How can I best protect my setup from electrical hazards?

[JingoFresh]

I understand GFCI outlets are best, but due to not knowing how to replace the wall outlet with a GFCI protector and also not being able to access the outlet after the tank had been setup, I don't know that this is an option for me.

This is my setup at the moment:

I cannot reach the outlet behind the tank which is where everything comes from. However I have protected it as best I can, it is certainly is protected from spray and such.

Seeming as I cannot change the outlet behind my tank, what other precautions can I take?

 

[lhm nole]

Holy crap that is a disaster waiting to happen get all those plugs off the floor asap..Mount all the stuff on the wall..

 

[davidfrances]

+1,000,000 on that, you have a disaster waiting to happen. If you ever do have a fire because of that rat's nest of wires, and hope to God you don't, if your insurance company gets a copy of that picture they may deny coverage.

Your tank is small enough that you can drain it, then move to access your outlet to install a GFCI, and then remedy all those cords.

 

[MinnFish]

There is no good substitute for a GFCI. You, do have a few problems on hand. The top power cord with red tag need to be looped. To prevent water from running down into plug. You might need to do a amp draw on the outlet. Lots of equipment in one outlet. My main concern is the window shaker (a/c). A/C over time will draw higher amps as they age and condition of coils (dirty coils equal high amps). This alone can cause the wiring in the wall to get hot and cause a fire.
I do see a glass front on the cabinet. Is this a door. If, so can you reach the outlet? One thing I have learned over the years. When, I set a tank. I leave enough room to reach all outlets. Good luck. I would not feel comfortable advising of any other options. GFCI is the best and only way to protect your life and others.

 

[JingoFresh]

Thank you everyone for your advice

I have about 40 gallons in the sump as well, it would be quite an ideal to move the tank completely....hoping to avoid that if possible.

When I said I couldn't access the tank it is because I lack the knowledge to take the cover of and install a GFCI adapter.

What about GFCI adapters that plug into the existing outlet, such as this or this?


Aside from that, my plan was to move the powerboards as far away from the tank as I could via extension cords. Some things like the powerheads have very short extension cords.

What I have running from that outlet is:

A powerline adapter in the bottom outlet

In the above outlet I have my AC, a return pump, my protein skimmer and a zillw powerboard (to control timing) which in turn has my 17watt light, a sump light and two powerheads.

Since all of these things aside from the AC don't draw a lot of power, I had thought this would be within reason to have on one outlet?

I normally do have the cords set to have a drip and just rectified that, thank you for pointing it out!

 

[discoreefer]

If you can figure out a reef tank, you can connect a gfci outlet. I'd at least get everything off the floor and make sure you have drip loops. Currently that looks pretty dangerous.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,216665,00.html

 

[CamDAX]

I assume the outlet is 3 prongs and grounded.

It's not hard at all to replace it with a GFCI. I just replaced my tank outlet with a GFCI this morning. Typically you just need a GFCI outlet, a cover plate that matches it, & two screwdrivers a philips and flat head. You may need wire cutters to clean and trim the wires.

First you need to turn off the power to the tank outlet. Most of the time you can't read or don't have labels on your breaker panel, so you really just need to try each breaker and see it the tank turns off.

MAKE SURE you're not turning off something that you don't want turned off eg. computer. So just go and shut off things the normal way so you don't loose your work.

Now once you know the outlet is dead ,since anything that's plugged into will not work, unscrew the over plate. The plate will probably be held on by one screw in the middle. Now unscrew the outlet it self, probably held on by two screws top and bottom.

Go ahead and pull out the outlet. There should be one or two pairs of wires (one white and one black each) along with a bare copper ground wire. If your house wiring is to code then white will be neutral and black will be hot. If there are two pairs one pair is feeding the outlet power and the other is feeding other outlets, switches, etc. power. One side of the outlet will have the neutral lines and one side will have the hot lines. The outlet will have 2 or 4 screws on it, on each side and a third screw for the ground. Some you have to unscrew, some you have to screw to then pull the wires out of the outlet.

Once you get the wires out, get your GFCI and on the back of it usually the bottom will say "LINE" and the top will have a sticker covering up the screws. The sticker one is for feeding other outlets that you want the GFCI to protect. Personally I wanted just my tank protected. It puts less strain on the GFCI, when it trips I will know its the tank tripping it and not something else, and my tank is in the living room so their isn't much of a need to protect other outlets in there.

Wire hole type GFCI

Wire screw type GFCI

Attach the bare copper wire to the ground screw (usually green) on the GFCI.

If you decide to just protect this outlet then put the two or one neutral lines on the side marked "WHITE" in the holes (or around the screw) where it says "LINE" and the two or one hot lines on the side marked "HOT" also in the holes (or around the screw) where it says "LINE". Then just screw the whole thing back together with your new plate, turn the power back on, and test out the outlet with the buttons on the GFCI.

If you want to protect other outlets as well I suggest you find someone who knows about house wiring to do it for you.

But if you really don't think you can you could just buy one of those inline GFCI cords you posted.

 

[AdamNC]

This is what I use on mine

http://www.lowes.com/pd_223791-3353...i&pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=gfci&page=1&facetInfo=

 

[Sk8r]

At very least, to contain all those connectors and cords, get a decorative basket, line it with garbage bag, put the wires into it, and put a lid on top. Water getting to that will harm your tank, you, and possibly the premises.

Even AFTER you get a GFCI circuit. This is a safety measure. Code requires them in most cities.

 

[CamDAX]

At very least, to contain all those connectors and cords, get a decorative basket, line it with garbage bag, put the wires into it, and put a lid on top. Water getting to that will harm your tank, you, and possibly the premises.

Even AFTER you get a GFI circuit. Basically they're just an ordinary wall socket with a disconnect button that pops out very fast and breaks the circuit even faster than your breaker box can react. This is a safety measure.

Sk8r I suggest you check your facts before you give advice. I don't mean to be rude but this can be a dangerous situation with miss information. GFCI is an acronym you can't shorten an acronym more. It is NOT CALLED A GFI. Also it is not "an ordinary wall socket".

Here is some info on circuit breakers and GFCIs

Just remember a GFCI is not the same as a breaker. A breaker is meant to protect the equipment, mainly the wires in your house, not a person. You draw to much current and the breaker pops.

A GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) is meant to protect people not equipment. "It works by measuring the current leaving the hot side of the power source and comparing it to the current returning to the neutral side. If they are not equal, this means that some of the current is flowing along an unintended path, and the GFCI shuts the power off." - http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFCI

"It is able to sense a mismatch as small as 4 or 5 milliamps, and it can react as quickly as one-thirtieth of a second." - http://home.howstuffworks.com/question117.htm

for example (DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!)
If you were to short the HOT or NEUTRAL to ground it would trip because there is a current draw from one line to ground and not an equal draw from the other.

 

[Sk8r]

Advice taken and restatment made. Thank you.

 

[CamDAX]

Advice taken and restatment made. Thank you.

Thank you for taking that well. The internet usually is a "hate machine". You have just restored my faith in humanity!

JingoFresh
I'd just get that $12.78 one because its the same price as a GFCI outlet. Plus this way it's easier to move the GFCI with the tank if you need to.

 

[mcgyvr]

just plugging a power strip into a power strip is a big no-no

then a window AC unit into a power strip.. again.. typically a big no-no

 

[dkeller_nc]

Jingofresh:

You don't say whether you own this residence or rent it. That matters - in most states/municipalities, you're allowed to DIY branch circuit wiring on your own property, though in many cases DIY requires an inspection to do it legally. However, in most jurisdictions doing any sort of permanent wiring on someone else's property without a valid electrician's license, permit and inspection is prohibited.

If you know nothing about proper residential wiring, I wouldn't suggest that you do something even as basic as replacing an outlet with a GFCI receptacle. There are some aspects of this that are quite important that come as second nature for those of us with electrician's licenses and experience, but can trip up a newbie and potentially create a dangerous situation. At the very least, get a friend that does have electrical experience to assist you.

The next consideration is mapping your circuits. There is every possibility (and likelihood) that receptacle isn't the only one on that branch circuit. Given that most residential 120V single-phase branch circuits are rated for 15 amps (ocassionally they're 20 amps - you'll have to check your circuit breaker box), and the recommendation is no more than 80% of rated capacity for continuous full load, you've likely consumed all of the rated capacity with your tank equipment and A/C. That means that any equipment/appliances that are also on the same circuit but different receptacles may overload the circuit when turned on. That could lead to a breaker trip that kills everything in your tank if it's not noticed, or worse, lead to a receptacle fire.

So here's your order-of-business:

1) Get your outlet strips off of the floor - this is the most likely source of a bad shock should you spill saltwater during maintenance of your tank. Purchase metal outlet strips from the home store, and screw them into the studs in the wall about 3' off of the floor. That'll give you easy access, and allow you to put a drip loop on each piece of connected equipment.

2) Map the circuit by plugging lights into the wall receptacles in that room, then tripping the breaker that you think corresponds to the receptacles. Observe whether the lights go out, and also whether the room light goes out (in older homes, it was common to have an overhead light share the same circuit as room receptacles).

3) Make some choices - the best one would be to unplug and re-locate the AC so that the only things on that branch circuit are your tank and perhaps some low-draw things like a lamp or two (preferably with low-draw LED or spiral fluorescent bulbs). Or, if re-locating the AC isn't possible, consider paying an electrician to install a separate, dedicated circuit for your tank (or move the tank to another room so that it's on a different branch circuit).

Hope this helps. Keep in mind that certain types of electrical motors that cycle on and off (such as an Air conditioner) have a tendency to cause "nuisance trips" on GFCI-protected circuits. For that reason, you may wish to connect your main return pump or one powerhead to a separate circuit so that a nuisance trip doesn't kill everything in the tank.

 

[Ilsimen]

GFCI is an acronym you can't shorten an acronym more. It is NOT CALLED A GFI.

http://www.homelectrical.com/what-difference-between-gfci-and-gfi.6.html

Back when I was in school to become an electrician, I distinctly remember learning the term GFI long before I ever heard of GFCI. I guess you argue that a GFCI is wired to protect all outlets wired after it on the circuit, but really the terms are interchangeable.

 

[formsix]

We use a GFCI power strip because we first set up the tank in a rental apartment with scary old wiring and didn't want to mess with the outlets. From everything I read, it seems to work just the same, and for us it was well worth the $$ we paid.

We went with this one: http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-TL...d=1414331665&sr=8-1&keywords=gfci+power+strip

We picked that one because of the 8 outlets and because it's made to be used on "harsh" environments... which we figured salt water is. It's also easy to flip one switch and turn off the powerheads, return, and skimmer at once which is nice for big water changes or other times you might want to kill all the flow to your tank for a short time.

Also, definitely put drip loops on everything you do -- it's soooo simple and can make a huge difference. Like, do that now, and then figure out the other stuff ASAP.

 

[dyazdani]

Good advice here...

If you can't replace the outlet with a GFCI, at least get a good power strip with a built in GFCI, there have been a couple of links posted already.

Secondly, move the AC unit to another circuit if at all possible.

Finally, I'd hang whatever power strip solution on the wall. This will allow you to set up drip loops, keep the system safe in the event of a spill, and you can get rid of that cheap extension cord.

 

[Indymann99]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzht2_41caU#t=137

 

[CamDAX]

http://www.homelectrical.com/what-difference-between-gfci-and-gfi.6.html

Back when I was in school to become an electrician, I distinctly remember learning the term GFI long before I ever heard of GFCI. I guess you argue that a GFCI is wired to protect all outlets wired after it on the circuit, but really the terms are interchangeable.

You are right, I was wrong about that part, they seam to be used interchangeably. Although GFI seams to be used less and less. The Circuit part seams to be pretty vague but I agree with the reasoning that it means it protects other outlets down the line as well.

 

[JingoFresh]

OK, Thanks guys.

I rent an old apartment in NYC, so can't just go changing the wiring and would not know how to do it myself, and the landlord would not approve that.'

I'm going to just buy a GFCI outlet and plug everything into that.

I don't actually need two powerboards, the only reason I have two is because one is a Zilla PowerCenter so I can control lights times and such.

When people say outlet, do they mean each socket where a plug goes in, or the actual place where there are two sockets..?

I can plug my AC into a different socket on the same outlet...moving to a different outlet would be possible with a long extension cord.My plan at the moment:

-Buy GFCI Outlet/powerstrip.

-Plug zilla power center in to GFCI outlet, hang on wall away from tank.

-extend lights and pwoerheads with extension cords as necessary, hang against wall with drip loops

-So instead of two non GFCI powerstrips I will have just a GFCI powerstrip with some lights plugged in and the zilla power center plugged in to the GFCI strip.

-Plug AC into different outlet (socket?) on other side of room with long extension cord.

I don't think I've missed anything and aside from there being strain on one outlet I should be OK. Removing the AC, installing GFCI and drip loops and spreading across two sockets in the same outlet will hopefully make things a lot safer.

It's making me nervous now so I just unplugged my AC and lamp, just left in the lights, powerheads, skimmer and pump, will fix this ASAP.

Thank you all.