Aquariums and GFCI

[mark]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

You know, I don't run a GFCI, because of the fact that they will trip and then you loose power to essentials. I am an electrician too. I am confidant enough in my wiring to know that everything is OK. I did have a leaky float. Shocked me once. But I've been shocked before, no big deal LOL

As confidant as you are with you're wiring, you don't control the build of the equipment in your tank nor what may happen to it over the years. And thought I never heard on the news fish tank owner electrocuted, shocks are a big deal and do kill.

[JTaylor420]

ok i've heard debates on gfci's for quite some time now. Will I ever use one on my setup? the answer quite simply put is no. Does anyone know the difference between electric shock and electrocution? shock is a shock you'll live, Electrocution = death i see people quite frequently throw these terms around with no idea of what they actually mean. Ok first off i am an electrician and do u know what the number 1 problem i run into when dealing specifically with gfci's is? you got it probably from reading earlier posts, nuisance tripping. Are you guys aware you can grab a hot conductor of any voltage and have that voltage flow through you with absolutely no ill effect? if there is no path to ground through you then nothing will happen, i've done it so don't tell me i don't know what i'm talking about. For me personally i'm not scared of electricity i know that it simply will take the shortest path to ground and if it's not me great who cares. I do however on the other hand care very much so if i go out lets say at 6:45 am in the morning for work and boom 7 am nuisance trip when something kicks on. Guess what 5-6 at night when i come home i'll be some upset if everything in my tank is dead corals, fish everything 2000$+ wasted because some infernal device shut off for no reason.



Ok i'm not trying to preach my knowledge on anyone that's got it stuck in there head that gfci's are great, they are but not for fish tanks. If your concerned with with electric shock then cool, ground your tank i'd rather get a grounding probe in my tank that will short out the circuit if there is actually a serious problem and if livestock is lost that way well hey $hit happens. But as far as losing my tank over something that in all honestly will probably never happen i'd probably get out of the hobby. I'm not trying to start a heated debate here but honestly when was the last time a gfi has actually tripped to save your life? ever? i didn't think so.

[parkinsn]

Originally Posted by JTaylor420

ok i've heard debates on gfci's for quite some time now. Will I ever use one on my setup? the answer quite simply put is no. Does anyone know the difference between electric shock and electrocution? shock is a shock you'll live, Electrocution = death i see people quite frequently throw these terms around with no idea of what they actually mean. Ok first off i am an electrician and do u know what the number 1 problem i run into when dealing specifically with gfci's is? you got it probably from reading earlier posts, nuisance tripping. Are you guys aware you can grab a hot conductor of any voltage and have that voltage flow through you with absolutely no ill effect? if there is no path to ground through you then nothing will happen, i've done it so don't tell me i don't know what i'm talking about. For me personally i'm not scared of electricity i know that it simply will take the shortest path to ground and if it's not me great who cares. I do however on the other hand care very much so if i go out lets say at 6:45 am in the morning for work and boom 7 am nuisance trip when something kicks on. Guess what 5-6 at night when i come home i'll be some upset if everything in my tank is dead corals, fish everything 2000$+ wasted because some infernal device shut off for no reason.



Ok i'm not trying to preach my knowledge on anyone that's got it stuck in there head that gfci's are great, they are but not for fish tanks. If your concerned with with electric shock then cool, ground your tank i'd rather get a grounding probe in my tank that will short out the circuit if there is actually a serious problem and if livestock is lost that way well hey $hit happens. But as far as losing my tank over something that in all honestly will probably never happen i'd probably get out of the hobby. I'm not trying to start a heated debate here but honestly when was the last time a gfi has actually tripped to save your life? ever? i didn't think so.

I agree i dont think i will ever put a GFI on my tank for the reasons said above.

[pastout]

ya i definetly agree grounding the tank is alot more important and until like 2 years ago i had never even heard of it, wish i would have i had the cracked heater scenario happen to me one side of my body all numbed up i couldnt pull my hand out of the tank while it happed it realy sucked.

[plutoniumJoe]

I have a GFCI on my tank and feel better knowing that it is there but I wonder if I am defeating it's purpose by also having a UPS. I have just my power heads plugged into the UPS so if the GFCI trips or the power goes out I have some flow for a while. My question though is about the UPS preventing the GFCI form tripping if the ground fault results from one of the power heads plugged into it?

[JTaylor420]

hey midgetwaiter, you name 1 electrician that has never been shocked at work. Sometimes it is necessary to keep power on the circuit while working on it, needless to say i've moved wires or had them brush against me (being live wires) with not even feeling a thing. Anyways i'm just putting in my 2 cents on the subject take my opinion's for what you think their worth and use it or not. And about the gfi's in house's now like i said in my original post gfi's are great just not for fishtanks. Stop trying to look big like i said i'm not starting a debate here if you have nothing intelligent to counter my side of the argument dont waste your time.

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by JTaylor420

hey midgetwaiter, you name 1 electrician that has never been shocked at work. Sometimes it is necessary to keep power on the circuit while working on it, needless to say i've moved wires or had them brush against me (being live wires) with not even feeling a thing. Anyways i'm just putting in my 2 cents on the subject take my opinion's for what you think their worth and use it or not. And about the gfi's in house's now like i said in my original post gfi's are great just not for fishtanks. Stop trying to look big like i said i'm not starting a debate here if you have nothing intelligent to counter my side of the argument dont waste your time.

I believe that a GFI saved my life. Like a lot of these things it all started out very routinely and innocently. I had cleaned my extermal return pump and started it back up again. It was making a funny sound so I simply started to poke around the pump and tapped at the volute while leaving the pump on. After a couple of taps the volute began spraying jets of water in my face and all around me. Like many people I have some powerbars under the tank. They are not sitting on the ground but are screwed into place with drip loops. When I finally stop the water I was kneeling in a large pool of salt water along with the soaked powerbars. In my panic I had flailed around and accidentally grabbed onto the powerbars several times. The GFCIs had tripped like they were supposed to. I felt nothing and there wasn't even a spark. My tank powerheads which are on a separate GFCI protected circuit kept running like nothing had happened. It turns out that I had not properly seated the volute into the pump which was the caused of the near disaster.

The important part of this is that I don't believe I would have qualified for a Darwin Award. I was doing something I've done numerous times before and did not believe I acted unreasonably yet something really bad almost occurred. I can think of a myriad of instances where someone is fiddling with something around their tank and something similar happens. For example, if you are fiddling with your lights above the tank and for some reason they fall into the tank. SW and electricity in such close proximity to each other is inherently risky. If you have young curious young children or pets the danger increases tenfold.

On a related note a firefighter friend of mine said that whenever they trace the cause of a fire back to an aquarium it's almost always a SW aquarium with no GFCI protection. This is probably because of the rat's nest of powerbars and wires that are under SW tanks and the fact that SW is a wonderful conductor of electricity. All it takes is for a few drops of SW to splash onto a powerbar to cause some sparks and away we go. GFCIs would prevent this. He says he's seen a lot of examples of a mass of powerbars melted together underneath SW tanks.

[hillegom]

If some people are worried about one GFCI turning off all power if it trips, then why not run two GFCI's.
Behind my tank I have one outlet for my 50 gal. When I am going to change to my 120, I will add another outlet and have two GFCI's. That way, All functions in the tank will not go out at the same time.

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by JTaylor420

hey midgetwaiter, you name 1 electrician that has never been shocked at work. Sometimes it is necessary to keep power on the circuit while working on it, needless to say i've moved wires or had them brush against me (being live wires) with not even feeling a thing. Anyways i'm just putting in my 2 cents on the subject take my opinion's for what you think their worth and use it or not. And about the gfi's in house's now like i said in my original post gfi's are great just not for fishtanks. Stop trying to look big like i said i'm not starting a debate here if you have nothing intelligent to counter my side of the argument dont waste your time.

My Dad was an electrician, I learned a lot from him, like how to handle live wires when fixing something. I work on computers, I have had a 2000Va UPS and a 17" CRT shock me. I understand electricity very well.

Somebody needs to "look big" and correct the dangerous info you are putting out there, the presence of water is a game changer and you need to realize that. You might not take much of a hit brushing up against 120 in the normal course of things but try it in socks with a wet (SW wet especially) hand, then see what happens.

You can confirm this by referencing any junior high science text book.

[mark]

What's bothering me here is the "I'm an electrician, therefore an expert so listen to me crap on the use of GFI".