What has Shorted/ Caught Fire in Your Tank?

[Flippers4pups]

Please vote in poll for items that have either caught fire or shorted or leaked stray voltage into your tank. If this is happened to you in any way, please write a post explaining what happened and the brand of the equipment that failed.

Thank you for posting this poll and giving the community a place to share their experiences. Very informative and can help so many learn of the dangers of electronics and water! Thank you again.

Now mine, years ago I was shocked once by a old Aqueon power head. Process of elimination found it. Another was saltwater plashing into a power strip causing it to pop like fireworks in front of me.

Always use GFCI on any circuits used around water! And always use a drip loop on your cords!

Let's see if the #reefsquad can come together to post how to use a multimeter to detect stray voltage.

In the mean time, I'll look to find it as well and post it if they don't get to it first! Lol

Good stuff! Keep it coming guys and girls!

 

[miyags]

Can I vote for powerstrip? No fire but electrical smell and smoke. Twice with power strip,one cheap and one expensive.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Can I vote for powerstrip? No fire but electrical smell and smoke. Twiss with power strip,one cheap and one expensive.

That's a short! Yes

 

[miyags]

Has anyone used one of these to plug in powerstrip
TRC 90033 Shockshield White Portable GFCI Plug with Surge Protection

 

[rich nyc]

1+ nothing and praying it stays that way

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Shorted out a power strip before I knew what a drip loop was. Straight down the wire into the plugs. What a stench. Fortunately I smelled it and knew what to look for. Also caused electricity to feed back to tank prior to adding a gfci. Fixed immediately without any major issues. Whew!

 

[happyhourhero]

Im actually kind of shocked (no pun) at the numbers on this poll.

 

[Kayvon]

My Apex powerstrip had a short while I was at Reefapalooza. I came home to everything off (except the pumps, which are on a separate GFCI strip) and a slight electrical smell in the air. Luckily, the Apex powerstrip turned itself off (and kept turning itself off even after I kept trying to force it back on) and there was no fire or damage thanks to whatever safety features it has inside. The GFCI it's connected to didn't even trip. Apex was quick to respond, had me send it in and they repaired it. I was still able to use the brain and monitor everything on the dashboard while I was without it.

I also had my Apex EB8 short on me. It was not near any water as I was just setting it up on my new tank, but had to troubleshoot my control screen first. I found a capacitor just fell off when I opened it. No burns or nothing.

 

[alanbetiger]

Previous house and tank bought one of the first modular biopellets contraption. It was in the sump and had a small powerhead to keep pellets tumbling. I quit messing with it after a few months of constantly not seeing tumbling and forgot about it. About 6-8 months later after I left for work I got a frantic phone call from my new girlfriend, now wife, saying the house was on fire and there was smoke everywhere. Fire department showed up and couldn't find a fire and noticed all my fish were laying sideways on the sand in my 190 gallon. After trial and error of plugging each thing back in and seeing what happens, turns out the little powerhead had seized and then melted a hole in its base. It was about 10 inches underwater at the time and a steady stream of smoke was coming out of the water. Really freaky to watch smoke come out of water. Surprising after a big water change only lost half of my fish and corals..

 

[Beardo]

Has anyone used one of these to plug in powerstrip
TRC 90033 Shockshield White Portable GFCI Plug with Surge Protection

I have never used that one but used something similar when I didn't have GFCI outlets.
This is what I used previously.

https://m.lowes.com/pd/Shock-Buster...FCI-Extension-Cord-with-GFCI-Circuit/50394552

 

[siggy]

@Flippers4pups did you say multimeter, this is becoming an industry favorite for its safety rating , ease of use and cost .
As for the pole I started to see a trend with the word CHEAP attached, and the same goes for meters, those 15 or 35 dollar cheapies can go off in your face.

 

[mmw64]

Had a Penn Plax battery powered air pump melt down and catch fire when water siphoned up the tubing. Luckily smell woke me up at 1:00 A.M.

 

[Flippers4pups]

@Flippers4pups did you say multimeter, this is becoming an industry favorite for its safety rating , ease of use and cost .
As for the pole I started to see a trend with the word CHEAP attached, and the same goes for meters, those 15 or 35 dollar cheapies can go off in your face.

I don't doubt that at all. @Brew12 here is our resident electrician. He's posted some very good information on multimeter use here. Hopefully he can chime in on this subject.

 

[JaimeAdams]

We had a fire under the stand maybe a year or so back. Little bit of salt creep into a power strip. Caught fire, melted all my equipment cords, melted the acrylic sump, melted my protein skimmer. Luckily the wife woke up from the smell and woke me up about 5am. I went down stairs to see flames coming out from under the stand. It was less than good times. I don't think anything in the tank died as a result, but it took awhile to get rid of the smell.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Im actually kind of shocked (no pun) at the numbers on this poll.

Power strips!

 

[Brew12]

I don't doubt that at all. @Brew12 here is our resident electrician. He's posted some very good information on multimeter use here. Hopefully he can chime in on this subject.

Thanks for the invite!

I am a big fan of fluke so that is never a bad choice.

All multimeters should have a CAT rating of 1 through 4. CAT 1 is strictly for electronics. CAT 2 can be used for most household applications but I would avoid them. If it is rated to CAT 3 or 4 you should be just fine.

 

[RP709]

Also nothing lol. I had an Aqueon Pro heater split the outer casing once but it never shorted out or threw stray voltage into the tank. It was replaced under the lifetime warranty and is the only type of heater I will use to this day.

 

[RP709]

I didn't think it went through lol

 

[jasonrusso]

Hydor powerhead. The motor portion cracked open, but it was still working. I didn't know until I put a ground probe in and it instantly tripped the GFI. I don't know how many fish (I had some sudden deaths) I lost over time because of it.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Had an old octopus (not generic chinese, not CoralVue Reef Octopus') pump short and start tripping the GFI, but fortunately, that's all. (unless you count the time I was taking down my tank and unscrewed the bulkhead on the bottom, letting saltwater drip on the outlet strip - face palm!)

As Filpper (?) mentioned above, this is an excellent reminder about the importance of GFCI's!