Electricity Question

jdm

jdm

New Member
Hi,
Im hoping I can get an answer from an electrician or someone with advanced knowledge of gfci / grounding probes. Ive got a FOWLR 120 running both gfci and a grounding probe. During the evening my wife was vaccuming and blew a circuit on our main house panel which somehow also resulted in both gfci getting tripped. I woke up this morning to find my fish discolored, laying on the bottom, and breathing hard. I prompyly reset the gfci's and after a couple hours they seemed to come back to somewhat normal...thankfully. Any idea on what occured and how I could prevent another incident like this?
Thanks
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Do you have too much on a single circuit? Lighten the load and you'll reduce the risk of an appliance tripping it. You shouldn't be an appliance away from tripping IMO.
Do you have more than one powerhead or circulation pump? You could put them on separate circuits.
How old is your house?
 
jdm

jdm

New Member
House is 30 years old...electric a little screwy ; like we dont know which outlets are on which circuits...well we are slowly discovering :) , vacumming was on second floor in a bedroom opposite side of the house as the tank which is on the main level. The load is average Im running a return pump, sump light and skimmer (unplugged during the incident due to maintence) on one outlet, and three power heads on another outlet. My main concern is how the fish got affected with these safety precautions in place.
 
jdm

jdm

New Member
The power to the tank was off all night, which has happened before without this reaction from the fish.
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
It was probably a nuisance trip. GFIs do not trip from overcurrent (at least they shouldn't), and besides it doesn't sound like the load that popped it was connected to the GFI anyway. I've seen GFIs trip when they are under load (something is running off them) and the breaker trips.
You may consider installing a second GFI, even if it's on the same circuit, and spreading your equipment out across the two of them, so if one trips, you won't lose everything on the tank. Another idea might be to use a small UPS to power a powerhead in your tank, so at least if the tank loses power, you'll get some backup, but more importantly, the UPS's alarm will alert you to the tank not having power.
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
If you are running the plug in GFCI's they are non latching meaning any time the power goes out (or their main breaker is tripped) they must be reset once the power comes back on. Not a good thing to use on a tank. If the power goes out for even a couple seconds your tank will be without power until you reset them
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefraff
http:///forum/post/3085082
If you are running the plug in GFCI's they are non latching meaning any time the power goes out (or their main breaker is tripped) they must be reset once the power comes back on. Not a good thing to use on a tank. If the power goes out for even a couple seconds your tank will be without power until you reset them
I've never seen a GFI like this.. they must be somewhat rare...
 
mkroher

mkroher

Member
Since you tripped the breaker in the panel, you are overloading the circuit. The BEST solution, is to upgrade to a 20amp breaker, and run new 12ga wire, to a 20amp GFI, and if possible, have the tank on it's own circuit.
You cannot upgrade the breaker or receptacle without upgrading the copper in between it.. If you install 20amp breakers and receptacles on 14ga wire.. you can start a fire.
Consult an electrician. Or figure out which plugs your wife (or you) can vacuum on that won't affect your tank. Flip the breakers and use a plug tester to see which plugs are on which circuits.
-Mike
 
jdm

jdm

New Member
Thanks for your input! I do have two seperate GFCI's with seperate ph in main tank and both got tripped I guess I need a back up for my back up. The whole thing just seems wierd, like you said it shouldnt trip from overloaded and the power has gone out before without tripping them and requiring a reset. Unfortunately running new wire is not an option at this point so it sounds like we will steer clear of EVER vaccuming again ;)
 
maryg

maryg

Member
The same thing happened to me. Everytime I plug in the vacuum it was a blackout! I had an electrician come and install a dedicated circuit just for my tank. No more problems.
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
Originally Posted by jdm
http:///forum/post/3085599
Thanks for your input! I do have two seperate GFCI's with seperate ph in main tank and both got tripped I guess I need a back up for my back up. The whole thing just seems wierd, like you said it shouldnt trip from overloaded and the power has gone out before without tripping them and requiring a reset. Unfortunately running new wire is not an option at this point so it sounds like we will steer clear of EVER vaccuming again ;)
Try having the wife plug the vacuum into a powerstip with a filter on it. Vacuums run very dirty (electrically speaking) and it's possible the noise is messing with the GFCI's
 
gmann1139

gmann1139

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefraff
http:///forum/post/3085766
Actually very common for the plug in versions, I couldn't find one that wasn't like that.
Yeah, all the yellow/black plug-in GFCI's from Home Depot do this.
I have to take out my GFCI every time we go away for the weekend, because the chance of us losing power is greater than the chance of an electrical issue in the tank.
 
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