the worst has happened!

[Shells]

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 , a blue tang, 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..

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

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.

[billyr98]

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]

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

[Jorgens]

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!!!

[billyr98]

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]

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

[lcstorc]

Sorry to hear of your losses.
Best wishes for the recovery of your tank.

[Shells]

Originally Posted by sasquatch

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

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....

[ex3004me]

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.

[RanRoc]

sorry to read about losses! I hope that tank gets back in shape soon. much luck and best wishes!
-RY

[kinghokus420]

i run my 72g reef and 29g cichlid tank off of 2 20A breakers. plenty of juice..not enough outlets.

[billyr98]

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]

Originally Posted by billyr98

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..

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

[lcstorc]

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]

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