Tank caught fire

biohazard

biohazard

Member
So yeah today I was walking by my tank and all of a sudden i hear a cracking sound and see sparks and smoke coming from my surge protector. Then a four foot flame from one of the outlets on the protector. Apparently a faulty powerhead was overloading the circuit. It melted the plugs on all my equipment. Everyone in the house is ok and the fish made it. I have renters insurance so hopefully they will cover this. I have no filter, thermometer, or powerheads now. The light survived do to its heavy duty plugs. I am going to get a new surge protector and change the wall outlet with a GFI outlet. Pics soon to follow.
 
meleerock

meleerock

Member
wow... sounds pretty scary. Good thing you were there to see the flames and do something about it. Have you tried to contact the maker of the powerhead? Maybe they will reimburse you. Its always worth a try.
Good luck, the GFI seems like a great way to go.
 
dmitry

dmitry

Member
How old was this strip? I think it's a good idea to change them every 6 months. Just in case salt water got in there at some point or something like that. How did a power-head do this, though? I'm just curious.
 
trippkid

trippkid

Active Member
Originally Posted by Spanish Dancer
yeah. this happened to me once. but it was beacause salt got in the outlet
Same here. I always hang my power strips now, either on the stand or on the wall in the back. I am glad you caught it in time. I would try either the powerhead company or the power strip co., looks like APC in the pic, you should at least get some free stuff out of it, hopefully. Good luck and I hope this doesn't happen again to you.

Matt
 
biohazard

biohazard

Member
yeah im deff gonna have them replace my power strip. the powerhead has been acting strange for ahwile making strange sounds and smelled strange. i took it out of the tank last weekend but dropped it in a bucket today to mix some saltwater and it was fine for about an hour then bam! it was a Rio 600 powerhead.
 
biohazard

biohazard

Member
and do yourself and your families a favor install a GFCI outlet to plug your strip into. If we were not home we wouldve lost everything, and if we were asleep we could have lost our lives.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
I put grocery plastic bags all over my powerstrips which hang inside my stand. Seems to keep the salt out very nicely.
 
lazypinoy

lazypinoy

Member
i rememember reading power strips labels at walmart. and all those with surge protectors had said " DO NOT USE WITH AQUARIUMS". im not lying just saying what i saw. yeah the out let change would be a great idea. i had a sliped return hose fall out and wet my power strips. thank god i purchased a gfci.
 
lazypinoy

lazypinoy

Member
Originally Posted by earlybird
I put grocery plastic bags all over my powerstrips which hang inside my stand. Seems to keep the salt out very nicely.
be sure is doesnt build up moisture in there.
 
mcbdz

mcbdz

Active Member
Ok, Ya'll are scaring me. We haven't been back in our house a year yet from losing it to a fire in 2005. It took over 9 months to rebuild and I just think I can do that again any time soon. I'm so glad you were home. Take all and any precautions to keep your family safe.
 
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