GFI Tripping

[hawkfish]

With respect to electrical, I've been operating trouble free for several years. This weekend my GFI started tripping. With a reset, it might go 5 minutes or 5 hours, no logic. This moring it started tripping every two or three minutes. At the time, the only things running were main pump, two vortexs, two UV sterilizers and my skimmer. The lights are plugged into a different circuit, and no power was being supplied to either the heater or chiller.

I have two outlets nearby on different circuits, both with GFIs and with a little testing have verified that my equipment can trip either GFI. So, I feel like the culprit may be something that is plugged into the GFI, as opposed to having a faulty GFI outlet.

I took a voltage meter to the water, both in the sump and display, with the setting at 200 AC, and get 0.2, when everything is plugged in. If I turn off the skimmer, I get 0.0. Is 0.2 acceptable? Could the skimmer be my culprit and cause the GFI to somehow trip? I'm not sure how else to track down what could be causing my GFI to trip, so if anyone has any experience or suggestions, I'm wide open.

Also, I've turned off the skimmer and have not tripped the GFI for two hours, so I turned it back on. Now, its been running trouble free for an additional hour.

PS, fish appear normal, but given the short history on this I'm not sure they've had time to get lateral line disease.

Thanks!

 

[ricky5415]

Maybe u need a new outlet for your aquarium

 

[schwaggs]

If it is tripping every 2 minutes, unplug one thing. If it trips in the next several minutes, plug it back in and unplug the next thing. Continue until it no longer trips and you have found the culprit.

Do not rule out standard heaters just because they are not running. 120V runs into the heater whether it is on or off and can leak into the tank if faulty. If your heater(s) is controlled by an Apex or similar, then you should be able to rule them out.

 

[clowningaround]

GFI go bad, its not uncommon. I would rule it out. Perhaps start simply by running an extension chord to a bath/kitchen gfi temporarily and see if you still have trips. Also I'm guessing you've checked that nothing has shifted or such preventing a drip sag in your chords and that things arent getting any moisture or splatter to the contacts creating a trip. Somerimrs its thr simplest of things...

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[camellia]

Schwaggs;1117803 wrote: If it is tripping every 2 minutes, unplug one thing. If it trips in the next several minutes, plug it back in and unplug the next thing. Continue until it no longer trips and you have found the culprit.

Do not rule out standard heaters just because they are not running. 120V runs into the heater whether it is on or off and can leak into the tank if faulty. If your heater(s) is controlled by an Apex or similar, then you should be able to rule them out.

This happened to me ^^

My old RO skimmer pump wires pulled out at the skimmer pump housing (black coating came loose) exposing wires to water. It did kill the skimmer pump making Skimmer trash. Maybe yours isn't to that point yet. Perhaps depending on how you are positioning the Skimmer is making a difference of whether not water is shorting it out. Just throwing it out there as a possibility.
GL

 

[torqued]

Find the culprate FAST. You either have a bad GFCI (best case), or you have exposed copper wires in the tank. If that is the case you are already putting copper in your water.

I lost an entire SPS tank due to this because I did not have a GFCI and I had a grounding probe. The probe was preventing me from any shock, or noticing the issue.

I lost nearly all my SPS and I had no idea why, and my tank was AMAZING. It wasnt until after i tore the tank down and sold my gear that a buddy of mine got lit up by the powerhead I sold him that had the short in it.

So the good news is you have GFCI and are being alerted. Time to find the problem, and you had better do it quickly