Circuit load question.

cemmerts · Jan 28, 2021

Question about the amperage draw from our aquariums...I think the typical house has a circuit breaker for 15A or 20A for standard outlets. With any reasonably sized tank setup, an Inkbird controller and 1000w of heater pull about 10A. Two LED lights (e.g. reefbreeder 24”s) pull 3A a piece. Already at 16A and we haven’t started with return pumps, wave pumps, skimmer, feeder, ATO. How is anyone running their setup on a single circuit? Does everyone have multiple dedicated circuits for their tank?

Just wonder if I’m missing something as I’m not an electrician and these numbers seem to be adding up to a high demand and my tank isn’t even that big...

alain Bouchard · Jan 28, 2021

I have 2 15amp circuit for my tank. for your 1000w heater, that is 8.3amps since we are running on 120v. anyway, basically, you can run up to 1800 watts on a breaker. for the light and many other pieces of equipment, the wattage indicated is when they run at maximum. IE, probably your led light arent always on at 100%

JoshH · Jan 28, 2021

Well... I have 225 watts worth of heaters in a setup with roughly 175 gallons of water and they aren't on all the time. 1000 W is some serious heating for a large setup.

My tank is running off of 3 different circuits ( 2 x 20a and one 15a) so lots of power to go around but absolutely not needed. The separation for me was to keep different life support systems on different circuits. Which means I can lose a circuit, or even two and the tank can still sustain itself while I fix the issue.

As mentioned above a lot of the posted numbers you see are max draw numbers,. Real time draws will be lower.

Freelamp944 · Jan 28, 2021

Looks like you already got some good info so I'll only add a little. If you're referring to the photon 24-V2+, those only run about 1.2A a piece according to the website. To be safe you could get a Kill-A-Watt or smart outlet and just watch what you're using as you turn things on. Also, as a rule of thumb you should never put more than 80% load on a breaker for extended periods of time. So for a 15A you don't want to run more than 12A.