Electricity and water: you aren't paranoid enough

[reefkeeperZ]

I would say this picture sums it up. (yes it burnt that bad on a GFCI breaker which will be replaced with a brand new one since it burnt that bad before it tripped I will be contacting the manufacturing company since the GFCI breaker is fairly new and should have tripped way before that happened)

 

[mandy111]

We all seem to overload our units with tanks. Its a real problem. Our insurance company wouldn't insure us unless we had a separate circuit breaker for each of the power boards associated with our tank. So that meant 3. It might be a good idea anyway looking at the picture. ouch. those 3 clipsal saftey switches operate independently, so if one power board goes the other will be ok. Not a bad safety feature. We have a heater plugged into each one, power head as well. So if we lose one heater the other will kick in. May be worth considering when you re-do yours. ?

 

[reefkeeperZ]

All three outlets in the picture above are on their own breaker. I'm still confused as to why the center appears to have tripped fast while the outer two definitely delayed.

 

[mandy111]

No idea. very strange indeed. Well i needed to have insurance to thats the way we had to do it. Hope you work it out.

 

[bang guy]

Thank you for that picture Mandy - I like the idea.

 

[reefkeeperZ]

yeah mandy thats a very nice set up and honestly insurance companies are great at risk reduction so if they green light it theres a good chance thats its a great way to do it. I'll be re-designing that set up that I have to include splash sheilding as well as new gfci breakers.

 

[mandy111]

yeah mandy thats a very nice set up and honestly insurance companies are great at risk reduction so if they green light it theres a good chance thats its a great way to do it. I'll be re-designing that set up that I have to include splash sheilding as well as new gfci breakers.

Yip. Splash proofing is a great idea. that why we have the enclosed grey box around it. and its a fair way away from the water itself. We would have to create a tidal wave for that to get splashed. lol

 

[beth]

That has to be wired incorrectly somewhere. Who did the install?

 

[reefkeeperZ]

I did. lol. no it was wired correctly, unfortunately (after inspection of the breakers them selves) 7 years of humidity in the basement which they are installed (floods often, its a field stone foundation) had cause minor corrosion inside the gfci breakers, not enough to fault it but enough to make it difficult for the mechanism to move thus making it trip slower than it should have. My electrician friend checked em out and double checked my wiring job for me. I will be building an enclosed box around the panel and using a dessicant in the panel box to prevent such occurrences in the future. unfortunately there is no way to coat the internals of the breakers with di-electric grease.

 

[mandy111]

Serves as a good warning to all of us to check our electrics otfen. Thanks for follow up.

 

[reefkeeperZ]

Gotta say over the last 20 years I've had a lot of close calls with electricity. like the time a heater broke in a salt mixing bucket when I started the siphon the old fashioned way as soon as the water hit my tongue straight 120 hit me in the mouth and laid me straight out. I've had multiple powerstrip/water incidences. epoxy casing cracking on a pump and dumping 120 into the tank, corrosion semi shorting lights so I was getting lifted if I touched the light housing. Probably been hit with enough juice over the years to de-fibrillate an ox.... No matter how cautious we are the danger is there when you mix anything that runs on electricity with water. And the danger is even greater in marine tanks for multiple reasons, corrosion factor is one and the fact that marine water conducts electricity far better than fresh increases the danger.

 

[mandy111]

so well said. lol