Photos of my house fire...aquarium put it out.
- Thread starter AqCons
- Start date
FishNutzBoi
New member
omg omg.... Scary...
I am a electrician, what I have done is I have a GFI receptical in the wall then i made my own power strip using a decent male cord end, 6 feet of 12/3 SOOW (#12 wire its rated to 20 amps), a pvc strain relief, a pvc box that is for 2 duplex recepticals, 2 duplex recepticals, a pvc cover you can get all this at any home depot of electrical wholesaler. I spliced each of the 12/3 wires to 2 #12 solid wire then put them on the recepticals.
Not sure if this has been discussed yet, but I think the best way to prevent this would be an arc fault breaker at your panel with a ground fault outlet/device at the tank. GFCI's are great at dealing with what they are designed for: preventing ground faults that may shock you. AFCI's are great for preventing arcing, which is typically what would cause a fire.
The other good thing about using an AFCI is that because of the sensitivity of the device, you would probably be alerted to a potential fire way before the situation (salt creep across terminals or loose connection) got to the point where it would actually arc badly enough to cause a fire.
The other good thing about using an AFCI is that because of the sensitivity of the device, you would probably be alerted to a potential fire way before the situation (salt creep across terminals or loose connection) got to the point where it would actually arc badly enough to cause a fire.
mthedude
New member
This really scares me but it's almost ironic that I don't use GFCI (but soon will), have have a really cheap plug strip w/out a fuse. My tank has salt creep like no other, I have smelled the plug strip smoking twice, it's been sitting in water 2 or 3 times, it's sparked several times and I'm still using it, no problems, no breaker has ever tripped and it's got to be jam packed w/salt from the years of use. I certainly will change this strip out to something safter now but it just goes to show how poorly made these coralife strips are considering mine was a cheap walmart strip, been in use over 5 years, has smoked, sparked, sat in water and still hasn't caused any damage.
corals b 4 bills
New member
Making my hobby safe and enjoyable without the fear of fire .
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
ARC fault breakers are not suitable for this application. They are very prone to nuisance tripping. Thre is no way that they would be stable with pumps and ballasts turning on and off. The manufacturers are lobbying the NFPA to make them mandatory housewide... but even the goofy NFPA understands what a pain they are. That is why they are only required in bedrooms. Some bogus statistics were then used to show that most "arcing" fires are started in bedrooms.
I digress.
The best remedy here is to NOT USE CHEAP POWER STRIPS or HOBBY related power strips. Purcahase commercial grade power bars from an electrical supply house. COntact force on the plug blades is everything. Cheap power strips do not offer stiff enough contact force AND become worn out over time. Commercial grade power strips have significantly more contact force.
You will notice the quality commercial power bards are made of mostly metal... metal does not burn and offers the arcing a path back to gound (tripping the breaker). The plastic strips get hot, melt and never trip the breaker until it is way too late.
...and 2 dozen other reasons.
I don't suggest DIY power strips unless you really understand what you are building and hwo to do it correctly.
NEVER put power strips inside of the stand or where water can splash on them. If you MUST put them inside of a stand, you need to build a moisture proof box that seals the strip and cords from the humidity.
Drip loops are a must.
When possible mount the power strips with the receptacles in a vertical fashion so that water does not drip or settle into open positions.
ALWAYS use the little plastic filler plugs to seal up unused positions... this keeps the salt creep and moisture out.
There is a LOT more that can be said... but suffice to say that power strips and aquariums are disasters waiting to happen.
Bean
Thank you for the sound advice Bean. My Coralife timer strip just died (thank fully before it caught on fire). Commercial grade power strips make sense, but how do you handle the timer issue? Are 3 prong household timers of sufficient amperage rating fire hazards too? And what about ReefKeeper and AquaController types? Are they prone to the same electrical failures? Thanks again.
*reefermadness*
New member
Im reworking my whole power system tonight. I cant imagine this happening to me. So sorry to hear about your luck, and hope that this never happens again. I've went through a whole house fire and lost everything. It was by far one of the worst moments of my life.
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