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Fire!!! on my tank... Questions

L

lithivm

fire.jpg


fire2.jpg


fire3.jpg


So my wife went out of the house for 20mins and returned to a smokefilled house.... I dont know which piece of equipment did it, MH lights, or heater. Maybe I overloaded that circuit but it has been running for 3 months or so without a problem.

  • My question is would a GFI have prevented this? (two brakers tripped in the basement)
  • In the second picture you can see the wall and tank... the plastic frame of the tank melted in a 2" spot should I be worried about this (never mind the actual stand thats also a bit burned...
 
J

JRodrig692

Holy Crap! :eek: You are so lucky that it was not worse.

The problem is that a GFI would have tripped but if a small fire started then there was nothing that could have been done. You said that the breaker tripped, so it did its job, but it appears that it smoldered.

Its hard to tell from the pic the damage to the plastic frame. If the plastic is not through you should be fine. What is the tank size?
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I really wish I knew the answer to your question. I just wanted to let you know that I was sorry for your near disaster. Glad it was only a smokey house that your wife returned to. I can't believe the mangled mess that the power strip turned into. Yikes.

Is it possible that water got into it?
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Wow, That is really scary! I wish I had a solution for you. But I am also just saying sorry for what happened.

Maybe one of the powerstrips went bad? Do you know what they are rated for vs. what you had plugged in to them?
 
L

lithivm

I was definetly lucky my whole house could have ignited,

The tank is a 72G Bow, right now its running without the MH lighting, Heater, and the dosing system for the two part solution. I have the 130W atinics on until I can get a replacement plug for the lights.

Nothing was wet around the plugs, its well higher than the sump.

I'm going to be ordering a couple of GFI powerbars.

Aren't iso bars supposed to trip if they are overloaded?

The wall behind the tank is blackened, and the whole house is coated with tiny pieces of black ask. I think it I had a GFI it would have tripped faster than the home's breakers did and maybe minimize the fire.
 
B

BigRed

they are, but not all power strips are created equal. also, they are usually designed to trip when hit hard from the other direction ie. power surge. I've seen quite a few crappy power strips melt down, but i must say i've never seen anything so drastic as that. thank your lucky stars and check all your plugs.
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

Ouch. Thank God it wasn't worse!

From the looks of it, honestly, those power strips appear to be little more than extension cords.

I picked up one of the GFCI 6 outlet boxes from Lowes, and that thing trips at the tiniest little thing. I didn't even realize I had a problem with my small light over my sump until I plugged it into that. That thing kicked it right out. I unplugged the light, and everything else is fine.

I run two 15 amp circuits to my tank and try to split the load a bit.
 
L

lithivm

I have the load spit on two separate circuits too, thats why two breakers tripped. You are right about the crappy iso bars they are very cheap... these is what I had around the house.

I'm going to order two GFIs
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
A while ago we had some conversations about Arc Fault Breakers. Anyone have any info on them and their ability to prevent this sort of disaster?
 
T

Treadingwater

Wow, glad no one was hurt and your house is safe.

Mike can I buy Arc fault breakers in HD or Lowes or is the only place to get them through the link you posted? Also, will they fit into any breaker box?
 
mikem

mikem

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
You have to get them for you're box (square D, GE,etc) I haven't seen them in the stores yet or in the electric outlets. There are phone #'s on the site for local distributors.
 
T

Treadingwater

Thanks Mike. Definately going to look into using getting them. Little more expensive but if they keep the house from catching on fire then it's well worth it.
 
Daniel

Daniel

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Power strips look like Wall mart grade. Cheap power strips Suck they are just crap. Get a good surge protector with a reset breaker in the set up.
 
L

lithivm

After thinking about the fire I think maybe yesterday it got cold enought for the 300w heater to click on... that and the 300w MH lighting and someother devices could have overlaoded the iso bar.

I thought I had the heater on the other circuit... apparently not, the plug for the heater was completetly burned melted right on the worse part of the iso bar
 
T

TNT_Tile

Most power strips are rated for how many watts they can handle. Between the MH and the heater you shouldn't have been anywhere near what the strip should handle. That is a scary thing and had a cheap strip that started to char. Noticed a mark around a plug and threw it out. Was the strip in the stand near the sump where not water, but moisture could have got to it?
 
L

lithivm

The strip was out of the way of water, I have two others and they arestill working I dont think it was moisture that did this.

Maybe I'll get a UPS and an inline CFGI.
 
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