GFI Saved my life last night...

[esmithiii]

Messing around in my 180 trying to get my mandarin out of my dang overflow and knocked a fan into the water. My hand was in the tank and didn't even feel a tingle- the GFI cut of the power in milliseconds. WOW! If you do not already have a GFI get one.

Ernie

 

[Reefguide]

That would have hurt !!!! Also had a friend who's powehead jammed and overheated and had almost everything in his tank die off after an electrical shock!! The plastic around where the powercable goes into the pump melted... He was not not happy !! Consider yourself lucky that you and your expensive pets are breathing....

 

[esmithiii]

Consider yourself lucky that you and your expensive pets are breathing....

I don't consider it luck... I consider it the GFI. I would never do a tank without one, especially not now.

 

[Reefguide]

True......

 

[Anonymous]

Ernie - is your GFI built into the wall socket, or an external one?

I tried an extension cord with a GFI, but it would trip as soon as the lights came on. I plan to eventually have two dedicated sockets (with GFI) for the tank, I think my current setup would give the fire marshall fits.

Glad you didn't get singed - how's the Mandarin by the way?

 

[esmithiii]

Brian,

I used an external one that I wired into a box which is attached to my stand. I have close to 10A flowing through it so I tend to think that maybe you wired yours wrong or you have a leak to ground somewhere.

My mandarin is fat and happy now. I gotta find a way to keep him outta the overflow.

Ernie

 

[Anonymous]

Hehehe...that it saved your life might be a bit dramatic. I've had my hand it tanks before when light fixtures fell in and such. (used to work at an LFS with over 400 tanks) it hurt really bad, and scared the crap out of me.
I didn't die though. :lol:
Don't you guys worry about GFCI's cutting out while your out of town or something due to a power outage? I'm about ready to build the wall that my new tank will sit in, and I'm not sure what to tell the electrician. I've heard some negative stores about GFCI's as well.
Jim

 

[esmithiii]

Hehehe...that it saved your life might be a bit dramatic.

Possibly. The instructions for my pacemaker say to aviod all electrical shocks, though.

JK.

E

 

[Anonymous]

8O LOL!!! Well that's more than enough reason to do so then. :lol: :lol:
Jim

 

[bertoni]

GFCI's are supposed to trip at about 5-10 milliamps. I measured one external one that tripped at 1 milliamp. A fluorescent light can put out that much leakage (my CSL Eclipse retrofit does). Your external GFCI might well just be very picky.

 

[danmhippo]

Back in non GFI connected setup times (Way back), I had a small fire on 2 powerstrips. My best guess is water dripped down by the power cord and just happened the cord it travelled does not have a drip loop (I was stretching the cord...). Water dripped onto the powerstrip, the whole strip charred...........return pump stopped..........water start overflowing in the sump............another powerstrip submerged in water, triggering another fire..........A BIG MESS!

GFI is Good to have, if you don't do it for your fish or for yourselves, do it for the house. Sure beats whole house burned down.

 

[Lynn]

Glad to hear your alright Ernie 8O I had them install them for my tank, wouldn't think of not doing so.... want to be around to look after them :lol: