Aquarium and electrical safety

[JTP424]

You want a grounding probe only if you have a GFCI, and you plug the grounding probe into the GFCI outlet, or power strip which is plugged into the GFCI outlet!

Do you NEED one is my question? Picked up a tank from a gentleman who I think had his whole set up with a bunch of daisy chained surge protectors.. and a ground plug.
I'm rebuilding with a single surge on a GFCI plug, he also had titanium heaters which I'm swapping for the glass tube kind...

Thoughts?

 

[exnisstech]

Most experts I know will not use GFCI's on tanks because they tend to trip for no reason when folks are away and then the whole tank is killed.

Can you (or someone) talk about why this happens and how it can be avoided?

(I know a little about why, but not enough to explain it. It's important and usually gets glossed over along with the stray voltage issue, so if someone in the know could address both it would be great.)

I'm not an expert but I too will not run them on life support devices. I've had to replace 3 through the years that failed in the safe position but for no reason. Fortunately they were not on the tank but in different areas of the house. Once we found out would trip when a long haired cat rubbed against it.
That said all my powerheads are vortechs so no power in the tank and my returns are all low voltage DC pumps. I don't run any 110v devices in the water except heaters and they are on GFCI outlets.

 

[punchy7080]

Do you NEED one is my question? Picked up a tank from a gentleman who I think had his whole set up with a bunch of daisy chained surge protectors.. and a ground plug.
I'm rebuilding with a single surge on a GFCI plug, he also had titanium heaters which I'm swapping for the glass tube kind...

Thoughts?

I had a cheap powerhead go bad in my Rubbermaid tank. From advice on this forum that system is on a GFCI with a ground probe. Powerhead started leaking juice and the GFCI tripped. Would it have tripped without the ground probe when I touched the water? Glad I didn’t have to find out…

 

[Reefer Matt]

Is there such a device as a consumer ready aquarium water voltage monitor?Something reef safe and waterproof? If not, you’re welcome for the idea to make it.

 

[Damage12]

If one were to separate various tank equipment on two separate circuits (two separate outlets) but on the same leg/phase, how would you separate the following equipment to avoid a GFCI popping and shutting down an entire tank (if everything was plugged into one outlet via powerstrip)?

I have my own ideas, but am curious for other opinions. Thank you.

Lights
Protein skimmer
Return pump
Powerheads (assume 2 to 4)
Doser
Media reactor
UV

 

[UncommonSense]

Is there such a device as a consumer ready aquarium water voltage monitor?Something reef safe and waterproof? If not, you’re welcome for the idea to make it.

I would think just a shrieking alarm would be the best way to implement such a thing!

 

[Gone Reefin’]

The ground probe provides a current path to ground. When used with GFCI protection, the device will trip if there is a fault.

Used without GFCI protection, you create (in theory and in practice) a danger that did not otherwise exist.

Let me briefly explain five variations of the same scenario.
Scenario:
You have a light fixture over the aquarium that has faulted. The metal case of the fixture is "hot" because somewhere inside of the fixture, the hot wire is touching the metal enclosure. The light happily chugs along without tripping the breaker.

You reach into the tank to do some work, your ear (or shoulder) or whatever touched the metal fixture.

1 - NO GFCI and NO GROUND PROBE. You are wearing rubber soled shoes.
In theory, no current flows. There is no path through your body to lower potential even though your hand is in the tank and your ear or shoulder touching something energized by a fault. The situation is still very dangerous, but the tank and your body have no path to ground.

2 - NO GFCI but there IS A GROUND PROBE. You are wearing rubber soled shoes.
In theory and practice you are going to get shocked. Current will travel from the fixture through your ear (or shoulder), then through your wet hand and out through the ground probe. YOU become the connecting wire.

3 - GFCI protection with A GROUND PROBE. You are wearing rubber soled shoes.
In theory and in practice you are going to get a minor shock that you may or may not feel. The moment that your body becomes the "wire" the GFCI will sense the fault and trip, saving your life.

4 - GFCI protection WITH or WITHOUT A GROUND PROBE. You are barefoot. Same protection as #3. The moment that your body completes the circuit, the GFCI trips to protect you.

5 - NO GFCI and NO GROUND PROBE and you are barefoot. You don't need to touch the tank, the moment you touch the fixture, you get shocked!

Thank you very much for this detailed write up. I learned something, and I believe your point about a possibly introduced hazard from the presence of the ground probe in absence of a GFCI system is a critical point for all.

 

[Scallopking]

Hello. I have a question, electrical is not my good point. Hoping to get an answer here. My tank runs on two 20A circuits both on GF/AF breakers. The 120 outlets are not GFI and I do have a ground probe in the tank. Would I also need GFI outlets or is that overkill? Thanks.

 

[BZOFIQ]

FWIW, in 30 years, I never got a false trip. I’ve had lots of real trips from faulty equipment.

I have, last time during storm. I heard the thunder, then poof everything on that outlet went off.

I heard the alarm and was home to reset it right away.

This was the exact event that caused me to split my circuit into many separate GFCI devices on the new build - different brands too.

 

[Reef Jedi]

Here’s a video I made on this topic a couple years ago that almost no one watched. I tried to illustrate the proper configuration for using a gfci and ground probe.

Super cool! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Reef Jedi]

Is it best to have a GFCI outlet at the tank plugs and put that circuit on a GFCI breaker at the box? Or is that overkill?

 

[Damage12]

I just checked and I’ve got AFCI circuit breakers for all my bedrooms. My master bedroom AFCI breaker has tripped on occasion, usually during a thunderstorm. This is what concerns me most, tripping a breaker or GFCI outlet while I’m away and tank dies.

 

[Senor_Minty]

Is there such a device as a consumer ready aquarium water voltage monitor?Something reef safe and waterproof? If not, you’re welcome for the idea to make it.

FWIW I run a DC and AC digital voltmeters wired between house ground and a Ti probe. Just to keep an eye on things.

 

[Jarob]

I'm not an expert but I too will not run them on life support devices. I've had to replace 3 through the years that failed in the safe position but for no reason. Fortunately they were not on the tank but in different areas of the house. One we found out would trip when a long haired cat rubbed against it.
That said all my powerheads are vortechs so no power in the tank and my returns are all low voltage DC pumps. I don't run any 110v devices in the water except heaters and they are on GFCI outlets.

I'll be doing this! One EB8 plugged into a standard outlet running dc pump and vortechs and everything else off a GFCI outlet. Great thinking.

 

[mcarroll]

FWIW, in 30 years, I never got a false trip. I’ve had lots of real trips from faulty equipment.

Are you saying that in regards to the little yellow plug in types, or the "permanent" in-wall type, or both?

I've had lots of nuisance trips myself with the plug in types, but always caught before it turned into anything terrible. But I've known a few tank wipeouts from them through folks / customers I know.

I guess for historical reasons mostly, the in-wall "permanent" types are not nearly as common....folks just use regular outlets 99% of the time since that's what's already installed.

Knocking on wood again that I've had ZERO so far on my permanent ones, and I hope I have your track record on those!!

 

[EliMelly]

Can we sum this all up in an article for people like me who don’t understand any of it?

 

[UncommonSense]

Can we sum this all up in an article for people like me who don’t understand any of it?

Something like a flow chart format to make it easily digestible…

I would take a stab at it before bed if I had my laptop with me, but here’s an idea for a template:

 

[EliMelly]

Something like a flow chart format to make it easily digestible…

I would take a stab at it before bed if I had my laptop with me, but here’s an idea for a template:

Not clear to me

 

[dinosaur_1552]

Easiest defense is not to have high voltage near tanks.

Mostly everything is available as low voltage DC, apart from heaters, couple of years ago I've been googling days for bigger wattage budget DC heaters, but they didn't exist for some reason - that was one of the main reasons why I downsized my tanks - I have young kids sticking their hands into everything and I didn't feel safe.

Sump setups with mains sockets under tank, around water pipes anywhere water can sprinkle in case of a tank/pipe leak are not safe either.

As of today I only run multiple USB heaters on my tiny tanks (the only dc budget heaters I found) and my highest voltage equipment around are some 24V lights. Mains sockets are totally separated from tanks.

We have gfci and surge protector in the whole house as well, but damage is already done when gfci triggers.

 

[Paul B]

when the hobby started in the US in1970 we didn't have gfis. we also didn't have any submersible anything. no powerheads or heaters that were completely submersible. what we did have was salt creep because we used air stones which covered everything in salt so we quickly learned to turn on the light with a stick and unpl.ug everythng before we put our hands in the tank.

you also couldnt buy a ground probe so i just bent a silver or stainless steel knife or fork around the rim of the tank and connected a wire to it that went to the screw that held the receptable in.

that grounding method worked flawlessly then and i still use the same system.

eventually, if you keep submersible devices in the tank long enough, the cord will crack where it enters the device allowing full 120 volts of electricity into the water.

that frayed wire (or cracked pump housing) will try to draw all 15 or 20 amps from your panel, depending on the size of the circuit breaker.
if you had that ground probe on there, the breaker will trip and you will be safe.

if it were not for that circuit breaker, the wires would melt all the way from your tank, through the walls back to the panel and would even melt part of the panel.


thank god we have circuit breakers.
but a circuit breaker is a mechanical device and depends on heat to trip so it could take a second or two to trip. as an electrician i have seen this dozens or hundreds of times. before we had testing tools for this. if we wanted to find the breaker a receptable was on, we just bent a wire and shoved it into the outlet to short it out.

then we would go and look for the tripped breaker. this was in office buildings in Manhattan so there were thousands of breakers.

anyway, many times the circuit breaker wouldn't trip right away, and the wire would heat up to almost melting. hopefully brakers are built better now.

the old glass plug fuses were a lot safer but were very cheap, so people were talked into breakers. of course, now we use gfis which can't be used with fuses.

because of the lag in a breaker to turn off the power we now use gfis.
have 3 on my tank so they dont all rip together.

this thing on amazon seems awfully cheap at $19.00 so i have no opinion about it

Eaton TRAFGF15LA AF, Arc Fault/GF, Ground Fault Dual -Purpose, Duplex Receptacle with wallplate 15A 125V LA​

---