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[olonmv]

As a Master construction electrician for almost 50 years in Manhattan I have to slightly, very slightly disagree with you on this and will side with Dcloser12.

I also like a GFI in the panel. (in the trade they are GFIs and everywhere else they are GFCIs)

The company that invented the things, Levitan sent me to school for them when they came out another lifetime ago.

By law you are not supposed to put anything in front of the panel closer than 3' so it should always be accessible. If your panel is covered by old mops, quarantine tanks, Halloween decorations or pictures of your Mother N Law that is a fire violation and I will call the fire department on you.

The GFI near your tank will most likely be near the floor under the tank or behind the couch next to your cat. The GFI breaker in the panel can be tested or changed in about one and a half minutes but the one in the receptacle next to the cat is more difficult to change especially if you are old like me and can't get there and I don't like cats.

The receptacle can also have a number of wires connected toit and some are a horror to change.

If the thing is tripping from the ground probe, move or call an electrician because that thing won't trip anything on induced current. If you have real current leaking into the water it will always be 108-120 volts and you will light up when you stick your hand in there and touch the wet cat at the same time.

Anything less than that is normal so you can go out to dinner and try the fried calamari.

The cat will also not be happy.

Just my opinion and I am old and opinionated so you don't have to listen to me.
Have a great day.

I knew there was another reason other than your vast knowledge of reefing why I liked you!!! …Fellow Texas master sparky here!

 

[Koh23]

Sure they do, any decent pc ps can give at 12v rail at least 12A, better ones even more, from 16A with no sweat.

Old ones, or cheapest ofiice pc power supply mostly cant, they give 3-4A per rail.....

I tried pump, it works even on 6V, but, it is so loud, that at full speed (12v) is impossible to be, not in same room, in house.... Even in 6V mode, it is so loud, so really no use of this 24/7....

Sure, pump gives 7200l of air per hour, 120l per minute, but, noise is such that makes it impossible to use in home, some garage, basement, fish store - maybe ok....

 

[Rick's Reviews]

After 25 years experiance on the field and 15 years at the office, as an electrican I think I can answer most of your questions.

Thanks to my fellow electricians for helping answering your question's.
And the team is:

Myself and
anemonekeeper



:wink:

Great

So I have recently introduced a pin cushion urchin in my aquriam, I have been told/read threads that these can chew through wires is this correct?
On the electrical side.. how can I avoid this as I assume my aquriam will get frazzled if this happens, I have 3-4 wires in my aquriam that's available for eating
Thanks

 

[Paul B]

I don't know. I got this guy probably 10 or 12 years ago (maybe 15, who remembers?) when he was as big as a marble. Now he is cantaloupe size and being I don't have a sump I have a rats nest of wires in my tank. So far he hasn't touched them but the day is young and he doesn't read these forums so he doesn't know he can eat wires.

Here he eating a clam because he also doesn't know he is a Vegan.

 

[Sleepydoc]

As a Master construction electrician for almost 50 years in Manhattan I have to slightly, very slightly disagree with you on this and will side with Dcloser12.

I also like a GFI in the panel. (in the trade they are GFIs and everywhere else they are GFCIs)

The company that invented the things, Levitan sent me to school for them when they came out another lifetime ago.

By law you are not supposed to put anything in front of the panel closer than 3' so it should always be accessible. If your panel is covered by old mops, quarantine tanks, Halloween decorations or pictures of your Mother N Law that is a fire violation and I will call the fire department on you.

The GFI near your tank will most likely be near the floor under the tank or behind the couch next to your cat. The GFI breaker in the panel can be tested or changed in about one and a half minutes but the one in the receptacle next to the cat is more difficult to change especially if you are old like me and can't get there and I don't like cats.

The receptacle can also have a number of wires connected toit and some are a horror to change.

If the thing is tripping from the ground probe, move or call an electrician because that thing won't trip anything on induced current. If you have real current leaking into the water it will always be 108-120 volts and you will light up when you stick your hand in there and touch the wet cat at the same time.

Anything less than that is normal so you can go out to dinner and try the fried calamari.

The cat will also not be happy.

Just my opinion and I am old and opinionated so you don't have to listen to me.
Have a great day.

All true. With your experience being a master electrician I’m sure you can verify that the service panel is never obstructed! You’re also correct that changing a breaker is easier. The big problem here is many people aren’t comfortable doing that. Reading comments on various forums, I think some people’s cats are more qualified. Of course if the outlet by the tank is blocked by the tank or a bookshelf or an ornery cat, then it’s not any better.

Replacing the GFI is pretty low on my list of concerns, though. They do go bad but not terribly often. What’s more common is for some electrical device in the tank to degrade and start leaking current, causing the GFI to trip. Then you have to go down to the basement, move the halloween costumes and get reminded of your mother in law to reset the breaker. When you get back upstairs, you realize it’s tripped again because the device you unplugged the first time was not the one that was leaking so you have to go down and see your mother in law again. I can only take my mother in law once a year.

Now, if the GFI outlet is hidden behind something where only the cat can get to it it’s not any better. Actually worse, because a cat is even less helpful than a mother in law. At least my mother in law makes good cinnamon rolls.

As an aside, I long ago learned that when buying switches, receptacles, etc, one should stay far away from the bin of $0.79 specials at Home Despot. Pay a bit more for the good quality ones that have a metal clamping plate. No twisting wires around a screw - just strip the wire, put it behind the plate and tighten the screw. Easy, secure, reliable and easily replaceable when needed.

 

[knd342]

I bought a grounding probe for stray voltage but the package says to have an electrician install it. Is this really needed (the electrician) or can I DIY?

 

[Sasquatchv]

I bought a grounding probe for stray voltage but the package says to have an electrician install it. Is this really needed (the electrician) or can I DIY?

It's jus butt covering by the maker, imagine avalanche of lawsuits if they didn't say that.
On a side note, grounding your tank without GFCI(RCD outside of USA)either in the socket or fuseboard will make it LESS SAFE.

 

[EricR]

For the electricians out there, this is curious (to me):
*just happened to notice when I was playing around with my multimeter (set on AC volts)

GFCI that runs the tank -- I get 0.1v AC with ONLY one probe to ground and the other just in the air.
All other receptacles in the house that I tried that on (including 2 other GFCI) show 0.0v with just an occasional "-" (negative) on the meter, but still at 0.0v (so I guess VERY SLIGHT voltage registering but below the range of the meter).
*I do have a couple of those 3-light receptacle testers and they show CORRECT (wiring) on the GFCI receptacle I use for the tank.

Is this just because I have more equipment running on the GFCI ?
Real question is -- should I be concerned about this at all?
Is this an indicator of any condition(s) that I should consider looking into?
*don't really know how many amps my equipment is pulling from that 15A circuit but the breaker has never tripped (nor has the GFCI)

 

[Paul B]

Real question is -- should I be concerned about this at all?

No. Go out to dinner. I do not like digital meters or digital anything for that reason. Analog meters with the old dial are better unless you are designing Space Shuttles or working for Elon Musk.

0.1 volt is the same as nothing and comes from internal resistance in that cheap Chinese meter, the condition of the batteries or state of the stock market. Forget about it.

 

[Sasquatchv]

GFCI that runs the tank -- I get 0.1v AC with ONLY one probe to ground and the other just in the air

It's just a noise, as PaulB said, forget about it, besidies what are you trying to measure with probe in the air? How much ionised your air is?

If you want to see "interesting" results put earth stake outside(6 ft deep) and measure to that. Both DC and AC voltage. And then resistance to your ground terminals in GFCIs, using low ohm meter(one that goes from micro ohm to 10ish ohms), multimeter will give less interesting results

 

[EricR]

It's just a noise, as PaulB said, forget about it, besidies what are trying to measure with probe in the air? How much ionised your air is?

If you want to see "interesting" results put earth stake outside(6 ft deep) and measure to that. Both DC and AC voltage. And then resistance to your ground terminals in GFCIs, using low ohm meter(one that goes from micro ohm to 10ish ohms), multimeter will give less interesting results

I didn't mean to suggest that probing the air was a useful test -- just something I happened to notice while doing other measurements

 

[Steve Zee]

I didn't mean to suggest that probing the air was a useful test -- just something I happened to notice while doing other measurements

As Paul B states, it’s nothing to worry about. Hell, I can get 10 times that by stabbing a probe into a potato. Although I love my digital meters, but like Paul says the cheap Chinese made devices are complete garbage. If you can spend a little more make sure any meter you buy has the “True-RMS” (root-means-square) calculation which is the only way to get a correct AC reading.

 

[biecacka]

Here’s a question, I plugged a small space heater(to see if it works before throwing it out) in my basement (where the fish tank is) and it tripped a breaker. Not all the way, it was only 1/2 switched to the off position but that’s enough to turn everything off. I reset everything and tried it again, same thing.
So, it got me thinking…..first what the heck is going on!??! then should I add a surge protector to the outlet or better yet swap the outlet out for a GCFI outlet? And if so, how many should I add? I have one on the other side of the wall by my popcorn machine.


corey

 

[Beau_B]

The 1/2 way switch thing is normal.

Chances are there is an issue with the space heater, not the house. A GFCI will not "cure" the issue.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Agreed, that space heater probably has a short in it.

 

[Steve Zee]

Here’s a question, I plugged a small space heater(to see if it works before throwing it out) in my basement (where the fish tank is) and it tripped a breaker. Not all the way, it was only 1/2 switched to the off position but that’s enough to turn everything off. I reset everything and tried it again, same thing.
So, it got me thinking…..first what the heck is going on!??! then should I add a surge protector to the outlet or better yet swap the outlet out for a GCFI outlet? And if so, how many should I add? I have one on the other side of the wall by my popcorn machine.


corey

Well, did it trip the breaker or the GFCI? Sometimes it’s hard to tell with some breakers but if you needed to reset (typically) yellow tab before resetting the breaker then it may be as simple as a over current situation. This is the actual purpose of most of your breakers in the panel and a space heater uses quite a bit. Even at only half power it could be enough to trip when combined with everything else. However, if your heater trips a non gfci breaker in a circuit with nothing else on, then it could indeed be a problem with the heater.

 

[Paul B]

If it trips half way, that is a ground fault. Some old appliances leak some current to ground so they trip. It could be dead bugs or any number of things causing that and the heater may be safe. But it won't run on that GFI circuit.

A lot of old appliances and tools won't run on gfi circuits because the insulation wasn't as good then as they are now and most of them don't have polarized plugs (one prong wider than the other) so some GFIs get confused like I do sometimes.

 

[astreck827]

Hey, wondering if someone could double check to make sure I am purchasing the correct item here… I’m setting up a battery backup with an auto transfer switch, I’m comfortable with wiring it all up but want to make sure this is the correct relay for he transfer switch. This is based on the guide from this forum, found here:

DIY Universal Battery Backup For Your Reef

A few days ago (3/2/2018) I lost power in the recent Nor'easter. I had a battery backup system in place, and thankfully it functioned fairly well. However, I had upgraded my aquarium since I had originally planned out the battery backup and the system did not last nearly as long as I wanted it...

www.reef2reef.com

This is the relay that I’m looking at:

Power Relay 24vdc 15a DPDT Potter & Brumfield K10p-11d55-24 for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Power Relay 24vdc 15a DPDT Potter & Brumfield K10p-11d55-24 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

thanks!

 

[Biochembob]

Need some help with a relay.

I want to run a USB air pump to run a skimmer but I want to have it shut off if the water level drops too low. Is there a 5 volt relay that can work off a float switch?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Need some help with a relay.

I want to run a USB air pump to run a skimmer but I want to have it shut off if the water level drops too low. Is there a 5 volt relay that can work off a float switch?

@Paul B