There are lots of people starting up fish tanks, and many seasoned people redesigning. I would just like to add a voice of caution.....PLEASE remember to plan out your electrical! Such a simple task can be over looked very easily. My stand was designed to hold X amount of water if for whatever reason the sump was to overflow. Me either being lazy or just forgetting to pick up a plug for my top off came home this weekend to a house filled with smoke. I think my skimmer went bezerk and was bubbling water out of the sump and into the stand. The stand being designed great did exactly what I needed it to, hold water so it didn't go onto my wood floors. However this amazing design can and will back fire IF you don't have the components planned out correctly. As I stated, I had an extension cable laying on the bottom of the stand that my top off pump was plugged into. Well water and electrical don't go well together. Needless to say it caught fire...fortunately the stand had water in it so it kept it at bay. I could only imagine if there was not enough water in the stand that I would have had a call from the fire dept. To make along story short, please look over all your electrical pieces, plugs, wires, ect.. and make sure they are out of the way of any and all possible situations of flooding and or splashing. it can happen to anyone! I'm definitely no noob when it comes to the whole fish tank thingy....but all it takes is one careless, one mistake, one small over look and something bad can happen. I am happy to report though, all the fish and coral are fine....nothing was ruined, except the extension cord for my top off pump....which is sooooo minor in the the grand scheme of things. Please everyone look over your electrical and make sure it's properly/safely out of the way of water. Make sure plugs are suspended, all cords have drip loops and if possible, put all connections into a dry location. I'll take a pic of the plug when I get home...it's kinda cool.
Think things though (electrical)
- Thread starter glxtrix
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I was utterly scared when I walked into my house. The smell of burning plastic and smoke was enough to almost give me a heart attack. In fact it took quite a bit of time for me to "calm down" after I saw what the problem was. Yes it was pretty minor, but could have been very very bad. Needless to say, I'm going to buy several extension cords and make sure all my electrical is ran into my top off cabinet where the halide ballasts are located. The top off has a lock cover so no water will disrupt anything in there. All cords will be covered over with electrical tape, plastic bag wrapped and then taped again to insure nothing can possible go wrong again.
Good question. I have tried to isolate all my connections and keep them away from possible water sources (after I lost a power supply to one of my vortech pumps due to dripping connection! :doh
Good lesson for everyone to heed, thanks for posting. Now I need to go spot check everything again.
Bob
I think it was a gfci protected cord, not too sure though. I do know it ran through my dj power strip and into the wall. The wall may be gfci. I do know the cord had a switching unit on it. I'll take pics and report what I know later.
Oh man sorry to hesar that. I personally am a wiring freak so to speak so I kept all my wiring up high and sealed the uderneath of the stand real well. I have some stuff lately that needs to be cleaned up a little though. I just had an eposode when my cat fell into the 180 and tripped the GFCI plug.
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I can't tell you how many jobs I've done where everything was a fire waiting to happen. Thanks for the post, it's always a needed heads up.
When preplanning your electrical, try to take into account the length of your cords. If you have to use an extension cord and can't create a safe drip loop, a little bit of silicone on the rim of the connection can save your system.
Also, try not to over bundle wires together. This creates more heat, and can cause fires. If you need a 15' cord, and have a 50' in the garage just sitting around, go out and buy a 15' of proper rating. $10 is a lot less than the price of a new house.
Mount your power strips in 3 easy steps.
1. Press a piece of paper to the back of the strip to create a template for your screw holes.
2. Tape the template to the surface for mounting and screw in your screws. #4 or #6 3/4" or 1/2"(only for thin stands) wood screws will mount just about every power strip out there.
3. Mount your powerstrip and adjust screw length as needed for a tight fit.
When preplanning your electrical, try to take into account the length of your cords. If you have to use an extension cord and can't create a safe drip loop, a little bit of silicone on the rim of the connection can save your system.
Also, try not to over bundle wires together. This creates more heat, and can cause fires. If you need a 15' cord, and have a 50' in the garage just sitting around, go out and buy a 15' of proper rating. $10 is a lot less than the price of a new house.
Mount your power strips in 3 easy steps.
1. Press a piece of paper to the back of the strip to create a template for your screw holes.
2. Tape the template to the surface for mounting and screw in your screws. #4 or #6 3/4" or 1/2"(only for thin stands) wood screws will mount just about every power strip out there.
3. Mount your powerstrip and adjust screw length as needed for a tight fit.
Thanks guys and great tips too! Chris it must have been for only a few seconds. The stand itself was not damaged, so there must have been enough water down there when the wire decided to take blaze. It was a smoker though. I must admit, as scared as I was, I did take a few seconds to admire the volume light from the holes cut in my canopy with the bright halide light shining out.
I remember when I first set up my reef. Someone from the club came over and when we were looking at my equipment, they acidently knocked my PC refugium light right into the refugium. The GFCI tripped in about 1/10 of a second. Dried the light out, and it worked for another 10 months.
