Making Your System Fail Safe & Fire Proof

[MUCHO REEF]

Lets talk about the importance of making your system fail safe and fire proof. Hopefully everyone can share their GFI's, alarms, controllers, waterproof endcaps, top offs, simple drop loops, shut offs, etc to assist those who aren't aware of the potential dangers/mishaps that can arise. Please be as detailed and long winded as possible. This is a thread which might have a direct impact on saving someone a lot of misery, money and anger down the line.

Mucho Reef

 

[InADream]

Great idea this could be a life saver for someone... One thing That I do tp insure safety, I have my power strips mounted upside down in my stand, that way there is no way water can get to them...
One thing I do not do is use an ATO, I simply have a 5 gallon jug on a shelf higher than my sump... I use gravity to topoff, I know it is a pain but it is the only way to ensure nothing fails and floods the house...
All my t5s have waterproof endcaps and all wires are soldered and wrapped with tape... Also each wire is individually wrapped and then all wires are wrapped together, helps keep wires from getting wet...
Make sure all hoses are clamped, and not with a tie wrap, use a plastic clamp designed to clamp hoses...
In the future I will be installing a low level water detector, so i dont burn the pumps up...

Also My next big project will be to install a safety cut off switch... What I mean is a remote switch across the room that if flipped will kill all power to the tank, in the event of a flood, No one will have to walk through water that is electrified....

Dream

 

[Reefer Wannabe]

While I wouldn't consider my system in any way fail safe or fire proof, I've done a few things to start:

1) I also have the gravity top off. The worst that could happen with topoff for me is to have five gallons go into the tank over a period of 12 hours or so, which wouldn't hurt a thing. I have read numerous stories of people losing a whole tank because of flooding their tank (and their floor) with freshwater from their topoff system.

2) GFCI - I've read a lot of "good thing I had the GFCI hooked up" stories. I guess the people who had accidents without the GFCI aren't around to tell them.

3) 2 smaller heaters instead of one big one. If you need a 300 watt heater, use 2 X 150 watt instead. That way if one sticks or fails, it will take longer for the temp to go too far up or too far down. (a controller would be even better!) Again, I've read quite a few stories of people who lost their tanks because of a stuck or failed heater.

 

[gflat65]

If I had my dream system (certainly not what I have now)... Big dreams, but here are a few things I'd like to have.

GFCI's and drip loops are a baseline.

Several 30A circuits separately dedicated-lights/pumps/chillers/heaters for each tank would be plugged into separate circuits. If one trips a breaker, there is a good chance the others will still be running to keep movement in the tanks until the problem can be fixed.

PLC controls wherever possible. That might change some of the #2 wants electrically, but would ultimately do everything for me. I'd set it up to call when there are issues so I could turn things on and off remotely and would know about issues as soon as they happened (similar to what an ACIII can do, but less limiting on the number and names of inputs).

Water change water plumbed near the tank for easy large volume water changes-turn valves and flip a switch to do changes...

Auto filling auto top off reservoir. Would need a larger reservoir to filter water to for salt and fresh water make up.

 

[SoFloReefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11011221#post11011221 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by InADream

Also My next big project will be to install a safety cut off switch... What I mean is a remote switch across the room that if flipped will kill all power to the tank, in the event of a flood, No one will have to walk through water that is electrified....

Dream [/B]

Wouldn't the emergency cut off switch be at the breaker box?

I have my 46 gal and everything near it on a 15 amp GFCI made for outside work. It has never tripped without a good reason. I have two 150 watt heaters. Auto top off only goes to container small enough not to overflow tank. I have to refill it every two days because I have lots of evaporation.

 

[ct_vol]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11014719#post11014719 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65


GFCI's and drip loops are a baseline.

I agree here... These are mandatory to say the least...

Wouldn't the emergency cut off switch be at the breaker box?

You'd probably want an emergency cut off besides using your breaker box, only because depending upon your circuitry, you could be shutting off your room lights and outlets you'd need in order to fix the problem... And sometimes, getting to your breaker box would take longer than you have...

 

[MUCHO REEF]

No one else wants to share?

Mooch

 

[anative]

My tank isn't fully up and running but for power I ran plastic conduit around the top of the stand so I could have electrical outlets exactly where I needed them.

I have four at one end of the stand and eight at the other end. They are mounted in outdoor plastic boxes with covers that are designed to close with the cords plugged in:

Everything is run back to my "control panel" which is accessible from the outside of the stand and has four switches so I can turn off everything for services or emergencies.

My lighting will be controlled by the Aquacontroller and a separate DC4HD so no need for timers.

Jon

 

[MikePowell]

i have all my lights/ circ pumps, heaters/chillers on one circuit with a gfci, but my return pump is on the same circuit but on a ups. so no matter what happens i still have power on the main pump to keep everything going. IF YOU WANT TO PROTECT YOU SYSTEM GET A UPS THAT CAN POWER YOUR PUMP FOR ATLEAST 36-48 HRS.

Mike

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Hey great contribution guys, many thanks.

Mucho