Tank is tripping breaker....

[viperfish]

What kind of ballasts are you running? Electronic will use about 8 amps but magnetic will draw a lot more than that.

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by medhatreefguy

What kind of ballasts are you running? Electronic will use about 8 amps but magnetic will draw a lot more than that.

discription of light says "Oceanballast M magnetic ballast"

and extension cord isnt an option. i dont want cords running to my tank.... i like the fact that everything is clean and hidden.

what im gonna try and do is move the room lights to another circuit (it'll take 6 halogen bulbs off the load)

[phi delt reefer]

swap to electronic ballasts - as you stated they are magnetic ballasts. discontinued icecap ones are pretty cheap - same for the vertex ones (identical ballasts - different cases)

have the halides come on like this

early morning - left light comes on
mid morning - second left comes on
lunch - both centre lights on and left one off
afternoon, both right lights on, 2nd left off
evening only left one on

I think Asmodeus does this as well.

[AquaticFinatic]

What I found helped with this situation is to change the bulbs on this circuit to cfl ones as you can run roughly 7x13wat bulbs to every 100wat normal bulb. Hopefully you get what I mean. That way you cut the load down on the circuit.

[parkinsn]

As stated above change your room lamps out to CFL's. If you can pull another circuit or run an extension cord to another room to take 1/2 the load.

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by daveycoopa

What I found helped with this situation is to change the bulbs on this circuit to cfl ones as you can run roughly 7x13wat bulbs to every 100wat normal bulb. Hopefully you get what I mean. That way you cut the load down on the circuit.

the current bulbs are not incandescent. its the halogen bulbs on track lights... and the only other bulb i could get is the LED, but they're not as much light

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

discription of light says "Oceanballast M magnetic ballast"

and extension cord isnt an option. i dont want cords running to my tank.... i like the fact that everything is clean and hidden.

what im gonna try and do is move the room lights to another circuit (it'll take 6 halogen bulbs off the load)

Facing the option of whether I can deal with the look of an extension cord(s) or risk burning my house down, I'd choose the extension cord(s)... as an interim measure. Then I'd get another circuit added, even if it means replacing the entire breaker panel with a new one and/or opening walls if necessary.

Tripping the breaker is a warning shot across the bow (pardon the navy jargon from an air force guy). That circuit with 4x250 watt (1000 watts right there) including whatever else is on it (more lights or perhaps even other devices, good idea to confirm) will be heating up the wiring a fair bit even if it doesn't trip the breaker. A 15 amp circuit will handle about 1800 watts max, 1500 watts reasonably safely. Why risk running a circuit near it's max? It's a safety hazard, no time to be worrying about how a heavy duty extension cord will look. If you wish to run a big tank with plenty of power requirements, you need to ensure you have the necessary circuitry in place.

[MarkoD]

thanks for your input guys.

heres the solultion i went with.

having my T5s on from 330- 10

and having my halides turn on in sequensial order starting at 4 (when i get home from work)

so at any given point there is only 2 metal halides on at a time.