So, I keep my QT under my main. Well, this morning my 6 yr old son went under there to look at a fish book. No big deal, he usually turns on my lights for me. Well, apparently he somehow knocked the light into the water of my QT. I was in the office. About 10-15 min later I come around the corner to a horrible smell and a loud humming sound. I rush over to my tank freaking out. Unplung everything. Then I know what happened. I hurry to get it all outside wondering if it fried anything else. The smell was horrible. I think now, what if I hadn't come around the corner. And, why didn't it trip my breaker?? So, that has been my morning. Thought I would share
What a morning
- Thread starter jamielai
- Start date
reef dummy
Member
At least everyone is safe! Good luck with everything.
That is the very reason our tank is grounded!!! Thank goodness it is, because if it was'st, my husband would have already been shocked! He could have been killed and everything in our tank would have been gone. Glad everyone is ok and no one got hurt. I would check into grounding my tank if I was you.
MotoReef
Member
It may be that most 20AMP house main breakers will not trip if the short is from a fair volume of water as it won't place enough load on the system, but rather make the tank act like a big heater core or a light bulb. (like a resistor but not enough to be a short?)
I actually tested the house breaker with same salt water from the tank placed in a bucket of water, and ran two sides of the AC cord into it. The bucket absorbed the electricity and breakers did not trip. I then changed the main breaker to the line with a 15AMP and still it didn't trip it.
(a dumb experiment maybe, and dangerous if not done with proper precaution but I simply wanted to know with worst case scenario being imminent at any given time with things like a reef tank...)
So anyway, knowing that... I re-installed the 20AMP as designed for the house line as per blueprint of the house, so as not to trip it with a vacuum cleaner or other devices on the same line. Rather I installed a second outlet with a GFI protection next to the existing standard outlet, and anything that hangs over the tank like lights, and submersed like a pump, I rerouted them through the GFI outlet. I can use a power strip or a protected UPC device as well for back up, which is my next plan for pumps at least.
Stay safe out there everyone! At close to $150 a month of electricity a month, the current draw of a big reef tank is no joke
Breakers trip on overcurrent, meaning if you have a 20 amp breaker and are using 24 amps it will trip. GFCI outlets measure the current between the hot and neutral and trip if there is a spike between the 2. If you notice the only place you see GFCI outlets are around water, sinks, tubs, pools etc. if your light was plugged into a GFCI outlet it would have tripped. hth.
Jake
Jake
MotoReef
Member
Yes, it makes sense
thanks for clarifying that.GFCI = used for shorts, water hazard, wire and equipment issues.
Breakers = used to protect the line from overloading line capacity.