acrylic51
Active Member
Hey KMC.....to be totally honest, I DO NOT run GFCI breakers....I don't care for them and with the high loads and such will and does cause them to go nuts.......I get my electrical parts for nothing, because of my brother-in-law, but have used them in the past on previous system and they drove me nuts......they just didn't hold up IMO......Some people say they are a must, and I disagree.......especially with the GFCI outlets......a curling iron, and hair drier will take their toll on them over time......
I ran all those dedicated circuits, because you always read about people overloading their circuits and stuff tripping......1 circuit is just dedicated to overhead lighting.....1 circuit is dedicated for just 2 MH's and a VHO ballast and moonlight, 1 circuit dedicated or the other 2 MH's and VHO ballast and moonlights....The main pump and skimmer pump is on another circuit by itself and the CL pump is on an existing circuit for the garage that nothing draws on.....so with 20 amp circuits and only loading them with about 10amp each I'm well under and don't feel I'll have any issues with tripping........
As far as alarms......everything has backups.......I don't fear floods like most people, and yes I have had them, but 2 were due to my mistakes and 1 due to equipment failure.....The equipment failure was the Oceanic tank blew apart at the side after 2 months of being setup, and "my" mistakes "floods" were leaving the RO/DI unit turned on without a float valve.......and the other was forgetting to glue a fitting in place and running the system about 1 week before it let loose, so you learn.........
If power would go out all together you don't worry about back syphonage from your CL, so that is non important......The area you worry most about is any area where you have your return pipes submerged underwater; meaning your return pipes from the overflow.......I use different means to guard against this......I test my system rather frequently on this issue, to see what happens, and I've been lucky or good so far......I use a check valve as my first line of defense......check valve can fail, but I choose to use a clear see through check valve so that during maintenance when the main pump is down I can visual see the flapper inside. The nice thing is that I can full take the unit apart and remove any debris, and can rebuild the unit if I have too.....
The other thing I do is drill anti syphon holes in any lines that are going to be submerged underwater. I drill this hole slightly below the water line, that in the event the power would go out that it would drain to that point and at reaching that level the hole would cause the syphon to break.......
The other method that alot of people don't look at or consider is your sump....Can your sump handle the back syphon from your sytem if power goes out.....alot of people run their water level to high and when the power goes out they can't hold the run off water.....You double check your water level by shutting the system down and and seeing how much back syphon you get and the level reached in the sump......if i gets dangerously high fire the pump and get the level back down, but then it tells you that you need to adjust the system either by lowering your water level in the sump if possible, moving your anti syphon holes up further in the tank and also you'd need to look at your check valve as well.....Alot of times people just overfill their sump level to high and can't hold the water.......I don't have an issue with sump size.....Sump size is 150 gallons and fuge is 150 as well......When system is running and shut down I can afford to take on a good bit of water.....
I ran all those dedicated circuits, because you always read about people overloading their circuits and stuff tripping......1 circuit is just dedicated to overhead lighting.....1 circuit is dedicated for just 2 MH's and a VHO ballast and moonlight, 1 circuit dedicated or the other 2 MH's and VHO ballast and moonlights....The main pump and skimmer pump is on another circuit by itself and the CL pump is on an existing circuit for the garage that nothing draws on.....so with 20 amp circuits and only loading them with about 10amp each I'm well under and don't feel I'll have any issues with tripping........
As far as alarms......everything has backups.......I don't fear floods like most people, and yes I have had them, but 2 were due to my mistakes and 1 due to equipment failure.....The equipment failure was the Oceanic tank blew apart at the side after 2 months of being setup, and "my" mistakes "floods" were leaving the RO/DI unit turned on without a float valve.......and the other was forgetting to glue a fitting in place and running the system about 1 week before it let loose, so you learn.........
If power would go out all together you don't worry about back syphonage from your CL, so that is non important......The area you worry most about is any area where you have your return pipes submerged underwater; meaning your return pipes from the overflow.......I use different means to guard against this......I test my system rather frequently on this issue, to see what happens, and I've been lucky or good so far......I use a check valve as my first line of defense......check valve can fail, but I choose to use a clear see through check valve so that during maintenance when the main pump is down I can visual see the flapper inside. The nice thing is that I can full take the unit apart and remove any debris, and can rebuild the unit if I have too.....
The other thing I do is drill anti syphon holes in any lines that are going to be submerged underwater. I drill this hole slightly below the water line, that in the event the power would go out that it would drain to that point and at reaching that level the hole would cause the syphon to break.......
The other method that alot of people don't look at or consider is your sump....Can your sump handle the back syphon from your sytem if power goes out.....alot of people run their water level to high and when the power goes out they can't hold the run off water.....You double check your water level by shutting the system down and and seeing how much back syphon you get and the level reached in the sump......if i gets dangerously high fire the pump and get the level back down, but then it tells you that you need to adjust the system either by lowering your water level in the sump if possible, moving your anti syphon holes up further in the tank and also you'd need to look at your check valve as well.....Alot of times people just overfill their sump level to high and can't hold the water.......I don't have an issue with sump size.....Sump size is 150 gallons and fuge is 150 as well......When system is running and shut down I can afford to take on a good bit of water.....
