power strips. The only thing I use a power strip for is two small pumps. The only other thing I have is two electrical boxes wired up with two duplexes in them, that are connected to different outlets. Kind of like a power strip but it turns two outlets into four, instead of 1 into seven.

 

Anyone!!??!?!?!?! Another thing that the recent post said, I have 2 of the Nova extreme 2x24 watt lights plugged into a separate outlet just by themselves, is this going to pose any problems??? its only 96 watts, they don't get hot at all.

Please help!! i know absolutely nothing about electricity and voltage and whatnot, I don't want any risks of a fire b/c my tank is in my room with the door locked most of the time.

 

You must have too many items on one circuit. Luna

 

Does anyone know if they make strips that can handle 20 amps? I am setting up a 75 g with 4 x overdriven T5's... My only option right now is to run off of one outlet on a dedicated 20 amp circuit.

 

like...? i don't understand, so i'm ok?