Mitigating a possible Aquarium Fire: What steps do you take?

[Kevin Detwiler]

We had a house fire back in January of this year. Total loss of structure, all contents and out German Shepard Dog, a tree frog/terrarium, a 30 gal FW aquarium and a 270 gal. display/400 gal. system reef tank. It's all part of the atmosphere now! The fire inspector was particularly intent on the SW aquarium heaters, he has seen a couple of fires start when the thermostat goes south on a heater, it boils out the sump and starts a fire; salt water + electricity = corrosion, what could go wrong? Quality heater(s), look at your sump daily to be sure it is full to operational level and all of the above listed things - hi quality power strips, cords arranged properly and I agree. some sort of fire mitigation system are all good ideas. Our fire did not originate from the SW aquarium, but rather other electrical issues in an older, owner built house. The reef tank is irreplaceable, but not as much as all of our house and contents from 40+ years of marriage & raising 5 kids. Just sayin', from Montana!

 

[Nano_Man]

I can only imagine them photos say a thousand words . I wish you and your family the best of luck for the future

 

[KrisReef]

Hello and Happy Monday!

I'm in the process of putting together a list of things we can do to mitigate causing a fire because of our reef aquariums and I need your help!

Please share with us some of the things you do to keep from starting a fire cause by your tank!

My wife says she wants a controlled burn to take the money pit out of the garage.

Be safe and inspect those areas near electricity that get salt splash.

 

[GARRIGA]

Reduce the equipment to what's absolutely needed. Less is safer.

 

[Costareefer]

Don’t use wet hands anywhere near power supplies. Once my hand splashed a drop on the power supply of a light and it immediately caught fire. Then had to put it out with a towel after tripping the breaker. Now those power supply or whatever are up high

 

[n2585722]

My first aquarium setup I had several leaks from equipment and not the aquarium itself so I designed my stand to keep spills contained to a point on my current tank. I am not sure you can contain an entire aquarium full of water in a catastrophic failure. I have the electronics separated from the stand where the sump is located. There are passthroughs to that area but they low and have flaps to keep water from splashing into the electronics areas. The stand will hold a certain amount of water before it would leak out onto the floor. but the passthroughs to the electronics areas are higher than what it would take to spill to the floor. Also the ventilation fans for the electronics areas pull air in from outside the stand. The areas exposed to water the fans pull air out to the outside to create a little bit of positive pressure in the electronics areas. The only area that is not like this is the electronics area in the canopy which is well above the water level and air is pulled in from outside and exhausted by the cooling fans on the kight fixture. There is a acrylic barrier between the area exposed to water and the light fixture. I also did a simulated leak test on it before filling the tank. Here is a video of me doing that on youtube

.

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

GFCI and ground probe. In the event of any short, the power will immediately be turned off. I have an Apex to notify me, as well as an inkbird controller. I have the gfci and probes on all five of my tanks. There is no constant tripping, because I replace faulty equipment as required. People and their families come before the tanks.

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

Replace heaters yearly. Number 1 cause of catastrophic tank crashes. Theyre too cheap not to replace reguarly. I also use an inkbird temp controller on my tanks. I do not trust heaters.