My 6yr son told me to quit this hobby after almost burning down the house.
- Thread starter xinumaster
- Start date
xinumaster
reef addict
Hi Alvin, GFCI stands for "ground fault circuit interrupt". It's suppose to protect you from ground fault or if you have leakage current in your tank. It is the breaker that you see in your kitchen, bathrooms and hair dryer. It acts pretty much the same as circuit breaker except that CB is used to protection against short circuit.
perry
perry
crazzyreefer
New member
It acts pretty much the same as circuit breaker except that CB is used to protection against short circuit.....
see thats where you made your mistake, you used your copper band to ground out your tank.....
I had the same thing happen I had a 4 foot long power bar, it was great, didnt matter how large the power converter was it pluged right in... that was untill some water spilled on it ans fried the cords that were pulged in to it... yea I know I should have had a GFI, but, but...lots of buts....
see thats where you made your mistake, you used your copper band to ground out your tank.....
I had the same thing happen I had a 4 foot long power bar, it was great, didnt matter how large the power converter was it pluged right in... that was untill some water spilled on it ans fried the cords that were pulged in to it... yea I know I should have had a GFI, but, but...lots of buts....
Psionicdragon
New member
glad everything is ok
otterpop510
New member
wow.. i'm glad everything turned out relatively okay.. but that sounds like a scary experience for anybody, and especially a 6 yr old. have you talked to him? how is he taking it?
Ced - this is not normal behavior for GFCI to trip on power outages. You may want to swap out your GFCI for some new one. I remember reading somewhere that the Leviton ones (which are the one I use) supposedly doesn't trip on power outages. I also read that as the GFCI gets older, they are more prone to trip (but don't know this for sure).
Xinumaster - I am glad that everyone is ok. Thank you for posting your unfortunate luck so that everyone can learn from it. This past weekend, I had a small leak from my bulkhead. The bulkhead had came loose from my constant tweaking around the sump area for 1/2 a year. A routine safety check of my tank would have prevented the problem. Your incident just reinforces the neccessity of a monthly (or bimonthly) safety check.
For those who aren't using GFCI switch - I personally think that you are insane. I accidentally spilled salt water on a power strip once, and the GFCI protected me from a shock or worse - an electrocution. I have GFCI wherever I have water close by, and also use surge suppressor that have built in GFCI. GFCI are easy to wire (even in a rental) - so there's no excuse not to use one.
Xinumaster - I am glad that everyone is ok. Thank you for posting your unfortunate luck so that everyone can learn from it. This past weekend, I had a small leak from my bulkhead. The bulkhead had came loose from my constant tweaking around the sump area for 1/2 a year. A routine safety check of my tank would have prevented the problem. Your incident just reinforces the neccessity of a monthly (or bimonthly) safety check.
For those who aren't using GFCI switch - I personally think that you are insane. I accidentally spilled salt water on a power strip once, and the GFCI protected me from a shock or worse - an electrocution. I have GFCI wherever I have water close by, and also use surge suppressor that have built in GFCI. GFCI are easy to wire (even in a rental) - so there's no excuse not to use one.
racrumrine
New member
Glad you were home and you and your family are safe.
I'm sure my 4 and 7 year old would be scared too. I'd recommend stressing that the smoke alarm caught it. If you don't already have it, you might want to consider an alarm system tied to a central station.
I would agree with your earlier posts. If you have him participate in what you are doing to improve the situation, he'll feel better. Might be a great time to have a family fire drill and cover emergencies, calling 911, etc.
Best of luck,
Roy
I'm sure my 4 and 7 year old would be scared too. I'd recommend stressing that the smoke alarm caught it. If you don't already have it, you might want to consider an alarm system tied to a central station.
I would agree with your earlier posts. If you have him participate in what you are doing to improve the situation, he'll feel better. Might be a great time to have a family fire drill and cover emergencies, calling 911, etc.
Best of luck,
Roy
Vincerama2
Active member
YOu can further protect yourself by using a powerstrip with a breaker as well. So the GFCI will protect you if you accidentally ground the hot wire (with your body!) and the breaker on the power strip should protect the wiring from turning into heater strips if there is a short!
Also, as I found out the stupid way, make sure you have "drip loops" on your wiring (simply let the wires drop down, then come up again to meet your elevated power strip/outlet. That way is water drips down the wire, it won't drip into the outlet.)
And elevate your power strips/ballasts off the floor. If the tank floods for some reason, you don't want to flood your outlets and electronics!
V
Also, as I found out the stupid way, make sure you have "drip loops" on your wiring (simply let the wires drop down, then come up again to meet your elevated power strip/outlet. That way is water drips down the wire, it won't drip into the outlet.)
And elevate your power strips/ballasts off the floor. If the tank floods for some reason, you don't want to flood your outlets and electronics!
V
xinumaster
reef addict
Hi CED, some GFCI will tripped during pwr outage and never reset ON when power comes back. However, the Leviton brand have a smart lock that will reset itself when power comes back.
Hi Sidog1, check your gfci to make sure that it can reset to ON when power comes back after a power outage. You don't want to come back home from work or vacation and find out that your aquarium didn't have power for you a very long time.
I wired a GFCI on the wall but my GFCI is so sensitive and will trip easily. However, I'm using another GFCI for other equipments that has ballasts which I know causes my GFCI to trip often. I read other rc thread to same problem too. Here is the one I been using for my lighting: http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...t_Code=TM-GFI-5&Product_Count=&Category_Code=
Hi Blaze, that is right. The wall power outet with the reset button is a GFCI but it might also be a GFI.
Hi mn95616, you are right this should set a warning to all. Make sure your wiring are done properly and check it regularly.
Hi Sidog1, check your gfci to make sure that it can reset to ON when power comes back after a power outage. You don't want to come back home from work or vacation and find out that your aquarium didn't have power for you a very long time.
I wired a GFCI on the wall but my GFCI is so sensitive and will trip easily. However, I'm using another GFCI for other equipments that has ballasts which I know causes my GFCI to trip often. I read other rc thread to same problem too. Here is the one I been using for my lighting: http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...t_Code=TM-GFI-5&Product_Count=&Category_Code=
Hi Blaze, that is right. The wall power outet with the reset button is a GFCI but it might also be a GFI.
Hi mn95616, you are right this should set a warning to all. Make sure your wiring are done properly and check it regularly.
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xinumaster
reef addict
Hi racrumrine, my son is still scared. Everytime I work on my aquarium he'll pull my hand and tell me "daddy get out of there". I think I need to train him not to be afraid; I'm slowly introducing him back to my tank. One thing we did last night was take pictures of the aquarium which he enjoyed very much
Mr. Ugly
New member
Whatever you do, don't use the Stanley/Belkin heavy duty pigtail gfci devices. I had 3 of them that would randomly trip from electronic noise from my Blueline e-ballasts.
Stanley sent me replacement units that also did the same. It's some kind of design problem with their equipment.
Stanley/Belkin has horrible horrible customer service. Did I mention that they were absolutely horrible? I gave them all kinds of technical information relating to the problem. Gave them tons of diagnostics. They had me RMA the devices for replacements, which also had the same problem. I was routed from department to department and was working with their techs and engineers to help them test in their facility. They were able to reproduce the problem on their side, but they were never able to get me any working units.
I have a humongous folder of email communications with them. They are terrible about following up on service issues. Their internal communications are totally disorganized, and I had to give all kinds of information numerous times to customer service people, accounting people, service managers, technicians, and onandon. They would apologize and promise to get right back to me. I would have to mail them every 2 or 3 week to remind them, upon which they would apologize and start all over again.
This dragged out for almost a year before they finally agreed that they should just refund my money. They made 3 attempts to refund me, but between them losing the paperwork, forgetting to follow up, losing track entirely of the RMA case, another 6-8 weeks passed. When the check arrived, I found that they screwed up again, but this time in my favor. They refunded me double the cost. At that point I was so frustrated at having to follow up on their every step, that I figured I was not about to try to help them get their accounting straight in addition to their technical and service issues.
I've posted some of this info on the Stanley/Belkin heavy duty contractor grade pigtail in various places here on RC.
I finally made my own setups using 20 amp Leviton Smartlocks. Works great... way cheaper.
Stanley sent me replacement units that also did the same. It's some kind of design problem with their equipment.
Stanley/Belkin has horrible horrible customer service. Did I mention that they were absolutely horrible? I gave them all kinds of technical information relating to the problem. Gave them tons of diagnostics. They had me RMA the devices for replacements, which also had the same problem. I was routed from department to department and was working with their techs and engineers to help them test in their facility. They were able to reproduce the problem on their side, but they were never able to get me any working units.
I have a humongous folder of email communications with them. They are terrible about following up on service issues. Their internal communications are totally disorganized, and I had to give all kinds of information numerous times to customer service people, accounting people, service managers, technicians, and onandon. They would apologize and promise to get right back to me. I would have to mail them every 2 or 3 week to remind them, upon which they would apologize and start all over again.
This dragged out for almost a year before they finally agreed that they should just refund my money. They made 3 attempts to refund me, but between them losing the paperwork, forgetting to follow up, losing track entirely of the RMA case, another 6-8 weeks passed. When the check arrived, I found that they screwed up again, but this time in my favor. They refunded me double the cost. At that point I was so frustrated at having to follow up on their every step, that I figured I was not about to try to help them get their accounting straight in addition to their technical and service issues.
I've posted some of this info on the Stanley/Belkin heavy duty contractor grade pigtail in various places here on RC.
I finally made my own setups using 20 amp Leviton Smartlocks. Works great... way cheaper.
I've tried three different portable GFCIs (stanley being one of them) and they all tripped immediately when plugging in my ballast. I then went to Home Depot and bought a Leviton in wall 15A GFCI and it worked perfectly. I ended up using the other three GFCIs for the power heads and pumps. I didn't want all of my equipment on just one GFCI.
Mr. Ugly
New member
The impressive thing about how lame/"human safe" the Stanley devices are... they will trip if you plug in or turn on some types of ballasts even if the ballasts are on DIFFERENT CIRCUITS from the GFCI. Too sensitive to line noise.
I had tanks in other rooms on different circuits quit on me 80% of the time that the mh e-ballasts went on.
I had tanks in other rooms on different circuits quit on me 80% of the time that the mh e-ballasts went on.
racrumrine
New member
Regarding your son, I'd recommend trying to involve him in all your new safety plans. That way, he can learn that when something is screwed up and needs to be fixed, it can be. A good life lesson.
Hopefully, the more you involve him, the less scared he will be. Perhaps every night (at least for awhile) before he goes to bed, you can go through a safety check with him.
Best of luck,
Roy
Hopefully, the more you involve him, the less scared he will be. Perhaps every night (at least for awhile) before he goes to bed, you can go through a safety check with him.
Best of luck,
Roy
