Flipping the breaker 8(

[ejwasson]

I had recently added another heater to my 90 and we had a cold snap. It flipped the breaker yesterday (I had presumed it to be from the additional appliances on the circuit) but no prob I was home. I was gone all of today and it flipped at some point. When I got home late tonight the tank was at 65F. Everything seems to be ok but the situation begs me to ask you:

1) What would be the largest voltage item I could move to the next nearby circuit?
-mag7, Koralia3x2, 2 heaters (forget volts), T-5 432w, etc.
-the least complicated thing to do is to move the koralia's over, which is what I will do for tonight.

2) What inhabitants should I be worried about at this point and are there any more bases to be covered, other than return to normalcy?
-snails, hermits, cucumber, serpent stars, fish, birdsnest coral, rock anemone, zoas, brain coral, etc.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

 

[odyssey1]

Well by moving to another outlet wont fix the problem. You need to find out how many outlet are on that circuit!!

Once you have determinde how many electrical outlet are on the circuit you need to count how many devices are pligged into the outlets. You should have only 15 AMPS on one circuit before the breaker trips.

Keep in mind there can be multiple rooms on the same circuit you will need to find out. Also are they on a GFI? If so this could be the problem as they tend not to carry a 15AMP load.

 

[odyssey1]

I would really worry about the Birdsnest it is the most delicate!

If you were to move something over it should be the lights. They are going to draw the most!!

 

[odyssey1]

Please look at everything that is pludded into all outlets on THAT circuit. You have a problem somewhere because all of the items you have listed should draw less than 4amps!!

YOu have to have alot of other things plugged into nearby outlets causing the overload or a bad breaker!

Do you know who makes the breaker? is it SquareD, Murry, etc.?

 

[Flipper62]

I had the same problem in my home office. Not only were the computer, printer, tv, dvd, directv box as well as all the lights for the room on the same breaker. So were 2 other rooms. This was a BIG TIME amp overload. The breakers kept popping & most of the time it was when I was out of town.

I ended up running 2 dedicated lines up to my office. I even put them each on their own 15 amp breaker. Everything has been fine since then.

 

[James79]

Could be a bad breaker.

 

[ejwasson]

Update:

When I was moving over the koralia I noticed one of my heaters sparking!!! The glass was broken when I removed it, not sure if I did it or the short did. I removed it and replaced with my backup. I'm confused because I have a GFI and the breaker still flipped. Should that happen?

Yes, I am talking about moving it to a different circuit not outlet. Currently the tank shares a circuit with the TV and I had previously flipped the breaker while running the vaccuum.

I am most worried about the birdsnest but it is not an RTN type situation yet.

Odyssey, you deserve a personal thank you. Your response was immediate and beyond helpful. Thank you! Do I need to bother moving some appliances over to the other circuit or can I maintain my current clean looking configuration?

 

[odyssey1]

Well now that you have found the cracked glass I would say that is most certianly what caused the breaker to trip. I would leave it over night and see if this fixes the problem. you could turn off one of the Koralias if you are worried about it tripping again as they use about the same amount of power. However this will defeat the purpose of seeing if the breaker will trip again.

IMO it was the bad heater. The GFI would not have caused the breaker to trip when the heater broke but the surge from the heater molting in the saltwater without the glass enclosure would have caused it.

I would bet that when you flipped the breaker the second time you must have left soon after because it wouldnt have taked long to build up enough draw to trip it again plus you should have smelt the burning from the bad heater!