A word of caution!

[corky]

Last week my tank suddenly overflowed causing about 4 gal. or so to spill onto the carpet. We woke up early in the morning to a smell in the house. Living not too far from the city we thought it was the smell from thr WTC. However, when my wife went downstairs she found the tank had overflowed. I had a power strip on the floor, next to the tank for my powerheads. Water had gone into the power strip and the whole thing was brown, charred, and melted. Apparently the source of the smell. This could have easily started a fire and so on... Even though it was a surge protector strip it never shut off. Anyway, the lesson is not to leave power supply cords on the floor where they can get wet. Pretty obvious, but, although I have 2 others mounted in the cabinet I got lazy and never did anything about the third. Just a word of caution that may prevent someone from having a tragedy. Take care!!!

 

[@knight]

I believe what you are using is actually called a surge "supressor", as it will not shut off, but buffer the power to shield electronic equipment from microsurges. Protectors gives it a falsely reassuring context. they are not designed for aquarium uses. some have built in fuses, but are unreliable and cannot be depended on. it is recommended around water that they be mounted on the wall so water can drain off. I forget the actual name, but if you want to be safe, install a grounded outlet.
Belkin makes a good wide-range supressor I use on all my computer systems. in the event of a surge burst or rapid power fluxuation, it will shut itself off automatically, before a real surge or brownout occurs. Power spikes like that can hurt pc ballasts just as easily as they can fry your computer.
[ September 21, 2001: Message edited by: @knight ]

 

[chocochipper]

One thing that is a good idea is installing a GFI outlet. The NEC requires their use in bathrooms and kitchens if you can catch the similarity between these two it would be that they are used around water. So since the aquarium is a very big water source and it requires electricity it would be a wise decision to put one in.

 

[chevydragtruck]

yeah really if you think about it, if you loose power in your house, the wet/dry is going to overflow from the pump not pumping back into the tank, I have been trying to figure out a way to keep the power to the tank incase the power does go out, I have thought about one of the battery back-up systems for a computer, but they only last about 10 minutes or so, so I have been working with an electrician at work to figure out a solution, so far we have come up with a gel-cell car battery, powering an invertor, with a trickel charger on the battery to keep it at full charge, this shoule be able to power the tank for a fiew days, but the only problem that we are having is a way for the power to switch over to the battery/invertor at the time of power loss, and to switch back to regular home power when it comes back on, if I come up with an answer I will let u all know, or if someone has the answer, or an alternative, please let me know

 

[caymanlovers]

Re: power strips - If you get a power strip, with surge protectors, circuit breakers and whatever wet they will burn. Why? Because they only shut off power to what is plugged into them, they don't diconnect themselves. As someone above said, use a GFI at the wall outlet, that will trip and shut off the power to the power strip.

 

[andymi]

Don't forget to create drip loops from all of your stuff too. Granted this was an overflow, but sometimes simple drips can cause problems and by utilizing drip loops you can save a lot of problems.
--Andy

 

[javajoe]

You could use a UPS.
They sell them for computers, the cheap ones are desinged to run for a half hour 300 watts or so to give you enough time to save your work, and shut down the computer, but they DO make more expensive ones that have higher wattage, and longer duration. They plug into the wall, have outlets on them like a surge protector, and in the event of a power outage, the battery takes over.

 

[von_rahvin]

ups are great for computers, but make sure to get a big one. the little 150-200 watts will no power anything, that or do not plug your lights into it.

 

[javajoe]

yeah--- you do have to watch what you plug in, and do need to make sure to buy a big one... funny story about this...
I used to work for an organization that sent medical teams to the garbage dumps of mexico sity for humanitarian outreaches, and their offices had TERRIBLE electrical problems, and a UPS was needed to prevent the computers from crashing all the time. almost everyday, the power would go off for several hours at a time...
Anyway, my boss came into the office and the mexican girl who was the secretary told her that the UPS didn't seem to work anymore-- they hooked in up to the photocopier to make copies and since they only were going to use it for 2 minutes, they figured it would be ok. They realized that this was NOT ok once the smoke started pouring out.... (when using with the computer it had a battery that lasts 30 minutes)
oops..... believe it or not, when she told the manufacturer the story, they had pity and sold her a new one for 50% off....
[ September 25, 2001: Message edited by: Javajoe ]

 

[ironreef]

fwiw you should use gfi, not keep anything like ballast,plugs ect on the floor or even near the sump IME. Your setup should be set so it won't flood when power shuts off= plan ahead and get a sump that can handle the water flow when power shuts off.