Any electricians out there in ReefLand?

neuroslicer

neuroslicer

Old School Reefer
My two tanks are in my sun room, and the entire room is linked to one circuit breaker. With upgrading my 65 gallon to a 125 gallon, the additional power load is causing the single circuit breaker to trip... and to trip... and to trip... Add to that my office is on the same circuit, so my two PCs are constantly in need of reboot!

I'm looking for help and advice from an electrician or someone with electrical expertise, and thought I'd start here first. I'm thinking that just increasing the amperage of the circuit breaker might be dangerous... wires overloading and heating up, etc....

Anyone available for advice and/or for hire?
thanks.
Jay
 
Well I did stay at a Holiday Inn so........ Upping the breaker would be bad for the reasons you stated. Your best bet would be to have a dedicated circuit professionally installed. With GFCI outlets.


PS Get some UPS for you PCs.
 
You can't put in a higher amperage breaker (more than likely there's a 20A there now) because the wiring would melt before the breaker would trip. You will definitely need a new circuit if you don't want to stagger lights-on times.

Many people recommend a GFI receptacle or breaker, and it does make things safer. But the risk of shock to you is extremely small, and the chance of a moody GFI breaker tripping is very high. If it trips and you're not around to reset it, your tank is history. (And believe me, I know history)
 
I emailed you last week Keaton asking for him to call me, but you didn't reply. Maybe you didn't get the email. Any chance he can do this little job this weekend Keaton?
Jay
home 357-7016
 
"the risk of shock to you is extremely small"

Ha, Peachy, you don't know me and electricity! Sometimes I think I was born with my finger in a light bulb socket, and it's been downhill ever since! Shocking! Watt, you say?

Thought you'd get a charge outta that one. Have to stay current, you know!
 
I don’t want to make any more sparks fly, but find this thread to electrifyingly shocking, but my resistance to amp this up is clearly not within my power. So sorry if it Hertz you…


Quick thought: You will likely have (just) a 15 AMP breaker in the Box, which is very “common” (I kill me!). If so, then your first and cheapest alternative is to go to a 20 Amp GFI breaker (no more, as Peaches suggests). Just shut everything down in the house first, then throw the Main to replace any breakers. It’s easy.

If not, you’ll need to pull a new circuit profe$$ionally, but it’s worth the safety.

I disagree with Scott: Put a UPS on your Tank… let the computers crash.

Steve, speaking of “chasing Sparks”, what was with all the re-wiring at Kermit’s yesterday?
 
The issue of putting a larger breaker in is that you a lot of receptacles that are tied to that circuit and the power feeds through each one so if you have 8 receptacles you will have 16 mechanical connections and that is were the problem will surface. If it is a 15 amp circuit it probably has 14 gauge wire and 15 amp receptacles and probably has cheap 15 amp receptacles at that. One way to possibly get a few more amps without running a new circuit is to find every receptacle on the circuit and remove them. Take the wires that were feeding the receptacles and wire nut them together with a third wire ( a stinger , pigtail,...) coming out to feed the receptacle. Now the power is not running through each receptacle but each is receptacle is being supplied by the same circuit. Put a 20 amp breaker in and replace the receptacle on the aquarium with good quality 20 amp units ( the common slot looks like a sideways T.) 14 gauge wire will handle 20 amps but the code has to allow for some safety tolerances and failures almost always occur at mechanical connections so by keeping the circuit from feeding through ever receptacle, you eliminate all those mechanical connections (2 per receptacle) and the wire nuts provide a far superior connection versus the connections on the receptacle.
Now if you do all that and it causes a problem and burns up your house I would imagine the insurance company would leave you twisting in the wind.
If you have 12 gauge wire it would be as simple as replacing the breaker and receptacles to 20 amp units.
I would never have my aquarium on a GFI and if I did I would at least have the return pump and heater on a non-GFI circuit.


To answer M. Shark.
We added new coral tanks and the increased load from the new lights overloaded the breaker and caused it to trip so we ran new circuits. We also relocated some others to get them out of the way and closer to the device we wanted to power.
 
Last edited:
Good Stuff Dave!

Here's a stupid question (well, maybe not): Roughly, what's my new 120 tank going to draw? (amperage wise)

I myself may have to think about pulling a new circuit, depending on what you might guess-timate, given the build.

Thanks for em-powering us to help figure our Watt's What!
 
It is also not outside the realm of possibility that they pulled both rooms seperately, and then landed the wires on the same breaker. If you pull the cover off the circuit breaker and see multiple wires attached to that breaker, then you can seperate the load on the breaker by moving wires onto additional breakers. New breakers can be installed on live bus bars (since there is no circuit path through them until wiring is attached) but since you are pushing them onto the bars, there is always the slip possibility. Safety would say to trip the main though =) IF you do have multiple circuits on the breaker, remove all of them and then put one at a time on the breaker and power up to see which is which.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12205105#post12205105 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mako Shark II
Good Stuff Dave!

Here's a stupid question (well, maybe not): Roughly, what's my new 120 tank going to draw? (amperage wise)

I myself may have to think about pulling a new circuit, depending on what you might guess-timate, given the build.

Thanks for em-powering us to help figure our Watt's What!
Click to expand...



Depends on what you end up with.

amps= watts divided by volts
watts=volts multiplied by amps
volts=watts divided by amps


Many devices pull more power when they start-up. So while they may run without tripping a breaker the draw during start-up may overload it.

I am not an electrician but I do have a good friend that is one and I ask him stuff all the time and I have him talk me through things as well. I would not recommend anyone playing around with this stuff unless they are supremely confident in their abilities. There are a lot of things that can be done but shouldn't as they are risky and I've done many of those things my self (like replacing a breaker in a hot panel.) So one day if y'all find me dead on the floor with a screwdriver in my hand don't put "Risk Taker" on my headstone, put "Stupid" on it instead or "Really Stupid" if "Stupid" was already going on it.
 
Last edited:
Wow. This surge of information here is overloading my brain due to high impedance from lack of capacitance.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12203973#post12203973 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mako Shark II

I disagree with Scott: Put a UPS on your Tank… let the computers crash.
Click to expand...

I have UPS on tanks, computers, cable modem, wireless router, TV, DVD player. I don't even notice when the power goes off.
 
Here's the solution I'm going with... thanks to Keaton's dad. We're adding two new circuits, so what was once on one circuit will not be divided among three.

Here's another plug for the above humor from you bright bulbs, I'm glad I've had a bit of influence a pun you today. Now go and conduct yourself properly. Have a Fara Day! Give my best to Milli..... watt?

Man, am I wired?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Iam about to build my forever tank. Any advice? I want to migrate my current two tanks
Replies
8
Views
312
markjmbond
M
E
Long time Reefer looking to start anew.
Replies
12
Views
2K
FOX-FACE fanboy….
FOX-FACE fanboy….
J
Back into the Hobby
Replies
15
Views
507
griss
griss
T Diddy
Now or never…my 140 gallon DSA rebuild
4 5 6
Replies
111
Views
4K
griss
griss
tnias
Kill Mushrooms
Replies
11
Views
666
shred5
shred5
Back
Top