Electrical question

[wattsupdoc]

Originally Posted by phishface
. btw, have you seen the price on a roll of 12-2 ?
375.00 per 1000 ft. today! Man its killin us eh?

 

[zman1]

As I previously mentioned. Here is a picture of a GFI pigtail. Probably the easiest way to add a GFI for an Aquarium.....

 

[indymatt]

I might just run a dedicated line of 12-3 coneected to a 20 amp breaker for an outlet under the stairs in my basement! Luckily, it is in the utility area and I just need to run it along the rafters and down to the conduit and outlet box. I have space in my electrical box, how hard is it to install a new breaker in a box?
All I need to buy is the conduit and outlet box, I already have the wire from my basement remodel. We used 12-3, overkill but nice to have when needed!

 

[biggredd]

Tim,
The trip was great. Scuba dived in the 2nd largest reef in the world. Saw an abundance of school fish, coral, and a sea turte. I was surprised though that I didn't see ANY bottom dwellers. No crabs, starfish, or any other creature. Just fish. We went on a "Submarine" adventure (basically a deep bottom boat that looks like a sub) on the other side of Cancun from where I scuba'd and saw a baracuda, Shark, Huge rays, sea turtles, and more. That was fun. Lots of alcohol too.

As for my electrical problem....This is a brand new set up. There is currently a standard 3 prong outlet there. I doubt I would have any problems with the amount of electricity going through as I've run way more with stereo equipement or my bands equipment on other circuits in my house and both of those are monster electricity users. But I do want to avoid any electrical risk if possible. I have never switched a breaker and honestly I don't really want to pay someone to do it unless it is absolutely 100% no other way around it necessary. I assumed the GFCI outlet being swapped out would be good enough. Now I'm all confused. Do it, don't do it, do it, don't do it.
Here is what I have....3 295 gph ph's, 1 overflow box w/rio 600 ph, Super skimmer 220, 2 200 watt titanium heaters, Rio 32HF pump, and lights (which I still need to get). So around 9 plugs total. I doubt they will exceed the available power to this source so I think I should swap the GFCI circuit, get 2 powerstrips, make drip loops on them, and call it good.
Got way more responses than I thought I would and are all very, very informative. Many many thanks.
Got my RO unit installed last night, drained the first batch. Water tonight. Going to finally test out that plumbing. And while I'm on the subject...since I haven't officially tested the plumbing should I fill it up all the way with RO water, test the plumbing, and then add sand and salt or should I fill it up half way, add sand, and then test the plumbing once it's completely full?
Thanks. (sorry for the super long post)

 

[dogstar]

So far the equipment you listed is a total of 615 watts = 5.3 amps. This leaves you around 1000 watts = 9.4 amps for lights and any thing esle.
Thats for a 15 amp circuit ( protected by a 15 amp breaker or fuse or trip rateing on the GFCI or on the power strip. Any of these can trip if overloaded )
If the circuit is on a 20 amp breaker and the outlet and strips are rated at 20 amps then you have 1600 watts to add befor something trips due to overload.
Always a good idea to only use up to 80 % of the overload rateing. On a 15 amp circuit thats around 1400 watts, on a 20 amp circuit, thats around 1900 watts of total equipment to stay at or below 80 %.
As said earlier. Changeing the existing 3 prong normal outlet with a GFCI outlet is fine or you can do as others have suggested and use a portable GFCI or Change the breaker to a GFCI breaker. Anything that you plug in to the load side of the any of these GFCI will be protected from ground fault.
Always a good idea to have a drip loops on all cord so water does not run down the cords and into the outlets.

 

[biggredd]

I beleive it is a 15 amp circuit.
Dogstar, I like that answer. I think I'm on the right track. Since I have the GFCI outlet already I'll just swap it out rather than buy another piece of equipment.
Any response on my water question?
Also, any idea how long it will take to fill the tank with a 100 gpd RO unit? Reasonably. Cause I can't baby sit for over 24 hours straight.

 

[zman1]

Just a side note: My magnetic 250 W PFO dual ballast is rated at 9 amps starting current per the label. So stagger your ballast starts if you get something simular. Don't use the same timer for both cords.
Also, GFCIs don't trip on overloads like Fuses and Breakers. Unless it's a GFCI breaker. GFCI trips if the current between the Hot and Common lead are different, indicating a ground fault where current is being drawn through a different path, it's faster and exposes minimal levels of current (milliAmp range - mA) to the person than a shorted or overloaded Fuse or Breaker would trip.

 

[dogstar]

I would just fill it with tap water to test all the plumbing. no reason to waist RO if you have a problem and have to drain it to fix it. If everything is good then drain the tap and start filling with RO. Takes as long as the filters GPD rateing. Day is 24 hours, 100 GPD, 100 / 24 = 4.16 gph. Should take around 30 hours total to make 125 gls.

 

[biggredd]

I wasn't sure if tap water was OK. I will do that first thing when I get home. My plan will be to run the hose through the window and fill it up. I remember when I had a hot tub I could start filling the hot tub, keep the water running, and disconnect it from the faucet and start a back pressure to empty it when changing out the water. Hope that will work today.
Man that is gonna suck to fill it up for the first time. Might just go and buy a few gallons as well to speed things up.