Varga's 300 Gallon In-Wall Build!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JoJo]

i've never seen a box like that so it was hard for me to tell, but i'm glad you guys were here to clear the water

[JWarren]

Originally Posted by JoJo

dont worry john, if he gets bit by 220v once he'll make sure to double check himself from then on. Varga, please just make sure to take your time, cut the breakers off before removing/installing them, wire them before installing them & dont touch any metal except the screws on the breaker after its been removed.

Yeah but if he is grounded really well it will be Jasons fault!

Varga turn off the top breaker that feeds the 110v section. Now that you have that dual phase breaker out, just leave it out for now. Let the electrician put it back in for you.

[Varga]

hehe, I'm not gonna hurt myself guys, I've only been electrocuted like 60 times.

water is almost crystal clear. Ammonia and nitrites are at zero, Nitrate is slightly above zero

I need a good 70-80 pounds of rock

[JWarren]

That bar that the bottom breakers are attached to is full power and is nothing to mess with. Please be careful!

[Varga]

I will be careful, I promise, I think I get it now, I see where the wires are coming and going and what needs to be shut off.

[JWarren]

Good deal! The top dual phase (220) will kill the whole 110v section. Kill that section before messin around in there.

[Varga]

I think I get it now.

get a 12 gage wire from the tank to the panel.
attach the black wire to the breaker
attach the white wire to where all the white wires in the panel are which is the long thing on the left side
attach the ground to where all the grounds are going which looks like the same bar as the white wire.

does that sound about right?

OK the shut off in the pic is wrong, shut off the one bellow than, the one Jason circled in red.

[JWarren]

No!

I am at a jobsite right now and can't edit your photo. I'll do it when I get back to the office.

[Varga]

OHok, thank you I really do appreciate your help

why are you on the job site, its 9:20 here, it must be like mid night where you are

[JWarren]

Right now it is 2:15am here in Florida and still working.

Are you going to pull one line to the aquarium or two?

[Varga]

Dunno yet, once everything is up and running I'll have a little over 3000W total.

[JWarren]

OK, now that I am not so busy and back at the office.....

Your last diagram looks like you have it right. Here are my edits. The first photo shows what each breaker is and it's voltage. Your white wires or commons, are connected to the terminal bar. The ground is generally a bare copper wire or is wrapped in brown paper and goes to ground. The black wire goes to the breaker.

On the bottom of the breaker box you have 4 220v dual or co-phase breakers. These are actually two 110v breakers that are co-phased out for 220v. Each line carries 110v but at a higher amperage for things like dryers, water heater or stove. The one that has the two wires cut from it may have powered somthing at one time but was removed from the house or property, like a welder.

In the top of the breaker box you have all of the 110 breakers. You can see two jumpers going from the top-right co-phased breaker (labled "110 kill breaker") out to power 110 volts to two sets of 110 breakers that are attached to the bars. You have room for three more 110 breakers on the very top bar. You could run two lines of romex and have two seperate circuits for your tank and could sperate your lights, heaters and powerheads (if you use any) on one circuit and your main pump on the other circuit.





Hope that helps!

[JWarren]

Sorry about being so late with the edits, I do contract photo work for a news service and I give them 4 ten hour days of my time. I usually get finished around 3am est.

I would run two lines to your fish room and use romex. Use GFI breakers or outlets, these are the safest to use around water, especially water you stick your hand in. The two circuits will give you flexibility to grow as you grow and you won't be pulling as many amps on one circuit. Two 20 amp breakers should give you enough juice to run whatever you will need, unless you are thinking of putting in something that pulls more than 20 amps, then you'll have to upgrade again, but 20 amps should be plenty.

A clamp on amp meter would be a good thing to have right now. You could check how much amperage each of your electrical items will be pulling and add it all up.

[tbittner]

If you buy 20A breakers, ALSO buy and use 12 gauge wire. Don't use 14 gauge wire unless you use 15A breakers.

Check the amperage rating on any sockets you use too. Most are only rated for 15 amps. It's ok to use 15 amp sockets as long as you don't exceed 15 amps on the socket. The wire is capable of handling 20 amps so you could have 10 amps on one socket and 10 amps on another socket, all connected together with the 12 gauge wire and you'd be ok. BUT, you really shouldn't exceed 80% of the circuits rated amperage capacity.

[JoJo]

John is right on point. i second the 2 20amp breakers, its a must for a tank that large. since you'll have to run a line anyways, you might as well run two and not have to worry about upgrades later on. i used GFI breakers because i only needed two @ $10 each versus GFI outlets which were $8 each and i needed 10.