Weekly Dicussion - GFI

[Anonymous]

Weekly Discussion - GFI

Do you use them on your system? Why or why not?

About the RDO Weekly Discussion:
This discussion is meant to get at your experience and to share information that is in your head, so don't necessarily treat it as information gathering. State your opinion and, if available, use material, anecdotal or otherwise, that will back up your opinion.
Past weekly discussions will be archived in the archives.
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[Anonymous]

Yes I do. One ignoring thing about them is that they can tripped when I unplug my powerhead... whenever that happened, I need to wait 15 minutes before the MH is back on again... Maybe time for me to rearrange the electric configuration so that this does not happen.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I use them and think everbody else should too. Electricity and water simply do not mix. Anything within reach of the tank should be GFI protected IMO.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I use them.

One time I was trying to make room for some equipment in my sump/refugium. I moved the submerged pump over and the return hose slipped off, gushing water into the light fixture on my fuge while my hands were in the sump water.

In less time than the split second it takes to think "oh crap I am going to be electricuted" the GFI cut all the power to the tank off. I gotta say that silence was beautiful.

I know I should have been more careful and turned off the pump before moving things around, but it had been a spur of the moment "I'll just fix this one thing real quick" kind of thing, and I am glad I had the GFI in.

 

[t gallo]

gfci, i do not use them.

prone to tripping when im not around, murphy's law.

 

[Anonymous]

Does anyone ever heard of a self-reseting GFCI? That may solve gallo's and my issue...

 

[Anonymous]

I have never had one trip in 3 years.

Circuit breakers can trip too. There is a reason for a breaker or GFI tripping. You should find the problem and fix it.

I would follow the rules in the National Electrical Code for swimming pools and put GFCI protection on any outlet within 6' of the tank. I would also use a GFCI on all equipment that serves the tank, regardless of it's location (meaning if it is served by an outlet over 6' from the tank).

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

so, mr. electrician... why mine trip when I unplug my powerhead?

 

[Anonymous]

I'll be over shortly to trouble shoot your wiring.

Like I said, 3 years, no trippy!

Louey

 

[ChrisRD]

I use them. I've only had one trip. That was due to a faulty powerhead that would have electricuted me if it had not. I did feel a mild shock for just an instant before it tripped. I bet I would have felt a lot more if it hadn't!

 

[Micah00]

When I was setting up a 40 gal. I had bought from someone and I was trying to set it up. I was wanting to get it back up as soon as possible for the livestock that I got with it. I had not got a GFI for it yet, but though " I can get that later, I need to get this tank going ". Had never dealt with a siphion or any type of overflow before and didn't know how to start the U tube, and the lady I bought it from didn't know because her husband always started it and was out of town. I thought I could figure it out. It had a hang on sump with it so I filled the tank up and filled the sump all the way up, turned on the pump. Water starts comming from the sump and starts to overflow the tank. I grab the electric cord to unplug it and where I am wet not to mention the floor is soaked I start to get shocked. It made my hands curl around the cord, so I finally get the sense to kick the plug from the wall. My hand had a burnt smell for almost a day.

So to make a long story short: " Electricution really sucks, use a GFI " .

 

[Anonymous]

Some people say that they will trip if there is a short and prevent a fire. Anyone know anything about that?

I currently don't use them, as I am terrified of the false trip.

 

[Anonymous]

Here is a link to a good description of how a GFCI works.

Louey

 

[fungia]

i use a 3 outlet gfci and it has never tripped on me except for one time when a rio pump went bad, i knew cuz when i removed it the gfci worked normally again.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't use them, and never have in 20 years of doing this. However, I plan on using them in the near future. I've put it off for so long because the just scare the crap out of me. I just KNOW the damn thing will be fine until I go away for the weekend sometime. :? Heck, even while I'm at work during the day is enough to waste my tank.
It just scares me. Of course, so does the thought of electrocution. 8O

Jim

 

[Anonymous]

I didn't use them with my first tank, but when I set up my new tank I made all outlets in the room with the tank GFCI. I've never been electrocuted or had a false trip but I think my safety is more important than my tank's health (I'd rather have a tank crash from a false trip than die from electrocution).

After all, if I died, the tank will go downhill pretty fast too!

jayo

 

[smlacy]

Does anyone know if it takes a "true" ground for a GFCI to work, or can I just wire a ground probe as "ground" and will that be good enough?

The problem is that my house is very old and none of the outlets are actually grounded.

Steve

 

[LauraH]

I use them for all tank equipment. I got careless about using them one time when I set up a tank where we didn't already have one installed. To compound the problem, I failed to properly level the tank.

Long story short, the tank seal failed and sprung a leak, which found it's way to the power strip causing it to smoke. We were home and able to stop it going any further, but had no one been home...

 

[Emperator]

Does anyone ever heard of a self-reseting GFCI? That may solve gallo's and my issue...

i use gfci's individually. by this i mean that my heater is plugged into a standalone gfci, my skimmer pump is plugged into another stand alone gfci, etc. this way, if a gfci trips, it will only shut off the single piece of equipment plugged into the gfci.

also, the gfci's i use will automatically reset if the power goes off and on (think minor power outage), however, they will need to be manually reset in the case of a ground fault occurance.

 

[Emperator]

gfci, i do not use them.

prone to tripping when im not around, murphy's law.

so you'd rather lose your life and preserve the tank? hmm.