Equipment power consumption table and calculator

[3mm3]

Do we have an equipment power consumption calculator anywhere on the forum?
I keep popping a breaker and looking to see if we have something epic here to save me time.

Would be really sweet to just look at a chart find equipment and power ratings!

Thanks!

 

[pickupman66]

Not that i know of, but list out what all you have on the system and lets see what we can come up with.

 

[3mm3]

Not that i know of, but list out what all you have on the system and lets see what we can come up with.

Breaker pops randomly. 20 amp breaker with 12g wire. Dedicated to tank.

If I turn on only:
(1) 2xmp40, return pump, calcium reactor, skimmer, Milwaukee ph controller, KH monitor and algae reactor I have not had it pop.

With (1) plus 2x 250w halides it pops sometimes.
With (1) plus One halide it pops sometimes.
With (1) plus all 3 halides it pops sometimes.

This is with tank heater disconnected and when I tested halides it didn't matter which ones I used and still had random issues.

Keep in mind as of last week with (1) and all 3 halides plus 300w heater no issues.

Thanks!

 

[3mm3]

so I have it calculated to roughly 1000w not including
co2 solenoid- no clue on power consumption
kh monitor- no clue on power consumption
ph controller- no clue on power consumption
300w heater- not plugged in currently

I'm guessing my issue may be bad:
1 20a breaker
2 return pump
3 power strip
4 something else from (1)

Thoughts?

 

[pickupman66]

OK, what are these four items specifically?

return pump, calcium reactor, skimmer, algae scrubber

Solenoid, controller and KH monitor are negligible.

Each halide will run you around 2.1 amps. run all three and that is ~6.5 amps. allocate 1 amp for the two MP40. How old is this circuit?

 

[3mm3]

OK, what are these four items specifically?

return pump, calcium reactor, skimmer, algae scrubber

Solenoid, controller and KH monitor are negligible.

Each halide will run you around 2.1 amps. run all three and that is ~6.5 amps. allocate 1 amp for the two MP40. How old is this circuit?

Circuit is 8 months or so.

Return pump- Jebao DTC-8000
Calcium reactor- Skimz cm122
Skimmer- Skimz sm163
Scrubber is diy with 9 foot led strip. And MJ 1200 feed pump

 

[3mm3]

This is the breaker

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-...I-and-GFCI-Circuit-Breaker-QO120DFC/204844647

 

[3mm3]

Figured this will be a pain so I decided to purchase a meter to check power draw.

 

[pickupman66]

let us know what it shows. Fortunately my controller shows the amp draw on each power bar. without my heater I am barely pushing 1 amp. with the heater it is around 5-6 amps. I have Jebao 2x WP25, 1x wp10, 1x DC6000, 2x Hydra 26HD, SCA302 skimmer, Par38 LED fuge lamp, MJ800 fuge pump, and Jebao doser. 300 watt titanium heater.

 

[3mm3]

let us know what it shows. Fortunately my controller shows the amp draw on each power bar. without my heater I am barely pushing 1 amp. with the heater it is around 5-6 amps. I have Jebao 2x WP25, 1x wp10, 1x DC6000, 2x Hydra 26HD, SCA302 skimmer, Par38 LED fuge lamp, MJ800 fuge pump, and Jebao doser. 300 watt titanium heater.

Meter will be here in a day or two.
Interesting I found that when 2 halides fired together the breaker would pop. Even if the light off was 10 minutes apart.
I have lights now in this order with no issues as of yet.

t5 plus 1 halide fire together first.
2nd halide fires 30 minutes later
3rd halide fires 30 minutes after the 2nd

No issues this way...

 

[salty joe]

You're almost certainly tripping the GFI in the breaker. Might be better off getting a non GFI breaker, then installing several GFI receptacles in parallel. That way if any one GFI trips, it won't take down the entire tank.

 

[3mm3]

Well I thought I was going to get by with my newly setup lighting cycle but once again popped the breaker multiple times.
The good news and the bad news is the kill-a watt meter arrived and answered some questions but left me scratching my head...

Okay using a kill-a Watt meter
Everything running Except lights and heater was 1.7 amps on initial startup then settled out to roughly 1.3 amps continuous. The 1.3 varied slightly depending on how hard the vortechs were spinning.

Now with entire tank shut down I tested the entire lighting system by turning on 1 piece at a time. Here is what I got and this is the order I fired them.

T5 only= just under 1A
T5 plus 1 Halide (electronic ballasts)= 3.1A
T5 plus 2 Halides (electronic ballasts)= 5.2A
T5 Plus Both halides on electric ballasts And 3rd halide (M80 ballast)= 7.8A

Now with entire system on including All lights I was at 9A with initial turn on spiking to 9.2A

For final test I shut off the M80 ballast and got 6.55A

I did not do any tests with the heater on as I clearly have an issue with that out of the equation.

I am guessing my 8 month old breaker is garbage.

 

[3mm3]

You're almost certainly tripping the GFI in the breaker. Might be better off getting a non GFI breaker, then installing several GFI receptacles in parallel. That way if any one GFI trips, it won't take down the entire tank.

Currently the breaker is an arc fault. Do you think I should try a regular GFI or just skip that and go straight to regular breaker?


Edit: Originally I purchased this breaker thinking that it was the best thing for safety concerns. Funny thing is the electrician installing it said I should just toss it into the garbage and buy different breakers.

 

[salty joe]

Even if you were not having any issues, the problem with your current setup is when something trips the breaker-ground fault or whatever, and eventually something will-the entire tank shuts down. So, maybe a silver lining.

If it were me, I'd get a regular breaker and install three or four GFI receptacles in parallel.

 

[3mm3]

Even if you were not having any issues, the problem with your current setup is when something trips the breaker-ground fault or whatever, and eventually something will-the entire tank shuts down. So, maybe a silver lining.

If it were me, I'd get a regular breaker and install three or four GFI receptacles in parallel.

I definitely didn't think that through lol.
Breaker swap out asap

 

[3mm3]

Update.
Decided to test out the bad breaker possibility and ran the entire system (including heater) off an extension chord coming from a regular 20a breaker. The good news is zero breaker trips and my tank equipment is running just fine. The bad news is I need to get someone in to replace all the arcfault breakers as I have lost all faith in them. Decided ill also run another dedicated line as a backup for the tank. Wow what a mess.