Fishroom Electrical Question

[tcarswell]

No, but it can save your life and makes a whole lot of sense in room with a lot of water......

This is true however. All aquarium stuff should be GFCI

 

[fish_master2000]

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...

well try to see if you would be able to put in a 20 amp, i have one in my room, it can put out 2400, so that would be enough, just cluculate the watts in your lights and heaters, plus filter and misc. stuff

 

[Jgray152]

You can calculate the amps by dividing the watts by the voltage. Then you would need a breaker 20% larger.

 

[Jgray152]

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.

I was talking about the GFCI you plug in. I was not mentioning to replace the wall outlet with a GFCI.

Reason I said to get single GFCIs is because if all your equipment is plugged into two wall sockets which are protected by a single GFCI, and your heater breaks, this will knock out your lights, other heaters, filters etc.

When using single GFCIs on the most important items such as each heater or group of heaters and each filter/pump and each lighting, if one item fails and trips a GFCI, it won't knock out your entire Aquarium system.

If you wire it to not protect downline circuits then you will not be up to code in any local I have worked.

Who said anything about going to code? Plus I havn't seen a code, atleast here in NH where it states you need all outlets down the line to be on a GFCI. You need a GFCI near appliances that have to deal with water though.

 

[mbunabum]

What locals have you worked? The National Electrical Code(NEC) does not state that outlets wired down-line from a GFCI breaker have to be GFCI protected. The NEC requires outlets to be GFCI protect per their location.

A smart contractor will wire a house as to reduce the amount of GFCI outlets needed to save money. If the case is that the only one outlet on a particular circuit needs to be GFCI then a good electrician will install so that any outlets down-line don't have nuisance tripping.




Not if the wire is aluminum, then it needs to be a 15 amp even though wire is 12 guage.

Sorry... I was assuming copper wiring being the norm... aluminum is not allowed here.. you know what they say when you assume...

 

[CHOMPERS]

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.

​

 

[chefjamesscott]

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?

i can assure you that maxing out is a trick everyone of us with mts use

i say the only limit to how much you can put on a circuit is how big of a powerbar you can find

i would have to say that once a tank is up an running the pull on the circuit pretty much remains constant once the tank is established
so the chances of flipping the switch are not as easy as say a compressor cycling

 

[12 Volt Man]

I trust the electrician 100%

but what is holding me back at this point is what ELSE I want to put down there...eg a few lamps maybe etc.

if I use up the whole circuit basically on aquariums, I need another circuit for sure down there.

at this point, I think I will hold off until I see:

a) about putting another line down there

or

b) putting a 50g planted tank in the corner of my living room.

 

[tcarswell]

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.

For the record I didnt mean he will burn his house down with his current setup or the one he asked about. I just highly recommend against installing larger circuit breakers without knowing the wiring that's just stupidity. you got it right chompers

 

[12 Volt Man]

I agree.

I am no electrician, but installing a larger breaker without the corresponding wiring would mean that the breaker would not trip when overloaded, thus the heat would keep building from the electricity and the wires would burn right?

the whole idea of a breaker is that it trips, thus interrupting the circuit which stops the flow of electricity, thus stopping the overheating and fire hazard..