Electrical Outlets & Plugs...

[Winterlily]

Not sure what to do here or if there's some nifty piece of electrical equipment I can buy at a DIY type place to safely deal with this, or if an electrician can/should deal with it. I'm setting up 3 small tanks, basically in a row. Each will have a filter and a heater (so that's 6 plugs), and I'll either get one long light to go over all of them (grand total of 7 plugs) or each will have its own light (grand total of NINE plugs). There is ONE outlet (double socket, so can only plug 2 things in there). What do I do here? I can only imagine that getting an extension cord and trying to load it up with 9 plugs is seriously dangerous. What's the solution? This must be a fairly common problem with aquariums and all the electrics they require.... ?

Also, a sort of related question: While I have ground fault interrupters (that the right term? The things that cut the current if anything weird is happening) on the outlets around the various sinks, there is no GFI on the outlet I'd be using for the 3 small tanks mentioned above, NOR on the outlet I'll be using for my 55 gallon. Should I be having those installed?

Thanks!

 

[saltynay]

2 strip mounts with fuses like below should power the tanks however I would contact an electrician

The fault interrupters are called fuses and are rated to a certain load when that load is exceeded they break thus cutting off the circuit, ideally they should be on all plug sockets near water however many homes do not have this just go down your local punkk shop and get some rubber shoes with 4" platform soles and wear them whenever dealing with the socket with wet hands.

Why get 3 seperate tanks why not one large on with dividers and then you can only use one filter, light, heater.

 

[rabbut]

OK, the first thing to understand is that overloading is not worked out on "how many sockets/divices" you have, but the current ot power draw they use. A single wall outlet will give a maximum of 13 amps, with the ring-main it's connected to carrying up-to 30A in most situations, or 15A occasionally in domestic applications. Multiple sockets in the house are "joined together" and wired onto one fuse of breaker at the main power-board You can tell if the isobars in the breaker-box are GFI's or standard breakers, as GFI's have a test and reset button, whereas breakers have a reset only. None-the-less, the boards GFI's are usually rated at 50mA, so if a current from the tank passes directly through your heart, you are dead anyway, as it's above the cut-off point. You need outlet GFI's for aquariums, that are solid state and rated at 30mA

So, work out what ring-main the tanks are to be connected to, what the currect load on that main is, and what breaker/fuse is fitted to that main. You can then work out how much more power you can safely take to your tanks from that ringmain. You cannot draw more current that the ringmain has spare, or 13A, the fuse in your extension. If you aren't sure on how to calculate these figures, or obtain them, speak to a qualified electrition (which I'll point out I'm not, though I was once qualified to work to twin phase mains rigs, though that qualification has now expired).

HTH a little
Rabbut

 

[degsod]

OK, the first thing to understand is that overloading is not worked out on "how many sockets/divices" you have, but the current ot power draw they use. A single wall outlet will give a maximum of 13 amps, with the ring-main it's connected to carrying up-to 30A in most situations, or 15A occasionally in domestic applications. Multiple sockets in the house are "joined together" and wired onto one fuse of breaker at the main power-board You can tell if the isobars in the breaker-box are GFI's or standard breakers, as GFI's have a test and reset button, whereas breakers have a reset only. None-the-less, the boards GFI's are usually rated at 50mA, so if a current from the tank passes directly through your heart, you are dead anyway, as it's above the cut-off point. You need outlet GFI's for aquariums, that are solid state and rated at 30mA

So, work out what ring-main the tanks are to be connected to, what the currect load on that main is, and what breaker/fuse is fitted to that main. You can then work out how much more power you can safely take to your tanks from that ringmain. You cannot draw more current that the ringmain has spare, or 13A, the fuse in your extension. If you aren't sure on how to calculate these figures, or obtain them, speak to a qualified electrition (which I'll point out I'm not, though I was once qualified to work to twin phase mains rigs, though that qualification has now expired).

HTH a little
Rabbut

The thing is that he is in the USA, they don't have ring mains there, they use 'star' wiring with each socket going back to a fuse on the fuseboard (not unlike the old round pin electrics we used to have). Personally I think the US system is better. We only brought in the ring main system to save copper.

 

[meguro]

Or you could daisy chain some powerboards together?

 

[Tolak]

The minimum circuit amperage you will have is 15 amps, and besides the one outlet it will cover the other outlets in at least that room, perhaps another if they are small rooms. This will probably include the lights, though a good electrician will try to run the lights on a separate circuit.

Amps equals watts divided by volts. Appliances, and most aquatic equipment has the wattage on them, add them up & do the math. Understand that not all your heaters will be running at the same time, you can cut the heater draw by half.

You can either replace the breaker in the main box with a GFI breaker, or replace the outlet itself with a GFI outlet, both are sold at places like Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and such. Swapping out the outlet is an easy DIY job, the breaker is a little more difficult unless you have experience working in your main power box. They do sell GFI adapters, these are just a device that goes between your regular outlet & the appliance you wish to have protected, last I saw they ran about $20.

You can go beyond the readily available 5 or 6 outlet bus strips; http/www.jehmco.com/html/power_bus_strips.html I have a 48" strip running the heaters & a couple of lights for 11 tanks, 200 some gallons total, and a 60" strip running another 8 tanks, 260 gallons total. The whole room has two circuits, a 15 amp & a 20 amp, 30 some tanks & a couple of 150 gallon tubs, just shy of 1000 gallons total if my mental math is correct. Those strips, as well as the circuits hold the current draw without a hitch.

You can co a lot with a 15 amp circuit, and you would have to short something out to pop the breaker with the few tanks you plan on running. I can't suggest GFI protection strongly enough, any LFS could make a nice profit selling those adapters; few do. This is an important safety area that is rarely brought up, and something that can quite literally save your life.

 

[Cdarmychi]

Hehe....

I have....um......17 plugs in one socket? two tanks, a tv, two lamps, two clocks, and a few gaming systems, and several chargers. The joys of 50 year old houses with no barely any outlets.
I haven't had any issues, I just turn the tank and room lights off before I vacume (also in the same socket)

I use those strip plugs shown above in the thread, they work wonders. I have three of them back there, they are life savers.

Sakura

 

[Winterlily]

First, thanks everyone for the info and replies!

I will definitely get GFIs for the aquarium outlets, first and foremost. Seems a low cost piece of life insurance basically.

And thanks Tolak - I'm ordering one of those bigger strips - gonna need it.

Sakura - I know just what you mean. I grew up in a house like that. So great in other ways though!

Why get 3 seperate tanks why not one large on with dividers and then you can only use one filter, light, heater.

I actually went back and forth about this (even had a thread on the Betta section about part of it) - but it seemed better overall to have separate tanks. No chance of the male bettas jumping dividers, no hassles about how to well filtrate a multiply-divided tank, no worries about any disease passing to the others, etc.

 

[saltynay]

Indeed but as you lose the hassles you mentioned you gain the hassles of more plugs, more electricity wasted (more cost) and more equiptment costs. If you post in the hardware section we can sort you out with a good divider plan, if you do go down that route.

 

[Winterlily]

Indeed but as you lose the hassles you mentioned you gain the hassles of more plugs, more electricity wasted (more cost) and more equiptment costs. If you post in the hardware section we can sort you out with a good divider plan, if you do go down that route.

I actually did, originally, when I was still deciding. I have a new 55 gallon and had originally wanted to divide THAT up and posted there as to how best to do with as far as filters and flow etc. After some other discussion and thought, a day and half later I added to the post to say never mind, I was going with separate tanks. (Post is here.)

So now currently, I have a 55 that I no longer want to divide up at all (it's for male bettas and they don't, if nothing else, need nor appreciate the 21" height). But I still need space for 3 (or more) male bettas, with decent room for each. (Decent room here means 5 gals minimum, and no less than about 12"L by 12"W.) That was the other advantage of the individual 5.5 gal tanks - they are 16"L, giving each fish nice space. The only way to do this in one tank now, is a 48"L tank, and, for where it has to go, it would have to be only 10-11"W. It's really just not doable as one tank anymore - unless I used the 55, which I don't want to do anymore - it's too much overall space for 4 small fish, or had a special tank made, which I cannot afford.

The savings in electric costs is certainly attractive, though. But I think there's really no way to work this particular situation out except as individual tanks.

 

[Tolak]

Hehe....

I have....um......17 plugs in one socket? two tanks, a tv, two lamps, two clocks, and a few gaming systems, and several chargers. The joys of 50 year old houses with no barely any outlets.
I haven't had any issues, I just turn the tank and room lights off before I vacume (also in the same socket)

I use those strip plugs shown above in the thread, they work wonders. I have three of them back there, they are life savers.

Sakura

My house is 55, there were nowhere near the electrical appliances back then. I'm lucky to have one outlet on each wall of every room, this was considered an upgrade back then. I'm real lucky to have grown up with family members who are electricians, we rewired the house, new breaker panel, split up circuits, balanced out the box real good. Used to be the same way, if you turned on the microwave & the fridge started up there went a fuse!

I used to have the dozen plus plugs in one outlet situation when I was running hob filters on everything. Even though the fishroom has 6 outlets I had to daisy chain smaller power strips, not a safe idea. I cut that by half when I went to a centralized air driven filtration system. This is when I picked up those larger strips. While it is pulling the same power off of the circuit, it isn't one going through another going through a third, cheap plastic, under the rack waiting to get wet.

Look into one centralized air pump, they make pre-made manifolds for multiple air lines, or you can run & drill pvc installing pipe valves where needed. Air lines don't mind getting wet, won't short out, no fire risk.

 

[OldMan47]

You can get a GFCI and install it in place of the electrical outlet. They are made to be installed right into the wall where the present outlet is located. Shut the power off at the main before you wire it up and it is quite easy to do. You pull the cover off the old receptacle and put the white wire on the new GFCI silvery colored screw, the black wire goes to the copper colored screw and the bare wire goes to the ground connection. If the receptacle you are replacing is in the middle of a circuit, there will be screws marked as "load" to connect those receptacles to the protected side of the new GFCI. Once you have the power back on, don't forget to test the GFCI with the test button. That will confirm that you have it wired right.

 

[Cdarmychi]

......oldman47.....you lost me at GFCI. Sorry, Im electrical circuit challenged. I think I might need pictures Or a professional.

Anywho, thanks for the warnings on this and your other post about the circuits and wires we use. Ill keep that in mind, though its hard when my 2 bedroom house has a total of 9 plugs. Unless I drill holes through the floor (while somehow missing all that copper piping in the substandard plumbing) and go into the two plugs in the basement. LOL.

Sakura

 

[Tolak]

http/www.google.com/products?q=gfci+adap...le&resnum=4

Easy plug & play GFCI adapter.

 

[star4]

I use an Algarde Power Centre. Its a brill little box that you wire your heater, lights and filter into then you only have one plug per tank. Easy to use, really simple.