What upgrades are there to add?

[Gools]

I'm doing my electrical in my fish room, trying to count how many plugs I will need and I am trying to think of what upgrade I might add in the future, so that I won't have to run extension cords. Kind of a hard question to answer. But I have all the basics, skimmers, calcium reactors, kalk, lights. Any other toys that I might have forgotten.

Thanks

[Doug]

Nigel, do you plug your RK 2 into a GFI ? If we run most of our equipment throught it, then one,s either GFI protected or not. I have always used multiple GFI,s so a trip could not shut me down completely.

[Gools]

I had planned on running the RK2 off a GFCI. The only things I'll be running on my RK is my lights and fans. As they will eat up all 15amps. I did get a Exp pack, but not sure what I'll be hooking up to that yet.

[cprowler]

I have 3x15 amp dedicated circuits with 2 GFCI outlets on each. That way I can spread the equipment out over different plugs (GFCI's) so if one trips everything doesn't go down.

[untamed]

In the department of things I wish I had thought of....

I wish that I had run empty pvc pipe conduits in the walls of my fish room so that I could route wires through them to different areas, or from one side of the room to the other. I didn't think of it until after I had drywalled.

[Tom R]

I run my system on 3x15 amp dedicated circuits all are GFCI. I use one circuit for lights, one circuit for pumps and one circuit for heaters and chiller. When I started out my system looked well thought out and neat and tidy. 5 years later my system shows much more clutter and every time I turn around I have a need for either power or plumbing where the is non. I should have run a sub panel to my fishroom not 3 circuits. I should have included ventilation to the fishroom and I could of certainly used a better access to the basement for bringing in supplies.

Tom R

[littlesilvermax]

FWIW I have 5 electrical lines going to my tank.

I have two return pumps, they are each on a separate line, if something blows one line, I still have circulation in the tank.

My CL pump is on yet another line, same reasoning.

My Halides are on another line, I don't like the surge in power they take when they start-up. I know they start up one at a time, but what happens if the power goes out? then when the power comes back on they all start at once.

[Gools]

I will be running a sub panel for my fish room, with 2- 20 Amp, and 1- 15 amp. I have mapped out so far having 30 plug ins, and I have 4 left open for spares for later add on's. So I just want to make sure 4 would be enough for later if I decide to add any new toy to the system.

[untamed]

I ended up with 27 receptacles on 4 different 15A circuits. Each circuit has a GFI on the lead plug. Like others, it is mapped out so that loss of any single circuit only takes down a portion of the circulation system. I would suggest running every circuit to every wall, so that you always have a choice of which circuit you want to plug into.

Lights dictated more than 1 circuit, just on their own.

Do you have plans for a controller? I ask because controllers typically have powerbars associated with them. That powerbar goes into one receptacle, on one circuit and the controlled devices are plugged into it. As a result, you use only 1 of your many, many plugs and have a 7 or more things plugged into that powerbar. I have a LOT of unused plugs as a result of that.

Something I did right was to position the plugs high on the walls, where they are easy to access and they are away from potential splashing and dripping.

Finally, my mixing pump is an example of something that gets manually turned on/off frequently. For this, I exchanged a standard plug for a switched plug. That way, the pump stays plugged in all the time and I just turn it on/off like a lightswitch.

[Gools]

I have all my lights running on a Reefkeeper 2 with an Expansion pack, which will be on one breaker, then my 2 pumps will each have there own breaker.