Water and Electricity DO NOT Mix!

Martyd · Dec 6, 2016

I did something stupid that I want to share with everyone. I was out of town this weekend and came home to a very strong burning electrical smell.

I immediately went to my tank and upon initial inspection, everything looked fine. When I opened the cabinet doors and looked further, I found that a GFI had tripped and I knew there was a problem.

I had set up an Algae Reactor a couple of weeks and ago and carelessly left the power strip that I used to hook it up, lying in the bottom in the stand (I know better) right under the reactor. I had intended on coming back to mount it on the side, but never did.

Long story short, the reactor clogged and dripped onto the power strip, causing it to short out. Has it not been for the GFI protected outlet that it was plugged into, I may have burned my house down.

Keep your equipment and power supplies up high and remember that redundancy is very important.

Please share this with everyone you know!

Thanks.

Marty

Ineedhelp · Dec 6, 2016

I am glad everything is ok! I have had a similar experience!

JBradford · Dec 6, 2016

Wow great reminder. Glad it ended the way it did.

Brew12 · Dec 6, 2016

Martyd said:
I did something stupid that I want to share with everyone. I was out of town this weekend and came home to a very strong burning electrical smell.

I immediately went to my tank and upon initial inspection, everything looked fine. When I opened the cabinet doors and looked further, I found that a GFI had tripped and I knew there was a problem.

I had set up an Algae Reactor a couple of weeks and ago and carelessly left the power strip that I used to hook it up, lying in the bottom in the stand (I know better) right under the reactor. I had intended on coming back to mount it on the side, but never did.

Long story short, the reactor clogged and dripped onto the power strip, causing it to short out. Has it not been for the GFI protected outlet that it was plugged into, I may have burned my house down.

Keep your equipment and power supplies up high and remember that redundancy is very important.

Please share this with everyone you know!

Thanks.

Marty

As an FYI, your GFCI outlet did not function correctly if it allowed that much damage. I would strongly recommend replacing it with a new one.

Thanks for sharing!

Bluefish9 · Dec 6, 2016

Brew12 said:
As an FYI, your GFCI outlet did not function correctly if it allowed that much damage. I would strongly recommend replacing it with a new one.

Thanks for sharing!

I was just going to type the same thing!

A GFCI senses any imbalance in the neutral and opens the circuit immediately if detected.
In laymans terms.... if the GFCI doesnt sense current returning it means its traveling elsewhere ie: short, so it trips.

Glad it worked out but DEFINITELY change that GFCI.

revhtree · Dec 6, 2016

Thanks for the reminder and so glad everything is ok!

A good reminder for drip loops as well!

Travous · Dec 6, 2016

The gasket on my Gfo was not sealed an was right above my power strip went to bed an woke up to this

zslaugh · Dec 6, 2016

Ha not to long ago I had the return line off my 350gph pump come off. It shot tons of water all over a 6 plug extension cord. I almost got electrocuted. Not fun

n2585722 · Dec 6, 2016

The GFI only trips if the path of electrical current is other than from hot to netural. So it is very possible that that much damage could be done before the current took another path. I would suggest placing power bars somewhere where there is almost no way they will get wet.

Brew12 · Dec 6, 2016

n2585722 said:
The GFI only trips if the path of electrical current is other than from hot to netural. So it is very possible that that much damage could be done before the current took another path. I would suggest placing power bars somewhere where there is almost no way they will get wet.

That is true, but it looks like there is burn damage at the ground plug connections on some of those receptacles. The tracking to ground should have tripped the GFCI.
Great advice on the power bar. I like to mount mine horizontally and use drip loops.

n2585722 · Dec 6, 2016

A good extra protection would be to have a AFCI or CAFCI breaker installed for the tank if your type breaker panel has them available.

n2585722 · Dec 6, 2016

Look what I found http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-...gclid=CMe5v_2F4dACFd61wAodsyIJiw&gclsrc=aw.ds.

It may be worth the extra cash to get protection for arcing and ground fault. It comes in an outlet.

Brew12 · Dec 6, 2016

n2585722 said:
Look what I found http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-125-Volt-AFCI-GFCI-Dual-Function-Outlet-Light-Almond-006-AGTR1-00T/300042825?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-VF-PLA-D27E-Electrical|&gclid=CMe5v_2F4dACFd61wAodsyIJiw&gclsrc=aw.ds.

It may be worth the extra cash to get protection for arcing and ground fault. It comes in an outlet.

Nice find! I didn't know those were commercially available yet!

Mikemccafe · Dec 7, 2016

n2585722 said:
Look what I found http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-125-Volt-AFCI-GFCI-Dual-Function-Outlet-Light-Almond-006-AGTR1-00T/300042825?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-VF-PLA-D27E-Electrical|&gclid=CMe5v_2F4dACFd61wAodsyIJiw&gclsrc=aw.ds.

It may be worth the extra cash to get protection for arcing and ground fault. It comes in an outlet.

When I was setting up my new tank setup 7 months ago, I had the electrician install several gfci outlets for new equipment and I dont like using power strips everywhere for fear or overloading them. Well the helper intalled a AFCI outlet by accident , this outlet powered the pump in my saltwater mixing station, every time the pump started it tripped the breaker, I called the electrician back and we found the problem. We changed the outlet to a GFCI outlet and the pump has been fine luckily it wasn't my return pump of the results could have been disastrous

DMan · Dec 7, 2016

The GFCI debate is real and very important. But for "Petes sake" people stop placing power strips under things like reactors. Those kind of hazard should be dealt with before water even hits the tank.

RamsReef · Dec 7, 2016

I would hazard a guess that the ground in your powerbar was fubar, or your receptacle, or your home run, or the jumper in your panel to connect neutral to ground.

Lot of ors on this one.

You can check that though with a simple multimeter or simpson meter @Brew12 @Paul B

1. Kill cct breaker for outlet
2. Set the meter to OHM
3. Touch the probe tips together :O to get baseline reading
4. Put one pokey end in the larger flat hole
5. Put one in the round hole
6. Take this reading - baseline
7. Should be less than mmm lets say 1 ohm unless you have a very large house and are far away from panel.

8. This works on testing your powerbars as well, especially useful if you cascade power bars.

drawman · Dec 7, 2016

Yikes! Glad it tripped.

joec · Dec 7, 2016

Just to add, use high quality power strips with all aluminum/metal housing.

Those cheap plastic ones you buy at Home depot/lowe's are a problem waiting to happen

Sir Chris · Dec 7, 2016

Brew12 · Dec 7, 2016

Lord Chris said:
B

Both terms are perfectly acceptable. GFCI is just Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. Many people use them interchangeably.

Since I frequently use the NFPA 70 (National Electric Code) as a reference and they do not use the term GFI, I tend to stick with GFCI.