Your Electrician Here

[Young Frankenstein]

Ok I am back from the swim at Key Biscayne and very anxious to see the questions of my fellow reefers. Well first let me answer jdjeff58. In an old house with 2 prong receptacles grounding is kept by the outside shield of the MC or BX cable, or some times EMT conduit.Most of the time simply by changing your receptacles to 3 prong and attaching a grounding tail (small green wire) to the metal box you can upgrade to grounded receptacles.Theres outlets that we call "self grounding" that are easier to wire because they give you grounding throe the screws of the receptacle.As far as the 2 prong appliances they have to be (Double insulated) and according to National Electrical Code you don't need a GFI for them.My opinion is to use a GFI even for 2 prong equipment since we are dealing with wet locations.OK? Now I am going to eat a lobster and later I will answer the next question.Thanks for the work.

 

[silverwolf72]

Now correct me if I'm wrong but a GFCI measures the current from Hot to Neutral and not to ground. So they'll work perfectly well on 2 prong sockets. So I'm kinda confused why they call them ground fault and not return fault

 

[WaterKeeper]

They do work on two wire systems as you say Wolf. However, it is better if an earth ground also is supplied as that allows the the unit to trip if the fault is between the Hot and Neutral wires. This is the common thing that happened when a lighting hood falls into the water. The short can be solely across the "hot" wires and not directed to an earth ground. The GFCI sees a balanced load in such a case and does not trip. If it is in a three prong outlet, current will flow to the earth ground as well and trip the sensing transformer.

I imagine that happened in Agios case and the unit failed boiling the lobster in his tank.

 

[Deep6]

I have one for you. Every night when I feed my fish I turn off the switch on my power strip to my pump to stop my overflow to the sump. That way the food doesn't get sucked out of the tank while the fish are feeding. I would like to have some device to hit the switch and turn it off and after about 15 min. or so automatically turn it back on. Any ideas of what would work for that?

 

[jdjeff58]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9553623#post9553623 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Deep6
Any ideas of what would work for that?

I stumbled upon this the other day. This controller has feed mode. http://www.digitalaquatics.com/reefkeeper.html But it looks like it's gonna runya.

 

[WaterKeeper]

Well if it has "compact and stylish design" I would flaunt it and not hide it flush with tank stand.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Ok I am back that lobster was excellent. Deep6 select a 20 - 30 dollar timer any make just make sure it switches inductive loads (some work only with resistive) http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/id333_m.htm you can also Google timers. Now you need to reverse the way the timer works so you have to get a single pole normally closed relay with its enclosure. The relays coil has to also be 120volts. THAT SIMPLE PEOPLE !!!!! I AM HERE TO HELP MY FELLOW REEFERS !!!

 

[WaterKeeper]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9554824#post9554824 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 0 Agios
I AM HERE TO HELP MY FELLOW REEFERS !!!

Not me, I'm here to dumbfound them with useless information.

 

[Randall_James]

On the off/on timer problem, I have always killed my pumps for feeding. I use a regular "tab" type timer. They have a manual rotary wheel for turning them off and on. Many times people forget to turn the pumps back on and an hour or 2 really is not an issue....so I remove all the "red" off tabs and put the "green" on tabs every couple hours.. When time to feed, I use the manual switch to kill the pumps and if I forget to turn them back on in 10 minutes or so, they will come back on in an hour or so anyway. No more turning around, going back to the house to make sure pumps are running hope this helps

 

[Deep6]

Thank you very much 0 Agios, I have asked this question a number of times in the past and never got a responce. That is exactly what I was after! Nice job!

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Deep6 it sounds like something I need also so I am going to get the parts and put it together. Is 30 minutes the time to feed or should I use one of those turn timers adjustable from 0 to 30 minutes ?

 

[Young Frankenstein]

K, I have a question. I am setting up my 90 gallon and through a standard, grounded outlet, what is the maximum wattage I would want to see pulled through? 800 watts of halides, 2 heaters, plus all the pumps...ballpark 1500 - 2000 watts. Would this be safe?


Good morning everyone. Ok we use Ohms law to figure this out. to find the size of breaker 1) add all wattages. 800w+200w+200w=1200w total. Now devide the total watts by voltage. 1200w/120volts=10 Amps. So a 15 amp circuit breaker would be fine. if the equipment was 220 volts than 1200w/220volts=5.4 amps (220v needs a 2pole breaker). My advice: First pull out the breaker you will use and check the back of the breaker(contacts) for any burn marks. Old breaker tend to have loose contacts specially GE,Challenger,Murry. If you see loose contacts than replace the circuit breaker with a new one. Continues loads (more than 3 hrs running) according to NEC have to be calculated at 125% so a 10amp load has to be calculated in your addition for 12.5 amps. In old wiring connections in wiring also can fail I would recommend a separate circuit if you can afford that or open all the boxes and replace wire nuts(very cheap) so that you can assure you have good connections all the way to the fish tank. IF LIGHTS ARE DIMMING WHEN EVERYTHING IS ON....CHECK ALL WIRING CONNECTIONS (thats the number 1 cause of fires)

 

[Young Frankenstein]

 

[Young Frankenstein]

well thanks to adams got the photobucket working. Many thanks Adams.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Heres a nice timer that I will probaly use with a relay to create a feeding timer

 

[Deep6]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9554874#post9554874 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
Not me, I'm here to dumbfound them with useless information.

Thanks!! That is the deal, just what I wanted. You are the man, I have posted this question several times and never got a responce. Nice Job!!

 

[Deep6]

Opps I quoted the wrong post that was 0 Agios I was trying to quote on the feeding timer. Thanks again.

 

[WaterKeeper]

:lol:

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Ok Deep6 you still have to pay.

 

[Deep6]

oh man nothing in life is free. Oh well send me a PM, I do have some hooks.