Reasons for Tank Crashes

not doing your water changes
failing to ground your system
failing to use gfci outlets
failing to design plumbing in a way that prevents flooding
failing to QT
Letting a bozo house site while you go on vacation
 
oh yes the house sitter that thinks you don't feed your fish enough!!!!!

yote that tank with the rock OUCH!!! that had to be some thin glass for the rock to crash through like that.... I've dropped tanks and not broke them.
 
winyfrog said:
oh yes the house sitter that thinks you don't feed your fish enough!!!!!

yote that tank with the rock OUCH!!! that had to be some thin glass for the rock to crash through like that.... I've dropped tanks and not broke them.
Click to expand...
It all depends on your luck that day.
 
the system ground prevents the presence of low voltage. If you have any equipment fail (more often than not it's just the seal on your power heads) they can leach low voltage current into the tank. It's not enough to harm you or instantly kill your animals, but it will stress everything in the tank and in a relatively short period of time kill corals then inverts, and ultimately fish. I ran a wire from my houses ground to a titanium bike spoke and placed it into my sump. I used titanium because it doesn't corrode or leach in saltwater. I used a bike spoke because that was the cheapest way I could find titanium in any form that even resembled a wire. The ground provides a place for rogue voltage to go so that it doesn't choose a path through your fish. If you ever have voltage in your tank, you will feel it as a slowly increasing burn, starting in dry skin areas, or cuts, then through most of your skin. It's simply uncomfortable to you if you place your hands in the water but not deadly.

GFCI stands for ground fault circuit interrupter. It is the type of outlets that you likely have in your baths and kitchen with the reset buttons on them. The idea of this type of outlet is to provide an instant circuit breaker, near the source of the a short, with a low tolerance for high current peaks. In other words, if you drop an electrical device into your tank, it will create a short circuit. A short is like releasing the flood gates for the electricity and when the breaker detects the spike in the current it instantly trips the circuit so the flow of electricity is broken. basically it prevents the electricity from hitting the water and electrocuting everything in it.
 
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wow. I feel smarter now, thanks mng. :) I don't have any of those reset switches in my house except in the bathroom, so is that somethin fancy that an electrician would have to install? or is it a matter of buying a different fixture thingie? Also. I have no idea how to find the ground for my house, though I assume we've got one somewhere...
 
Okay, not to reopen the debate, but isn't there something about putting in a ground actually being worse than not having a ground, since it "connects" the circuit and can actually increase the risk of bad things happening?
 
tankedchemist said:
wow. I feel smarter now, thanks mng. :) I don't have any of those reset switches in my house except in the bathroom, so is that somethin fancy that an electrician would have to install? or is it a matter of buying a different fixture thingie? Also. I have no idea how to find the ground for my house, though I assume we've got one somewhere...
Click to expand...
depending on how old your house is, it should have a ground wire in every outlet. You can tell by looking at the outlets. If they are the 3 prong style with two vertical slots, and a round hole below them then they are grounded. If they are just two vertical slots with no round hole below them then they are not grounded, and it's likely that your house was built before the 60's (+/- a few years). That said, assuming that your house is grounded, then you can just take apart the outlet that you are plugging your equipment into and attach a wire to the ground screw (it is usually green) on that outlet. You can also substitute the outlet for a GFCI (you can buy them at lowes/Home depot). Everything you plug into that outlet (IE... power strip for pumps, lighting, etc) will be protected by it. It is simple to install but needs to be hooked up properly in order to add any protection. If you hook it up wrong, it will still provide power to items plugged in but will not offer any circuit protection, and defeats the purpose of adding it in the first place. Make sure that if you decide to go at it yourself that you turn the power off at the breaker panel first so you don't get :shocking::shocking::shocking:You can tell if it's hooked up right by plugging a light into it and pressing the test button (The power has to be turned back on for the test to work). If it is properly hooked up the light will turn off and a small indicator light will come on at the outlet. Then press reset and the light plugged in will come back on. If it does anything other than that, it's hooked up wrong.

If you don't have ground wires in each outlet, because you live in an older home, you can't add either of the described safety features without adding that ground wire. You will likely need the help of an electrician for this.
 
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parrotchute said:
Okay, not to reopen the debate, but isn't there something about putting in a ground actually being worse than not having a ground, since it "connects" the circuit and can actually increase the risk of bad things happening?
Click to expand...
You don't need a ground to operate any electrical device. The entire concept with a ground wire is one of safety. It gives current a better option than you, your fish, or whatever the case may be, in the event of a direct short. You can't ever increase the risk of something bad happening by adding a safety precaution to deal with it if it does happen. It's like saying that if you install a sump pump in your basement to deal with a flood that it increases your chance of flooding your basement. It obviously does not but I guarantee you that if your basement ever does flood, you will be glad the pump was installed. I think it would be a mistake to operate your system without planning for equipment failure which is inevitable.
 
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I have read quite a bit about the debate that adding a ground makes things worse, and I've had electrical problems (ahem) a few times with my tank. And house. Because of my tank. I use a ground, and after reading up on it, I still use one.
 
Spraying Windex all over the glass and getting some in the tank. BAD! Windoex=ammonia.


About the GFCI thing --I've heard someone say the switch tripped while they were away and the flow turned off and stuff died. Maybe put flow on non-GFCI and everything else on GFCI?
 
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sen5241b said:
Spraying Windex all over the glass and getting some in the tank. BAD! Windoex=ammonia.


About the GFCI thing --I've heard someone say the switch tripped while they were away and the flow turned off and stuff died. Maybe put flow on non-GFCI and everything else on GFCI?
Click to expand...
If it tripped, it was because they either had a short circuit, or they overloaded the circuit. In the larger systems we build, especially with metal halides, it is not unreasonable that you might need a dedicated circuit, or additional circuits to provide the power that the system demands. The code allows for between 1800-2400 watts per circuit depending on the wiring in the wall. Someone like Biff that has a 4x400 MH, has already nearly reached the limit of that circuit without even talking about flow, heaters, etc. I would stick with the GFCI.
 
I have 4 x 250 MH actually, and twice now my tank system has shut down the power in half my house. If you add the lights, skimmer, and all the pumps up, it definitely has put a giant strain on my system.
 
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