Tanks and Fire!

[Lionfish Lair]

We all know there's a risk. A lot of us have been "stung" by electricity at some point in this hobby. The risk is REAL.

Picture it................. it's 3 in the morning. Bedroom door closed and I'm snoring away. I'm awoken by a smell that's coming in from OUTSIDE via the window AC. I get up and open the bedroom door. Total wall of smoke. I run to the living room and see flames from behind a fish tank. We get it out and have a look to see what was going on.......

We were lucky. This could have happened when the dogs were home alone and we could have lost everything.

CHECK YOUR ELECTRICAL STUFF WEEKLY!..... and after each earthquake.

 

[twilliard]

Ohh my!!
Speachless

 

[pondman]

Wow I'm glad you caught it in time I think it's time to cleanup my power cords under my tank.

 

[Chrisfish]

We all know there's a risk. A lot of us have been "stung" by electricity at some point in this hobby. The risk is REAL.

Picture it................. it's 3 in the morning. Bedroom door closed and I'm snoring away. I'm awoken by a smell that's coming in from OUTSIDE via the window AC. I get up and open the bedroom door. Total wall of smoke. I run to the living room and see flames from behind a fish tank. We get it out and have a look to see what was going on.......

We were lucky. This could have happened when the dogs were home alone and we could have lost everything.

Wow, really scary but lucky too! I'm sure we all worry about things that could happen. We lost electricity sometime last night while we were asleep and when I realized it my first thought was omg did my fish freeze!! Luckily it was only off for an hour. I'm really glad you were home and everyone is ok, I hope you fish are alright?

 

[Triggreef]

I've had similar timers begin to melt. They kind of suck. Gfci!!! Gfci!!!

Reefers worse fear.

Glad you were able to save it.

 

[TheWhiteFord]

Are all the inhabitants okay? I imagine that would spike the temp in the tank.

 

[Triggreef]

BTW how did you put it out?? Obviously you got to it fast!

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Used water from the tank and yanked the equipment out of the wall.

I didn't sleep well for a looooooong time after that. I used to wear ear plugs.... no more. I used to close the room door........ no more. I used to have water spritzing lighting from my sump onto the outlet.... thankfully no more.

I didn't loose fish, but we did frequent water changes and ran carbon for awhile.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Gfci!!! Gfci!!!

Ha! The next thing I did....... GFCI.

 

[human]

Wow!, Glad you were home to catch it in time, could have easily been a lot worse.

 

[ngvu1]

Wow,
Thank God you guys are OK. Is it due to the water coming into the outlets the outlets were overloaded?

 

[Oceansize]

I second ngvu1's question: did this happen because of an overloaded timer or because of overspray on the outlet? Is that salt or ash under your thumb in the second pic?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

The spray. We had an earthquake a few days before and I didn't think to check the sump. It had shifted and the water was spritzing on the outlet.

That's salt creep from the spritzing under hubby's thumb.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

This would have saved it.

The tanks I couldn't get behind to install one, I did this......

Checking the electrical became a part of my weekly maintenance.

 

[tdo]

Glad you caught it in time before anything worse happened! Stay safe peeps!

 

[bevo5]

What kind of plastic is that covering the outlet? That's a good solve. I'm going to do something similar.

 

[ngvu1]

I just look at your location and we are in the same state ; What part of Cali is this?

 

[Breakthecycle2]

So what do you think caused this? Would a GFI really have saved it?

 

[timkenagy]

Yeah i just replaced a power strip where salt creep built up between a powerhead plug and the outlet.

 

[scardall]

I had an electrical fire under my tank some time ago and I had a GFI too. Then I used ext. cords and let them lie on the carpet below my tank. No longer. I do sleep with the door closed and am sensitive to the normal noises from my tanks. By the way if you don't get a sudden change change in current the gfi will not trip as mine did not. I tested it and it works fine. Just make sure the area where you have electrical plugs that there is no splattering,mist or have a strip/outlet where water could get to it or if something started to leak. Loop your cords so water can't run down them to your outlet.

Am happy you caught it in time.