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#21
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![]() hey midgetwaiter, you name 1 electrician that has never been shocked at work. Sometimes it is necessary to keep power on the circuit while working on it, needless to say i've moved wires or had them brush against me (being live wires) with not even feeling a thing. Anyways i'm just putting in my 2 cents on the subject take my opinion's for what you think their worth and use it or not. And about the gfi's in house's now like i said in my original post gfi's are great just not for fishtanks. Stop trying to look big like i said i'm not starting a debate here if you have nothing intelligent to counter my side of the argument dont waste your time.
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#22
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![]() Quote:
The important part of this is that I don't believe I would have qualified for a Darwin Award. I was doing something I've done numerous times before and did not believe I acted unreasonably yet something really bad almost occurred. I can think of a myriad of instances where someone is fiddling with something around their tank and something similar happens. For example, if you are fiddling with your lights above the tank and for some reason they fall into the tank. SW and electricity in such close proximity to each other is inherently risky. If you have young curious young children or pets the danger increases tenfold. On a related note a firefighter friend of mine said that whenever they trace the cause of a fire back to an aquarium it's almost always a SW aquarium with no GFCI protection. This is probably because of the rat's nest of powerbars and wires that are under SW tanks and the fact that SW is a wonderful conductor of electricity. All it takes is for a few drops of SW to splash onto a powerbar to cause some sparks and away we go. GFCIs would prevent this. He says he's seen a lot of examples of a mass of powerbars melted together underneath SW tanks. Last edited by fkshiu; 05-02-2009 at 06:09 PM. |
#23
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![]() If some people are worried about one GFCI turning off all power if it trips, then why not run two GFCI's.
Behind my tank I have one outlet for my 50 gal. When I am going to change to my 120, I will add another outlet and have two GFCI's. That way, All functions in the tank will not go out at the same time. |
#24
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![]() Quote:
Somebody needs to "look big" and correct the dangerous info you are putting out there, the presence of water is a game changer and you need to realize that. You might not take much of a hit brushing up against 120 in the normal course of things but try it in socks with a wet (SW wet especially) hand, then see what happens. You can confirm this by referencing any junior high science text book. |
#25
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![]() What's bothering me here is the "I'm an electrician, therefore an expert so listen to me crap on the use of GFI".
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#26
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![]() Quote:
![]() Personally, I could care less what everyone decides to do with there tanks. This little debate has made some people think.. which is a good thing, others well... some interesting comments have come up to say the least.... and others i seriously find offensive coming from "electricians", its about I can take to end up going on a rant about one certain person in this discussion whos comments make me wonder how much experience they actually have. Hopefully I can leave it that... hopefully everyone knows good advice and bad advice. |
#27
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![]() Quote:
I may not control the build, But I monitor the condition's, and inspect. But hey, like stated, I'ts a personal choice.
__________________
Dan Pesonen Umm, a tank or 5 |
#28
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![]() I am sure glad i put a GFCI for my tank circuit, a few weeks ago my son fell off a chair and crashed head first through the tank, while i was at work also an electrician. My wife rushed him to the hospital but didnt think to check if the tank was shut off, all the pumps and heaters running without water could have caused a fire, but the GFCI tripped possibly saving my son from a shock and possibly my house from a fire. Most tank manufacturers recommend you use a GFCI.
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#29
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![]() Regarding GFI's protecting from fires, there is a simple fix for that. Mount your powerbars and put in drip loops, how many can say that they actually do that? Have splash from your sump around the powerbars? use a acrylic sheet either ontop of the sump, or in front of the MOUNTED powerbars. Obviously if you have an equipment failure (broken heater or a mantis shrimp decided to take a chomp at your favorate powerhead cord) a GFI would be nice. But my experience (8 years in the hobby) says use a grounding probe tied right to a copper water line (please don't use the grounding prong on an outlet, you probably didn't wire your house and you can't be sure if it is a working ground without testing) will save you from those broken device. By all means use a GFI cct on non critical systems, but as i've said, experience has taught me that these things are more of a hinderance than help.
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"what do you mean you need another tank??" |
#30
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![]() So okay then let's flip this discussion around. We have lots of people that have shared experiences about GFIs saving them from shocks or fires. Does anyone at all have a story about how a nuisance tripped GFI cost them livestock? Not a trip that was warranted, just a random event like is presented as an argument against them.
I have lost livestock to a tripped GFI but it wasn't a nuisance trip, something shorted in my ATO controller and I didn't notice for a couple days because I wasn't around. Lost 2 Bangaii Cardinals from the QT tank but all of the corals and fish in the other came through okay. Probably not worse than the controller going up in flames. |