How do you spread your power?

[jab161]

Fred
I am not telling you not to use a GFCI breaker if you will feel safer with it, however i ran two dedicated lines to my tank when i set it up and i used two standard breakers. In my experience i have found many GFCI breakers to be VERY sensitive. The trip when they sense an unbalanced load between the hot leg and the neutral. However i am new to reef tanks and i have never heard of a tank disaster do to a power strip. Many outlets in your home may be under a constant load. wall outlets are all made out of plastic and they rarely melt do to a standard load. In my opinion it is better to have a constant load on an outlet rather than something that switches on and off. Every time a load is put on an out let a tiny spark will occur as the current jumps between the copper of the outlet to the plug. If the load is always on thier is no reason for the current to ark between the conductors. This is why people say never to turn on a light switch when you smell gas in a room, when you flip the switch a small ark jumps between the conductors which would cause an explosion. But if the light is on you dont have to worry. I feel this is the same thing.

as far as the insulation on you wires, as long as the wires in the hood are not very old you should be in good shape. wire insulation will always break down under excessive heat but 90 degrees is not that bad. What kind of wire is in your hood? Also as a rule when it comes to wires if you diont have to touch them don't. My house has tons of old cloth covered wires as long as you don't disturb them they will be fine.

My only advice to you is check the breakers in your panel if they are very old you might want to change the one going to your tank. Sometimes older breakers do not trip when they should. So if you are realy worried about this situation check your panel for old breakers, and feel the face of the breakers to see if any are getting to hot.

 

[loismustdie]

I did a little research on this at work. I was able to hit it from a fireman stand point and since one of the guys I work with is an electrician, I was able to look at it from his point of view as well.
First, still to this day, with all the fire safety classes, overloaded extension cords are still the number one cause of fires. You can also find the terms "improper wiring" "equipment not to code" "equipment failure" and my favorite "faulty equipment". Electricity is the number one fire starter. Closely followed by "alternative means of heating one's home" and candles. Smoking is the number one starter of fatal fires. Quit smoking.
As jab161 mentioned, a lot of times, breakers are installed in a box and are then left alone. The old plug and play syndrome. Breakers fail to trip more often than you would think. On the other hand, GFCI trip to easily, so I would never hook up my main pump to one.
Next issue is the UL rating. I can't go deep into what gives something a UL rating, but the way it was explained to me is that a lot of electrical equipment marked UL, really isn't. Especially power strips. There is no way of telling if something really is UL listed or not. I asked if something like price could be an indicator and the answer was no. The only thing I got was that the tags located on the cord (rather than on the body) seem more authentic. I was also told a lot of companies caught on to this and now place stickers on the cord... so a lot of good that does.
I've been to a lot of fires. Jab161 has probably been on a ton of electrical jobs. I can tell you that both of us have seen some crazy and dangerous crap. Much more dangerous than you would find under one of our tanks (although, some of you are an accident waiting to happen). My own basement in my house was wired with nothing but extension cord wire you would plug an alarm clock into. If I hadn't renovated the basement, I never would have known, until my house burned down and my insurance company kindly explained to me why my insurance doesn't cover "faulty electric".
Now the whole thing about the fire department saying water dripped on the power cord is BS. They have no idea. All they know is where it started and give the easy answer because they don't want to talk to you.
One fish tank fire I went to, a fireman saw light, felt glass, thought it was a window and followed procedure... he "vented". Which means he drove his halligan tool through the fish tank. Along with water from the hose line, there was an additional 125 gallons on the floor. The power strip was wet. No ****. It was written up as water dripping on the power strip as the cause of the fire.
I agree with Pierce in that it is rare. Me personally, I'm building a couple of boxes. I'm not buying Home Depot crap for it either. I'll pay the extra $10 for quality, safety and most of all, piece of mind. You don't want me and the boys to come visit you. A nervous Proby causes more damage than the fire.
FWIW, in 7 years, I've been to 2 fires which clearly started in the stand of a fish tank.

 

[crox99]

Chris

Thank you for the info.

 

[Paul B]

This is the safest way for a reefer to wire a panel.

 

[ming]

I toasted a power strip once with water dripping onto it. It was a slow leak from my HOB overflow a long time ago, onto the power strip which was next to the stand.
Ever since then, I only go for drilled tanks, and all surge protectors are hanging high on the wall, away from the tank.
IMO, having the power strips higher up makes a world of a difference. It seems like everybody having the fires has their power strips UNDER their tanks. :scratchch

 

[Awibrandy]

One more thing for me to loose sleep over:Yikes: .

 

[alrha]

Thanks for making me nervous again about my biggest tank fear - an electrical fire.

I have 2x20amp circuits and 1x15 amp circuit. I use the Direct Connect from the AquaController and a powerstrip of course.