GFCI?

[Bill Nye]

Anyone use this on their tank and do they work? Alot of people on these forums seem to have stories about their tanks getting shocked to death or themselves almost getting shocked to death. I dont know if I have an irrational fear of electricity but it makes me somewhat nervous sticking my hand in a tank full of water with 120 ac running through it. Any thoughts?

[driftsaru]

of course they work, they qre meant to be an added safety feature. Its almost imperative that you connect anything around water to one. if you noticed, your bathroom and kitchen outlets should have them (they have the reset buttons in the center). Its building code in alot of areas to use them. IMO its worth it, ive already had my butt saved. i was doing a WC and i spilled some RO/DI water on a powerstrip, it tripped the GFCI asap, it saved my tank and my place from catching on fire.

[Freakin]

TBH I don't know why you woudln't use one. They're not expensive and they work.

[nemmy]

TBH I don't know why you woudln't use one. They're not expensive and they work.

 

Because they trip for no reason at the worst time possible (like on vacation).

Once they trip a few times they seem to trip easier and easier.

[Fish Ace]

Anyone use this on their tank and do they work? Alot of people on these forums seem to have stories about their tanks getting shocked to death or themselves almost getting shocked to death. I dont know if I have an irrational fear of electricity but it makes me somewhat nervous sticking my hand in a tank full of water with 120 ac running through it. Any thoughts?

 

They should be mandatory for every reefer and work 99.9999999% of the time so don't take it for granted that they work every time. I'm supprise no one has written a good article here.

[spleenman]

You should be unplugging anything in the water before you put your hand in it either way, as far as I'm concerned.

 

I installed a GFCI outlet when setting up my tank, it took about 15 minutes total, and was dead easy.

[neanderthalman]

Because they trip for no reason at the worst time possible (like on vacation).

Once they trip a few times they seem to trip easier and easier.

 

Which is why you should run two in parallel and incorporate redundancy into your system, so that if one trips, the other will still provide some heat and some flow.

 

GFCI are available in powerstrips and extension cords. You need not install them in the receptacle itself (though that's probably the cheapest way)

 

Also, there is no guarantee that a GFCI will trip unless you also have a ground probe installed.

[ReefDiver]

I use a shock buster 5 outlet GFCI that I bought at Lowe's for $15. Plug and Play. just go to lowes.com and put shock buster in search. I've had no problem's with it and have been using it for the past 2 months.

[Rem]

I'm using the shock buster GFCI outlet too.. It works great and no problems here either..

[spleenman]

Which is why you should run two in parallel and incorporate redundancy into your system, so that if one trips, the other will still provide some heat and some flow.

 

GFCI are available in powerstrips and extension cords. You need not install them in the receptacle itself (though that's probably the cheapest way)

 

Also, there is no guarantee that a GFCI will trip unless you also have a ground probe installed.

 

I'm no electrician, so I don't know one way or the other, but I read somewhere that if you do use a powerstrip or cord GFCI it's important not to have anything without a GFCI plugged into the other half of the receptacle. Apparently this can prevent the GFCI from tripping somehow? Anyone know more about this? Would it be ok if you had 2 GFCI powerstrips plugged into the same socket? There was no explanation for this claim, and it wasn't relevant to my situation since I did isntall a GFCI outlet, so I didn't research it anymore. If it's relevant to you, there's lots of info out there on this, so do your reading!

 

Form what I read, the GFCI will trip without a ground probe in the case of an external short, ie. when you touch the water, so it still provides the protection to people and your house. The only cases where it won't trip are when there is current in the tank , so a GFCI without ground probe won't necessarily protect your livestock. GFCI without a ground probe is safer than having neither.

 

Again, I'm no electrician or engineer, so don't take my word for it, do more research, but I am a reformed physics student and felt like I understood what I read, and it made sense to me.

[neanderthalman]

I'm no electrician, so I don't know one way or the other, but I read somewhere that if you do use a powerstrip or cord GFCI it's important not to have anything without a GFCI plugged into the other half of the receptacle. Apparently this can prevent the GFCI from tripping somehow? Anyone know more about this? Would it be ok if you had 2 GFCI powerstrips plugged into the same socket? There was no explanation for this claim, and it wasn't relevant to my situation since I did isntall a GFCI outlet, so I didn't research it anymore. If it's relevant to you, there's lots of info out there on this, so do your reading!

 

Form what I read, the GFCI will trip without a ground probe in the case of an external short, ie. when you touch the water, so it still provides the protection to people and your house. The only cases where it won't trip are when there is current in the tank , so a GFCI without ground probe won't necessarily protect your livestock. GFCI without a ground probe is safer than having neither.

 

Again, I'm no electrician or engineer, so don't take my word for it, do more research, but I am a reformed physics student and felt like I understood what I read, and it made sense to me.

 

That's exactly right on the ground probe.

 

The issue of plugging something into the other half of the receptacle is complete nonsense from an electrical standpoint. You have this engineer's word on that. It's no different than plugging something into a receptacle in the same room.

[Bill Nye]

That's exactly right on the ground probe.

 

The issue of plugging something into the other half of the receptacle is complete nonsense from an electrical standpoint. You have this engineer's word on that. It's no different than plugging something into a receptacle in the same room.

 

 

Thanks everyone for the great info. I am definatly going to lowes to buy a shock buster tommorow. At least as a first step so I wont die putting my hand in the tank. Next step will be grounding probe ...but I dont have anything in my tank yet so im not worried about them getting shocked