Need Electrical Ideas

[PoonTang]

I have 2 generators for power outages are not a concern. I had my tank location rewired while I was waiting to get my new tank. I now have 2 dedicated 15A circuits for the tank and 4 separate GFI plugs. My plan is to run a powerbar from each GFI. Each 15A circuit will have its own powerheads and heater. Other things like ATO, Carbon reacter, Skimmer etc will all be distributed among the circuits so that if 1 circuit trips the tank will still survive. The misteak I made with my old tank was that all my electrical plugs were in my sump cabinet (warm humid enviornment) and all my life support stuff was all on the same GFI. After 2 years in the stand 1 of the power bars corroded enough to trip the GFI and the rest is...shall we say history. I was wondering about either building a moisture proof "box" for all of my plugs that went inside the stand with the sump, OR building some sort of small attractive cabinet that could go beside by stand and house all of my electronics. Anyone done anything similar for either method?

I have not finished my cabinet off yet but I think I would put a fan in the top of the cabinet and a vent a on the opisit side. You can run a humidastate or just run the fan all the time one can buy small fans at princess auto for next to nothing. Very quiet and removes humidity. This way there will not be any moistur build up or corrosion. Some times its the simplest things that are the answer to the problem. resposible manufatures with high end cabinets do this for you or they use to.

Bill

[Gizmo]

Just on UPS's I use both MGE and Belkin UPS's. Good quality, fair price.
I have 1 Belkin UPS 1000 running one Dart return pump, its gone 3 hours without issue.
and a MGE Ellipse 1500 running a small heater and powerhead, again kept running for 3 hours. Check Kijiji for used ones. If the battery goes, its a relatively cheap item say from Battery World than buying a brand new one.

BTW MGE was bought by EATON, in case you google it.

[mike31154]

A little heads up on using UPS devices for running motors, i.e. return pumps. Typically the inverters in these produce a modified sine wave which is hard on anything with a motor. It is also an inefficient power source for a motor. Sure, it will work, but longer term effects may be detrimental to your AC motor run devices, depends a lot on the quality of the motor I reckon. Pure sine wave inverters are 2 to 3 times the price of a modified sine wave inverter, that's why you won't find them in most UPS units. They're primarily designed for computer equipment backup and the computer power supply ends up rectifying the AC signal anyhow, so no effect on the internals.

[lastlight]

We've all seen the displays at the science centre. Pedals hooked up to a generator. Who has an old 10-speed and some DIY? I could use the exercise too.

I think lighting the little bulb and turning on a radio tho might be easier than powering a reef!