close call

One of my tabks lights shorted out I heard a crackle noise go in the bedroom to a room of smoke and my 20 gallon octagons hood is on flames!!!! Wtf! Yea long story short thank god I was home and have good hearing

Holy (BEEP)! That is creepy. Never have I thought my equipment could catch fire.

that's crazy. good thing you were home. hope the fish are ok and there was not too much smoke damage.

I have heard about aquarium equipment catching on fire and causing a lot of damage before.

I'm glad you were home and caught it before it had a chance to do any real damage.

Hi All,

This is just a reminder that a GFCI outlet or if you don't want to hire an electrician then a GFCI extension cord is an inexpensive way to help insure minimal damage from electrical fires, shock, or possible electrocution.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Absolutely - GFCIs are a must for all aquarium equipment.

I replaced my power strip plugs with these (where I didn't have a GFCI-protected circuit):

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You may be able to find them elsewhere for a better price, but the nice thing about these is that they reset to on after a power outage - many others do not.

Seattle_Aquarist wrote:Hi All,

This is just a reminder that a GFCI outlet or if you don't want to hire an electrician then a GFCI extension cord is an inexpensive way to help insure minimal damage from electrical fires, shock, or possible electrocution.

. o O WHEW.... All my equipment is double protected then. GFCI plug in, GFCI power strips.

Agreed, GFCI is a must!. Good thing you were home when this happened, I can only imagine the damage that could have been done. So what was the end result as far as overall damage? Just a new hood and new light? And a newly placed order for a GFCI powerstrip ?

It wasn't the power strip that caught fire it was the light where the cord connects to the light itself. Yea new canopy light and the top of the tank itself a bit melty and crusty black but that is hid under the canopy

The idea is that the GFCI would detect that electricity is going somewhere other than it's supposed to go and thus cut off power, preventing a fire from occurring.

O so what's the actual name of the gfci? And where can I get them for how much

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter

Roy and I posted some links to them above. They also sell them at just about any hardware store that sells electrical stuff.

You can get GFCI outlets for fairly cheap at any hardware store (less than 20 bucks). It's actually not that hard to replace your existing outlets with them, and isn't really something you need to hire an electrician for (just make sure you cut the power to the house or that specific location of your house beforehand) but if the thought of dealing with wires is a bit shocking , then you could always save yourself the trouble and just buy a GFCI 8 plug power strip for $40-50.

Indeed; they're easy to install, but you have to make sure you're hooking them up in the right direction (and test them correctly) or it's all for not.

Agreed, make sure to properly test them. It's actually not a bad idea to just re-do your whole house, instead of just doing the outlet you are using for your tank(s). If your close to any electrical supply distributors or if you know anyone that works at Platt I'm sure you could get a great bundle deal on 20+ outlets....fish tanks aren't the only thing in your house that can surge and cause an unwanted house fire!

Yup; all bathrooms and kitchens are required to be on GFCI circuits. They're not always a plus though. If you're using high-current devices like refrigerators and air compressors and things like that with high inductive loads, a GFCI is a fail. So is wiring the furnace fan into the same ckt that the fridge and compressor are on....

My problem is that my tanks aren't in just one area lol everywhere you turn there's another tank

That is a problem that many of us have!

I'd recommend at least re-doing those specific outlets, it's a lot cheaper than paying $50 a pop for new power strips for each tank location or running a criss cross maze of extension cords!

Thats why I posted the link to a 3-prong GFCI plug replacement. You just lop off the plug on any power strip, strip the wires at the ends, screw them in, close it all up, and you're done. I have tanks in 6 different rooms in my house and only 3 of those rooms have GFCIs in the walls.

good call! forgot you had posted that link

Dude, power strips, a.k.a. "surge protectors" have a built-in GFCI (the little red rocker switch that lights up when electricity is flowing). Also a great way to plug everything in and turn it all off at once for a water change, etc.

I probably shouldn't have used the word surge in my previous post...Only power strips labeled GFCI have built in GFCI, the red rocker switch you're referring too is a power strip with surge protection (not all power strips have surge protectors, Belkin makes some decent ones). Surge protectors will protect against excessive voltage in certain situations, GFCI will detect imbalances in current flow if you have hot wires

Indeed; GFCI surge protector power strips cost a lot more and provide more protection than your garden variety power strips.

My power strip didn't trip when I dripped water into one of my light timers, but the gfci plug did. I didn't notice until the temp alarm went off on one of the tanks at 3am.... much fun

Are the digital timer strips you pay $35 for at PetsMart GFCI, or will I need to go get a good one?

Gizmo wrote:Are the digital timer strips you pay $35 for at PetsMart GFCI, or will I need to go get a good one?

I don't believe any of those have a GFCI built in, no.

I use the zilla reptile power center strip, its made by same company that makes the corallife one just a little cheaper price (I guess they assume they can charge more because it's fish related lol) but it is the same strip nonetheless....anyways, they are not GFCI, it says right in the manual:

Digital Power Center Installation

1. Once time cycle(s) are set, mount a light fixture onto the aquarium.
2. Plug Fixture cord into the Digital Power Center.
3. Plug Digital Power Center into a grounded three-prong receptacle controlled by a GFCI.
4. Turn on the Digital Power Center ON/OFF switch (red light is visible when power is on)

I thought that they would have included GFCI but discovered they don't when reading the manual, luckily my house has GFCI wall sockets so I'm good...Gizmo: you can replace your wall plug or do what pbmax suggested and buy the adapter piece from amazon.

I've got GFCI's in my fuse box as well. Problem is, GFCI's for home use in a breaker panel have a much higher trip point than it takes to zap a fish tank. The outlet GFCI's are much better, IMO.

On that note, are AFCI's any better for aquariums than GFCI's, since even when an electrical component falls in the drink, it won't be grounded unless YOU become the ground?

FYI, AFCI = Arc Fault Circuit Interruptor. They measure current characteristics phase-to-phase, instead of current magnitude. They're useful for detecting small leakage currents caused by shorting electrical appliances which are of a nature that do not result in a fault, but over time can light things on fire. i.e. if somebody drives a nail through a wall and cuts the insulation on an electrical cable behind the sheetrock. Won't arc to ground, but the leakage currents will seep out of the wire through the nail into the stud or sheetrock, and will eventually light them off.

All of my GFCIs are either receptacles or plug replacements; I only have ckt breakers in my panel (built in 1986).

The purpose of GFCIs for aquarium use is primarily to save folks from being electrocuted. In that capacity I believe it's more appropriate than an AFCI. I guess it's possible an AFCI could have detected this lamp failure... It's also possible a GFCI would have failed to catch it.

Someone should replicate the failure scenario on both GFCI and AFCI ckts and report back.

pbmax wrote:Absolutely - GFCIs are a must for all aquarium equipment.

I replaced my power strip plugs with these (where I didn't have a GFCI-protected circuit):

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You may be able to find them elsewhere for a better price, but the nice thing about these is that they reset to on after a power outage - many others do not.

Thanks for the link, that is a cool GFCI. The auto reset alone is worth it.

Good to hear nothing but some plastic was burnt! My fear is that one day I stick my hand in the tank to clean and get jump started!