electrical

[emo_1992]

Ok I am wondering how large of a circuit most of you have for your tanks. On a 200 gal tank it is looking like it will require a 25-30 amp dedicated circuit. Do you run a dedicated power circuit for your tanks and if so how big of a circuit breaker are you running?

[Woodstock]

Thanks for the reminder. I REALLY need to get an electrician to my house to wire a dedicated circuit for my reef. I have way too much current usuage from just two outlets

...tagging along to learn....

[Warnberg]

Multiple circuits... run 2 or 3 dedicated 20 amp circuits. That way if you trip one breaker you do not loose the entire system. I have two return pumps, each return pump is on a different circuit

[boozeman]

oh Billy

[pmac90]

haha ... was thinking the same thing booze!

[emo_1992]

I currently have one 20 amp running to the room that the tank will be placed. However that same ckt runs a bedroom as well fortunatly it is a guest room so not alot of electronics. My breaker pannel is full however I can replace two of the breakers with buddy units. and add a dedicated 30 amp to that as well. I dont want to upgrade the panel since we will be starting construction on the new house. I wanted to ask because this helps me in both locations.

[sasquatch]

I think a single 30 is pushing your luck, thats really like running a dryer, if something happens it would be ugly, now I think if you could run a 30 to a sub panel and put in seperate gfi breakers youd be fine,the little sub panels are cheap and youll probably remove it all when you leave anyway? Steve

[billyr98]

Ok well you want to run a couple circuits at least on a bigger system.. 200g +
But you need to give me some info on your equipment... Lighting and such...

I ran one 20amp circuit for lighting.. 1 20amp circuit for Powerheads and Misc stuff under the tank..

And one more 20amp circuit for my main pump, skimmer and such stuff...

If you have 15amp breakers already, run 14/2 wire and if not run 12/2 and use 20 amp breakers.. any questions ask away, I do it for a living...

[emo_1992]

Originally Posted by billyr98

Ok well you want to run a couple circuits at least on a bigger system.. 200g +
But you need to give me some info on your equipment... Lighting and such...

I ran one 20amp circuit for lighting.. 1 20amp circuit for Powerheads and Misc stuff under the tank..

And one more 20amp circuit for my main pump, skimmer and such stuff...

If you have 15amp breakers already, run 14/2 wire and if not run 12/2 and use 20 amp breakers.. any questions ask away, I do it for a living...

Ok I am buying an existing system but I will give you as much info as possible. I will have to run new drop lines so thought I would put in two 15 amps but may do two 20amps instead, info as follows:

FOR SALE
120 Gallon Saltwater Reef Tank
Complete Setup


Equipment Included:
120 Gallon Glass tank with stand and double canopy
55 gallon divided sump/refugium
Closed loop setup with pump and sqwd
Triple syphon overflow setup with HD return pump and sqwd
Turbofloater Protein Skimmer
Phosban Reactor
Titanium Heater
2 MH setup with ballasts (1 250wt & 1 400wt)
6 Bulb VHO Setup with Ballast
3 Seio Superflow Pumps (2 820's & 1 2600)
Digital Thermometer

Thanks for the input.

[emo_1992]

One other question is it better to do GFI outlets or GFI breakers? The outlets are considerably cheaper but there may be an advantage to GFI breakers.

[sebastian]

i have around 1000watts on two outlets with 20amp braker..... i do NOT recomend going with 30 amp .... to much and risk is tooo 30 amps is for heavy duty tool lika saws etc..... but i'll put/have gfi outlets for 100% i have bad exp. with gfi breakers......not always do what they should....so GFI is a must as close as possible to water source (even by local codes)

[emo_1992]

Originally Posted by sebastian

i have around 1000watts on two outlets with 20amp braker..... i do NOT recomend going with 30 amp .... to much and risk is tooo 30 amps is for heavy duty tool lika saws etc..... but i'll put/have gfi outlets for 100% i have bad exp. with gfi breakers......not always do what they should....so GFI is a must as close as possible to water source (even by local codes)

1000 watts would give you about 10 amps total. (actualy less than that during run and more during startups) not bad. I do think two 20 amp circuits would be better especialy since I already have them. Guess that would be two drop lines then.

[sebastian]

You can't go wrong with 2 x20amp...but do you have the line in the wall alredy?? if not it's not cheap.....that's why i told you about just 1x 20 amp....but be carefull ...sometimes even gfi outlets are not working wright.... had one that was defective..... good luck and hope You want heve this and keep away the inspectors he he he

[emo_1992]

Fortunatly I have a crawl space under the house, so there is access to run the wireing. I have a friend who is an electrician by trade that will do the hooking up for me. Just need to run the wireing and verify the placement of the tank, I dont want to have to move it again. The building inspectors here are realy good about ensuring that it is done properly and will not require permit for it so not a big problem there.

[Jorgens]

I'm running 1 dedicated 20 amp with gfi outlets on the whole circut. I do not have halides as of yet. and I can see where a second circut would have been benificial. As I was painting my office i got some wet paint in the gfi and tripped everything. Tanks went quit untill i cleaned out the paint.