GFCI or non-GFCI

[ReefDreamz]

I was on vacation last week and while I was gone my house lost power during a thunderstorm. When I returned home many appliances in my house no longer functioned including my boiler and mini-split A/C unit. My electrician and HVAC technician both think a lightning strike was to blame. Among the damaged items were two GFCI receptacles, one in my garage and the other in my sump room. These receptacles could not be reset and needed to be replaced. Luckily, my tank is not up and running yet as I am still in the building stage. I am having a Kohler whole-home automatic backup generator installed but my electrician said even that wouldn't have prevented a lightning strike from damaging the GFCI receptacles.

So my question is do you use GFCI protected circuits for your reef tank which can fail and leave your tank without power even if you have a generator or do you use non-GFCI protected circuits which would leave you vulnerable to a fault?

 

[DanTheReefer]

In a really cold climate you can lose your whole tank if a GFCI trips while you aren’t home.
That said, I don’t have a GFCI and I’ve had two equipment failures (Koralia and heater) fail and shock me (stray voltage). So I am putting in a GFCI.
Since it looks like you have an apex, keep the heartbeat feature active so you get alerted if the GFCI trips and cuts power to everything.

 

[Reefer Matt]

Absolutely use a gfci AND a grounding probe. It is true that if tripped, your tank won't run, but if something shorts out, and you reach in the tank, you won't know it until YOU get shocked. You are more important than your reef!
Remember, electricity and water, especially salt water, don't mix!

 

[ReefDreamz]

In a really cold climate you can lose your whole tank if a GFCI trips while you aren’t home.
That said, I don’t have a GFCI and I’ve had two equipment failures (Koralia and heater) fail and shock me (stray voltage). So I am putting in a GFCI.
Since it looks like you have an apex, keep the heartbeat feature active so you get alerted if the GFCI trips and cuts power to everything.

Exactly, it's as if your danged if you do and danged if you don't. I have an EB832 and an EB4 connected to my Apex. The EB832 and EB4 are plugged into different circuits but connected to each other through a 1LINK cable. I noticed that if one of the two circuits is turned off the Apex and each energy bar continues to function with the exception of the outlets on the energy bar plugged into the circuit that is switched off.

 

[AlexG]

I run all my aquarium equipment with GFCI/AFCI protected circuits. If water is involved a GFCI should always be used its a life saving device for safety. Any and all equipment can potentially fail and the best protection is to have multiple redundant circuits running the aquarium. There is not much you can do about a lighting strike as some really weird stuff can happen when there is a strike.

At my last house behind my home and one house over was struck by lighting.

House struck - Blew out main electrical panel, severed water line in the house causing a house flood

My House - Tripped a couple breakers and a couple GFCIs

Neighbor behind me had all breakers trip

Two doors down from my house the lighting severed the gas line of their stove causing a gas leak. Luckily the fire department arrived on scene to shutoff the gas before there was a fire or explosion.

 

[shafman1]

I was on vacation last week and while I was gone my house lost power during a thunderstorm. When I returned home many appliances in my house no longer functioned including my boiler and mini-split A/C unit. My electrician and HVAC technician both think a lightning strike was to blame. Among the damaged items were two GFCI receptacles, one in my garage and the other in my sump room. These receptacles could not be reset and needed to be replaced. Luckily, my tank is not up and running yet as I am still in the building stage. I am having a Kohler whole-home automatic backup generator installed but my electrician said even that wouldn't have prevented a lightning strike from damaging the GFCI receptacles.

So my question is do you use GFCI protected circuits for your reef tank which can fail and leave your tank without power even if you have a generator or do you use non-GFCI protected circuits which would leave you vulnerable to a fault?

I was on vacation last week and while I was gone my house lost power during a thunderstorm. When I returned home many appliances in my house no longer functioned including my boiler and mini-split A/C unit. My electrician and HVAC technician both think a lightning strike was to blame. Among the damaged items were two GFCI receptacles, one in my garage and the other in my sump room. These receptacles could not be reset and needed to be replaced. Luckily, my tank is not up and running yet as I am still in the building stage. I am having a Kohler whole-home automatic backup generator installed but my electrician said even that wouldn't have prevented a lightning strike from damaging the GFCI receptacles.

So my question is do you use GFCI protected circuits for your reef tank which can fail and leave your tank without power even if you have a generator or do you use non-GFCI protected circuits which would leave you vulnerable to a fault?

I have everything in the fish room on a GFCI. I also have a whole house generator, but the GFCI's protect me and my creatures from electrocution should something go wrong. I also have the Apex on a battery backup (UPS) since the generator takes a few seconds to kick on. I'm about to upgrade my chiller to a 220V chiller and I plan to use a GFCI 220V breaker in the panel to be safe.

 

[Steve Zee]

I know this is an older question and you’ve likely moved on. But one simple solution would be to add a bypass circuit to take the GFCI out of line while you are away. Since the sole purpose of the GFCI is to protect humans, there is little need to protect someone that isn’t there. Your battery backup should keep everything on while doing the switch. Just throwing it out there. GFCI’s save lives! Stay Safe!

 

[theMeat]

Gfci is imo a must. Paired with a ground probe even better. Would not recommend a ground probe without gfci protection.
A whole house surge protector won’t protect 100% of your electronics 100% of the time from lightning or… but cheap easy insurance that I’d recommend

 

[ReefDreamz]

I know this is an older question and you’ve likely moved on. But one simple solution would be to add a bypass circuit to take the GFCI out of line while you are away. Since the sole purpose of the GFCI is to protect humans, there is little need to protect someone that isn’t there. Your battery backup should keep everything on while doing the switch. Just throwing it out there. GFCI’s save lives! Stay Safe!

I ended up removing the GFCI outlets and putting in EPD breakers which trip at 30 mA instead of 4 mA.

 

[Steve Zee]

I ended up removing the GFCI outlets and putting in EPD breakers which trip at 30 mA instead of 4 mA.

Good solution. I’m using a 30 mA GFCI at my distribution panel at the tank as well. It’s not a solution for everyone, especially if you have kids (let go threshold and all) but the good news is you now have 5 times the room for cumulative leakage.