Tank is tripping breaker....

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

thanks for the advice but theres no way to run new wiring. i work for telus and i run lots of inside wiring and the only way to run wire to this part of my house (if it were coax or cat5) would be to drill outside and run the cable on the outside.

i think what im gonna do is just rewire the panel and put the room lights onto another circuit.

that isn't realy going to help much.. you are maxed out and if your only getting 8 amps from four 250 watt MH that would be the most efficient lighting I have seen. a more realistic estimate is 10 to 12 amps from your lights alone.. then you have heaters and everything else.

do you have a plug on another circuit you can move two of the lights to? or maybe getting a nice 12 guage extension cord in a color that will blend in witht he surounding to bring the power from an unused outlet to your tank.

although the best way would be a new circuit, I have never seen a house you couldn't put a circuit inside.. its just a question of how much you feel line doing. I know when telus was here when I bought the place they told me I would have to go outside to get what I wanted, so I told them to leave the material and I would run it myself and call them back to hook it up. but I had to cut small holes in drywall, take out narrow strips in some places ect.. then repair it. even if you are not confident in doing that kind of work, you could do the cable/phone installers favorite method, drilling through the wall to the outside (saves them time and work) and then run conduit on the out side of the house or under ground. if you do that way run 12/3 so you can bring two 20 amp outlets to the tank. then you'll be good to go.

Steve

[sphelps]

Well honestly I think you should bring in an electrician to discuss your options as a tank should have at least one dedicated line especially one with such a high load. Even if you manage to get this working as is you're taking a significant risk. Once your tank is established it'll be a significant investment and blowing a breaker when you're not around could result in a total crash in a short period of time. MH ballasts draw a large amount of power during start up and if you have a brief power trip in the house all the ballasts would refire at once so staggering the times they turn on isn't a reliable solution unless you have a controller which will restagger after a power outage. Also as others stated heaters could kick in at different times and change things as well.

The other options I could suggest are:

• Downgrade the tank lights, chances are you could change the 4 250W halides to 2 SE 250W halides in a larger reflector like the lumenmax which will give better coverage. This is enough for a 180 gallon but you'll limit yourself a little with stock but could still keep most LPS, soft corals and even a few selective SPS in certain spots. Other lighting options like T5 (12 3' T5s is only 468W, even 16 is 624W) or LED may also be worth considering. Using lower K bulbs will increase your PAR as well if you're flexible on color.
• Invest in other equipment with lower power consumption
• Change the room lighting as already discussed, not sure on the exact bulbs you have but you can get CF in a GU10 base, they just aren't dimmable. Also there are LED lights that match a 50W halogen, they just aren't available locally and cost a lot more.
• Last option would be downgrade the tank to something you can manage with out blowing a circuit or your budget.