the worst has happened!

Shells

Shells

Active Member
:cry1:
We came home on Friday night after working a 10 hour day, and went to
have dinner at about 9:00pm.

You can see our fish tank lit up driving down the road. Our living room was pitch dark when we got home...the breaker flipped sometime during the day,
probably when the last M.H. came on, which is a 400 watt. which comes on about 1:30pm.

We lost 3 fish, a powder blue :cry1:, a blue tang, :cry1: who was just starting to
stand up to the powder blue, and who i rescued from the overflow, because the powder blue had chased her into it. and we also lost our coral beauty.:cry1:.

Our majestic angel, mated pair of clowns, yellow headed sleeper goby and blenny and shrimps made it:thumbup:

we're having two new 30 amp breakers installed just for the tank. we're
also going to get a batter back up.

this has really taken us off guard.
 
B

billyr98

Well-Known Member
for tank outlets you should only being using 12 wire with 20 amp breakers.. Increasing the breaker size to 30 on only 12 gauge wire can cause serious problems...
 
Shells

Shells

Active Member
we're adding two new breakers to the breaker box and running the appropriate wires for them
 
Jorgens

Jorgens

Member
hmmm I better double check my wire set-up. I think my dad installed a 20amp on 12g wire....but thats him.....what the hell do I know!!


Good luck with your recovery...even tho it's tragic...it teaches some of us n00bs a lesson as well!!!
:thumbup:
 
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billyr98

Well-Known Member
shells - just most of the things we use should be on a 20amp breaker... 30amp breaker would be for AC unit and larger items.. Our fish tank pumps and all should only be on a 20amp circuit...
 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Brunt of all Jokes~
PREMIUM
Sorry to hear this Shells, I dont want to revisit the event but what else happened, just the lights out wouldnt hurt anything,dont elaborate if its too painfull, best wishes to you and some K. Steve
 
Shells

Shells

Active Member
sasquatch said:
Sorry to hear this Shells, I dont want to revisit the event but what else happened, just the lights out wouldnt hurt anything,dont elaborate if its too painfull, best wishes to you and some K. Steve
Click to expand...

thanks sasquatch. Not only were the lights off for 8+ hours, but everything
else on the tank that had a plug.

thanks everybody.

the breaker that this tank was on was also supplying 'current' to the living room the tv, and all its componenets, lights, ceiling fans etc.


billyr98, so what your saying is i should install, two new 20 amp breakers
and split everything up on those instead of installing two new 30 amp breakers??

i've got two, 250 watt MH, one 400 watt MH, two T5's, various maxijets, heater, skimmer, ph probe, main return pump and 3 fans. I'm getting ready to install a 40 watt, uv sterilizer. will two 20 amp breakers be ok for
all this?? the rest of the living room will stay on the existing 20 amp breaker.

also, what would happen if everything was on two 30amp breakers??
would if damage the equipment??

thanks again guys...my powder blue was the healthiest fish i've ever
seen....:tears:
 
E

ex3004me

New Member
60amps x 120volt =7200watts thats alot of power for just a tank it would be safer with just 2 20amp breakers surely the tank can run off of just 40 amps i mean thats like half of a normal house. and you've surely heard it before water and electricity...gfci.
 
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billyr98

Well-Known Member
two 20amp breakers should be plenty for your application... I always leave my lighting on one breaker and put everything else on the other breaker..

usually when you calculate a load of a breaker you should only use 16amps of a 20amp circuit because of CODE...
So that gives you 1920watts per circuit per code...

just your metal halides is 900 + your T5 lighting (not sure of the bulbs)
everything else on the other circuit and you are money!

any other questions let me know, I do this electrical stuff for a living, so its fun for me to talk about it..
 
Shells

Shells

Active Member
billyr98 said:
two 20amp breakers should be plenty for your application... I always leave my lighting on one breaker and put everything else on the other breaker..

usually when you calculate a load of a breaker you should only use 16amps of a 20amp circuit because of CODE...
So that gives you 1920watts per circuit per code...

just your metal halides is 900 + your T5 lighting (not sure of the bulbs)
everything else on the other circuit and you are money!

any other questions let me know, I do this electrical stuff for a living, so its fun for me to talk about it..
Click to expand...

thanks alot for you help!! that helps expain alot! we're having this done today, tomorrow at the latest!
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
Billy, I think you need a Florida visit for you and Jenn. You can stay here and fix my electric, then stay here and vacation. LOL
 
TDEVIL

TDEVIL

Well-Known Member
Karma to you Billy ;)

and for those wandering what amperage they have on their breakers here is a calculator
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/baconbacon/page2.html

and dont forget that not only does the amperage of the breaker and the size of the wire matter the amperage of the outlet and or switch matters also.

you dont want to use a 15 amp outlet for the 1900watts, use a 20a outlet.
and dont forget about GFCI's

Jay
 
Warnberg

Warnberg

Well-Known Member
My suggestion and this is what I learned the hard way, lights on own circuit (20 amp should suffice), two pumps each on separate circuit, chiller on separate circuit. Reason for this, if any one circuit trips I should still be fine.

Do not put your return pumps on the same circuit, do not put the lights on the same circuit as the return pumps..... live and learn, sorry for your loss.
 
B

billyr98

Well-Known Member
lcstorc said:
Billy, I think you need a Florida visit for you and Jenn. You can stay here and fix my electric, then stay here and vacation. LOL
Click to expand...

Cool Idea Lynn!!!!!

TDEVIL said:
Karma to you Billy ;)

and for those wandering what amperage they have on their breakers here is a calculator
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/baconbacon/page2.html

and dont forget that not only does the amperage of the breaker and the size of the wire matter the amperage of the outlet and or switch matters also.

you dont want to use a 15 amp outlet for the 1900watts, use a 20a outlet.
and dont forget about GFCI's

Jay
Click to expand...

Nice Calculator Jay!
 
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