TheClark Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 (edited) Thanks Bombertech for this tip back before the great site crash.Most of us use GFCIs.The work, they save lives, they are a good thing.However, when 10 things are plugged into your tank, and component goes bad, your entire tank shuts down when the GFCI trips.It is not necessary for everything to shut down nor ideal.A simple fix is to move the GFCIs from the typical configuration: GFCI->PowerStrip->EquipmentTo the (more expensive) but reliable configuration: Powerstrip->(for each outlet one GFCI->Equipment)Here is an example of that configuration using 12 dollar GFCIs and electrical boxes from home depot:As a really cool bonus, it is possible to have the controller detect trips. with a relay wired into each GFCI. It is hard to see, but these outlets are all equipped with relaysNote the mono jacks hooked to relays.Also, pointing a webcam at the wiring closet can give a visual if you suspect a trip but don't have the relays.Well there it is, overkill? Edited January 13, 2015 by theclark 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robyna_baby Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 After having your tank crash and flood your living room at 2am.. There is no such thing as overkill!! Nice work! *PNWMAS Secretary* 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrillion Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Wanna do this for my tank lol! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higher Thinking Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Awesome work bud! Super informative and physically put together nicely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pontus Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 After having your tank crash and flood your living room at 2am.. There is no such thing as overkill!! Nice work! *PNWMAS Secretary* There is no reason to ever have a flood. If you have ever seen an AC installation on the second floor of a home you will notice a sheet metal pan with a drain under the unit. Have one made slightly larger than your stand and run the drain through the wall or floor to a safe area for water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Looks super clean. So how would this work with most of you equipment run from controller controlled by a dc8 or similar for example? Run "jumpers" so to speak to each outlet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 (edited) Looks super clean. So how would this work with most of you equipment run from controller controlled by a dc8 or similar for example? Run "jumpers" so to speak to each outlet? Hey fishman, Yes, it could be like this: EB8 Plug->GFCI->Equipment. But I did use 6' extension cords EB8 Plug->GFCI->6'Extension cord->Equipment. The EB8 to GFCI is done via 1' extension cord jumpers, they are hard to see in the pic. Hope that helps - Jeremy Edited January 13, 2015 by theclark 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Looks good!! As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 There is no reason to ever have a flood. If you have ever seen an AC installation on the second floor of a home you will notice a sheet metal pan with a drain under the unit. Have one made slightly larger than your stand and run the drain through the wall or floor to a safe area for water. In Robyn's case the seam of her tank gave way due to a manufacturer defect. I am not sure if a floor pan woulda been helpful for them with the way it came out. I had a flood once. Pipe blew out of a bulkhead on a closed loop (which oddly enough wasn't running at the time). It didn't leak, it blew. Lost 60 gallons of water in less then a minute. Splashed off the wall behind it all the way to the ceiling and 4 feet the other side of the tank. Not sure a floor pan woulda helped there either. That closed loop had been plumbed for over 10 years, never had a problem until it did. Maybe we should make a thread on ways that tanks have failed, so we can design one that won't We can use my new tank as a guinea pig I'm guilty of having my tank ran through the GFCI in the wall. Maybe something I should change with the new setup soon. Thanks for the reminder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Sexy set up for sure. I played with the idea of doing the multiple GFCI setup (Possibly after talking with Bombertech actually), but I don't have the realestate to mount these boxes under my stand or anywhere permanently mounted to my rental house.... I opted for a big arse UPS with no GFCI to the wall, mounted away-ish from water, then in-line GFCI's to each energybar8 (two). I then have periphery split across the EB8's so if one goes down, at least a portion of the tank is still running. I also have monitoring set up so if any of the energybars reports 0.0 amps, it alerts me. Some of my stuff isn't HA (highly available) though, so one day when I have a big boy tank, I'll have dual return pumps. Great post! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 I also have monitoring set up so if any of the energybars reports 0.0 amps, it alerts me Thats a great tip, going to add that now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 There is no reason to ever have a flood. If you have ever seen an AC installation on the second floor of a home you will notice a sheet metal pan with a drain under the unit. Have one made slightly larger than your stand and run the drain through the wall or floor to a safe area for water.I have a similar setup, it's called a sloped garage [emoji13] In all seriousness, there is always some risk no matter how you look at it. But, we can definitely minimize it with a few precautions. One of the guys over here in central oregon went with 1/2 glass for a 60 gallon shallow reef. It's overkill for sure but he wanted to reduce the risk of the main tank cracking. Sump is in a drain pan and has a spot moisture sensor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 (edited) Thats a great tip, going to add that now. So yeah.... I lied about that. I thought I was monitoring that.... I think they may have removed that functionality when I upgraded my firmware for fusion. Perhaps somebody with ancient firmware can confirm that... Now it tells you it's not a valid probe to alert from. Sorry about that. (It's also possible I never noticed when it told me the syntax was wrong - I did the same thing with my low salinity alert. I was only alerting if my salinity got to 3.1ppt.) Well crap. Now I have to find another way to alert on GFCI trips... Another good idea I haven't implemented is pressure switches. My plan was to put one at the return pump output, and one at the return outlet to tank - tie them to a virtual outlet (so you can suppress the alerts when you have administratively turned your return pump off) - then alert when any of them trigger. There are a lot of sensors you can get at sparkfun.com that will tie into a break-out-box. Some are voltage sensors, conductivity sensors, etc.. Bomber's mono jacks are still the best and most robust solution though. Edited January 13, 2015 by Micah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishoutawater Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I would like to try and build one of those Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Current transducers work great for large pumps/lights. If the pump stalls or the light doesn't light up the current drops and the contact in the CT opens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pontus Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 (edited) Another option that I use is to not put my main pump on a gfci. I have a 100 xlrt high pressure main pump and it is external and not gfci protected. The risk is not large as the pump is mag drive and the motor is insulated from the water. Edited January 14, 2015 by Pontus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Another option that I use is to not put my main pump on a gfci. I have a 100 xlrt high pressure main pump and it is external and not gfci protected. The risk is not large as the pump is mag drive and the motor is insulated from the water. Its an option for sure, but with my 8 year old daughters hands in the tank regularly, just not worth it. I had a power head go bad and got quite a zap myself. Saltwater is hard on everything I suppose. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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