Fishroom Electrical Question

[12 Volt Man]

Hi all. I have just set up a new fishroom in my finished basement with one 150 gallon tank and one 65 gallon tank. I had planned to add a third tank (40gallon breeder planted) but found out that my basement is basically on one circuit...

because the basement is finished it might be messy and expensive to run another circuit...

I run a total of about 1250w in my basement (basement lights + aquariums) or 10.5 amps.

I understand that on a normal household 15 amp circuit you should only run at 80% of this or aproximately 12 amps...

if I added a 40 gallon tank it would add 210w to the system bringing the total to about 1460 w or 12.2 amps...

I am trying to decide if I should go with it or not...

I spoke to a qualified electrician (I work with electricians at my place of work) and he said I should be okay..

looking for some suggestions..

should I go for it? or not?

its a tough choice since I have a spot right underneath my 65 for a 40 gallon..that would keep all my tanks in one area of the house...

 

[alleykat0498]

I am not really fluent in the technical phrasing of residential electronics, but I run 4 heaters (250watt) 6 filters this computer and all kinds of lighting off of one circuit, and have had no problems..

 

[CHOMPERS]

I am trying to decide if I should go with it or not...

I spoke to a qualified electrician (I work with electricians at my place of work) and he said I should be okay..

looking for some suggestions..

should I go for it? or not?

You got the green light from someone that is qualified to give you an answer. You'll get all kinds of answers on the internet from people that are not qualified. Given enough time, someone is going to say that you are going to burn your house down. Who are you going to believe?

By the way, don't let the electrician know that you didn't trust his judgement and asked for a second opinion on a fish forum. That would be quite a slap in the face.

 

[12 Volt Man]

I should have been a little more clear in my question. I trust the electrician - he is a good guy and I know he knows his stuff.

I guess what I was really getting at was am I the only one who has maxed out a circuit with his/her fishroom?

I guess I am looking for comfort in numbers LOL

who else is crazy enough about fish to do something like this?

 

[dmopar74]

trust the electrician, but if in doubt run a cord from another curcuit. the problem is that if, and this a big if, if all the heaters decide to turn on at once you can get quite the surge in power. i think thats why your only supposed to run at 80% rated power on a curcuit.

i could be full of BS on this though, im a plumber not an electrician

it can happen though- http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149144

 

[247Plants]

try a test run. plug all your equipment in and see if you have excessive heat around any of the plugs or pop the circuit breaker.

Make sure there is a GFCI outlet though, it can be a life saver.

 

[Jgray152]

^ I would use single GFCI outlets that plug into your wall sockets. This way if one equipment trips the GFCI, its not knocking out your entire tank.

Did the electrician come to your house and look at the circuit? What is the amp rating of the breaker? What else is using that breaker?



....You going to burn your house down.

 

[12 Volt Man]

the electrican has not visited my house..yet.

I guess my main issue is this:

do I put the 40 gallon underneath my 65

OR

put a 50 gallon somewhere else in the house?

tough decision...

on one hand, its nice to keep everything in one spot.

on the other, a 50 is a little nicer tank than the 40 and it would not be on bottom, I would get one of the Allglass black pine stands to go with it...

of course, if anything ever happened, I would have 50 gallons of water in my living room... not good..

 

[mdb_talon]

^ I would use single GFCI outlets that plug into your wall sockets. This way if one equipment trips the GFCI, its not knocking out your entire tank.

Did the electrician come to your house and look at the circuit? What is the amp rating of the breaker? What else is using that breaker?



....You going to burn your house down.

The circuit will be in series. Single GFCI outlets will knock out the entire circuit that is after that outlet. So this would only work if the outlet that trips is after the other outlets in the circuit. Personally I would replace the first outlet in the circuit with GFCI to make sure everything is protected (assuming it is not already; in many places GFCI is required for basements by local codes). Having the power go out on the whole tank is much better than death. In my opinion anyway.

As for the breaker I think you will be fine if you never plan to plug anything else in or add a light or anything. Make sure you never try to plug in a vaccum that will not go well.

I would replace the 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp breaker to give you more of a buffer there in case you do need to plug in additional things.

 

[Bderick67]

I would agree with the Electrician's advice given. You may max out the circuit and never see the breaker trip, but as Dmopar pointed out there may be a situation that could trip your breaker. The question is if you want to increase the chance of this happening, what if you are away from home?

Adding GFCI's in any configuration will NOT protect from overload or increase you potential power.

This is what I would do,(well if I wasn't an electrician )call a couple of electrical contractors. Have them come out and give you and estimate to add a pair of circuits to your basement. You can have them describe what and how they would do this, now you will have an idea of what it takes or maybe something you didn't think of.