Could've Burned The House Down!!!

[T-J]

25 years reefing and this was a first.
Went to feed the fish the other morning. Pull up "Feed Mode" on the Mobius app. Return and MP40's go to "Feed Mode". Smell something. Notice my left MP40 isn't moving at all. Look at controller. No lights.
Pick controller up, water comes out of it. Huh? How? No tank leaks. Not even under the tank. Then I see it.
The waste line from my Trident sprung a leak. When it tested overnight, it drained right into my MP40 controller.
Smell of electrical fire throughout the house. Thankfully, nothing damaged other than the controller.
Replacement control board coming this week. Glad I keep all my old gear. Dropped in a spare wavemaker to offset the downed MP40.
Moral: Look for ALL potential water vs electrical sources.
In the pic you can see where it fried out.

 

[ptrick21186]

That electrical smell sticks around for awhile too!!!! Luckily you live in a warm area where you can open some windows.

 

[Fish Styx]

Yikes! Sorry this happened to you, but glad it wasn't worse.

 

[larryl]

Sorry for the mp40 loss. Glad it wasn’t the house.

 

[T-J]

Sorry for the mp40 loss. Glad it wasn’t the house.

Yeah. A $100 controller vs the whole house. I ain't even mad!

 

[bacc2bacc]

Ohhh man that could’ve went bad real fast, glad you caught on to it in time.

 

[Cyanohater]

25 years reefing and this was a first.
Went to feed the fish the other morning. Pull up "Feed Mode" on the Mobius app. Return and MP40's go to "Feed Mode". Smell something. Notice my left MP40 isn't moving at all. Look at controller. No lights.
Pick controller up, water comes out of it. Huh? How? No tank leaks. Not even under the tank. Then I see it.
The waste line from my Trident sprung a leak. When it tested overnight, it drained right into my MP40 controller.
Smell of electrical fire throughout the house. Thankfully, nothing damaged other than the controller.
Replacement control board coming this week. Glad I keep all my old gear. Dropped in a spare wavemaker to offset the downed MP40.
Moral: Look for ALL potential water vs electrical sources.
In the pic you can see where it fried out.

Had this happen to me. Except I lost an AI prime light, skimmer, and my UV sterilizer. The other ai prime light is now functioning oddly after awhile so I'm wondering if that messed it up. Anyway definitely will not let this happen again.

 

[T-J]

Had this happen to me. Except I lost an AI prime light, skimmer, and my UV sterilizer. The other ai prime light is now functioning oddly after awhile so I'm wondering if that messed it up. Anyway definitely will not let this happen again.

Sorry this happened to you too.
Yeah, it has me looking over my sump/under tank setup entirely. Might have a lot of work for me in the near future with re-routing some things.

 

[Cyanohater]

Sorry this happened to you too.
Yeah, it has me looking over my sump/under tank setup entirely. Might have a lot of work for me in the near future with re-routing some things.

I'm not even running a sump, I have an AIO, it must have been that I spilt some water on it, or some how water dripped to it even though I have drip loops.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Dang hate that, that happened but glad it wasn't much worse than what it was!!!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

glad you caught it

 

[Rowboman]

Nothing like a free ozone generator but really, glad it didn’t lead to something worse

 

[Nlara]

I had the same but it happened to my surge protected. With the salt evaporation and all in the sump it eventually got to my surge protector. Note to self examine often the electrical parts.

 

[homer1475]

This is exactly why when I rebuilt my stand, I completely separated the electronics from anything that is wet. Had something very similar happen.

Glad it didn't catch fire and burn the house down though.

 

[T-J]

I had the same but it happened to my surge protected. With the salt evaporation and all in the sump it eventually got to my surge protector. Note to self examine often the electrical parts.

Yeah this is another thing people don't always think about. That salt evap will destroy electronics even if they never get wet! I had a fan over the sump that was shorting out the breaker because of evap.

 

[topdogreefer]

Would a GFCI outlet or breaker not protect from this kind of thing creating a fire?

 

[T-J]

Would a GFCI outlet or breaker not protect from this kind of thing creating a fire?

It's on a GFCI. Didn't trip. Perhaps not enough voltage/amp change when the board fried? Not exactly sure how the GFCI determines to trip or not.

 

[Rowboman]

It's on a GFCI. Didn't trip. Perhaps not enough voltage/amp change when the board fried? Not exactly sure how the GFCI determines to trip or not.

They only trip when a short to ground is detected. Or more specifically when a short to ground draws current and causes a differential between the input and output current. If a piece of equipment is shorting out, but not to ground, they won’t trip. Usually that would trip a breaker instead but only if it draws enough current. The PCB on your MP40 most like can’t ‍

 

[T-J]

They only trip when a short to ground is detected. Or more specifically when a short to ground draws current and causes a differential between the input and output current. If a piece of equipment is shorting out, but not to ground, they won’t trip. Usually that would trip a breaker instead but only if it draws enough current. The PCB on your MP40 most like can’t ‍

I guess it's good to know that a GFCI isn't the end-all-be-all to safety.

 

[Rowboman]

I guess it's good to know that a GFCI isn't the end-all-be-all to safety.

Exactly. They are at least real good at detecting when YOUR that path to ground though ‍