Just averted a fire!!

[magic]

Wow I have been planning to get one of those, now I think I might pass .

DEFINATELY PASS!

Bob

 

[wfournier]

Yep GFI extension cord is in the mail, and I'm hoping to pickup a reefkeeper soon (maybe at MACNA is they have any sweet deals).

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

Yep GFI extension cord is in the mail, and I'm hoping to pickup a reefkeeper soon (maybe at MACNA is they have any sweet deals).

Had a 3-way plug meltdown a few months ago. Breaker did not trip. My Reefkeeper Elite was ultimately what shut the power down! Glad I had it on the Reefkeeper

Taz

 

[magic]

All my power cords now go through my AC Jr.

Bob

 

[youpey]

i had an issue with an my old tank that the skimmer decided to stop working right, and it decided it would just overflow over and over until the water line was below the pump...about 7 gallons. of course the power strip wasnt far from the tank, and i had wood floors, so the water went everywhere. the power strip melted and eventually tripped.

i was really lucky it tripped and didnt cause a fire because i wasnt home and my dog was in the apartment alone.

after that i started keeping the power strip attached to the wall

 

[Hawkeye]

still see these things being sold on the forums - folks - pass the word around - do not buy or sell these things.

 

[vangvace]

I'm throwing this out of left-field... but any chance an ARC-FAULT circuit placed in our breaker box would detect this type of activity? That way, we have our GFCI protecting the socket and the AFCI protecting the entire circuit?

I know that AFCI's are a PIA because of the grounding issue (most boxes are grounded at the box which is located at the upper or lower portion of the box itself... the AFCI's need to be grounded at the switch/breaker and that breaker goes to the box grounds. Normally, it's impossible(?) to post-wire a circuit with AFCI - new wiring only... )

AN AFCI circuit should detect this type of fault, but using suspect equipment to begin with isn't helping matters. A combination AFCO breaker and GFCI outlet would be the best bet safety wise if tested regularly.

 

[Henrye718]

Interesting thread...

I have a story to go along with it...



I have always bought dead rock from reefers who gave up, 3 of them in particular gave up due to FIRE, well that and two said their wives wanted to kill them after it happend. Reefers definatly have a habit of overloading everything thats for sure and I am guilty of it too.

I learned long ago from these guys dont trust anything you plug in.


Get a metal box IE: Electrical breaker box, Old metal milk box put all your power strips and plug ends in it, sleep and go out/away with peace of mind and let the fire just burn itself out in the box.

 

[Nickjr000]

I see GE makes a digatal timer strip just like the coralife one. Is this safe? Anyone know of any problems

 

[Brando457]

I see GE makes a digatal timer strip just like the coralife one. Is this safe? Anyone know of any problems

IMHO you're better off going to home depot and buying the $5 heavy duty timers they sell. I don't trust AIO systems when it comes to power and electricity.

 

[magic]

Interesting thread...

I have a story to go along with it...



I have always bought dead rock from reefers who gave up, 3 of them in particular gave up due to FIRE, well that and two said their wives wanted to kill them after it happend. Reefers definatly have a habit of overloading everything thats for sure and I am guilty of it too.

I learned long ago from these guys dont trust anything you plug in.


Get a metal box IE: Electrical breaker box, Old metal milk box put all your power strips and plug ends in it, sleep and go out/away with peace of mind and let the fire just burn itself out in the box.

The timer wasn't overload it was controlling my lights which were under the amp rating of the strip. I also had it mounted on the inside wall of my stand so it never contacted water. I now use a AC Jr. and as far a buying anything that remotely looks like the Coralife Timer, run away, these things are a time bombs.

Bob

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

I also had it mounted on the inside wall of my stand so it never contacted water.

Just the humidity in the stand is enough to corrode the contacts in any outlet, which eventually will lead to aa arc. Every couple of months I take my plugs out of the sockets and sand them lightly to remove any corrosive build up. I also put those child proof plastic plugs in any unsed socket.

 

[Henrye718]

I also had it mounted on the inside wall of my stand so it never contacted water.

Just the humidity in the stand is enough to corrode the contacts in any outlet, which eventually will lead to aa arc. Every couple of months I take my plugs out of the sockets and sand them lightly to remove any corrosive build up. I also put those child proof plastic plugs in any unsed socket.

Smart man!

I am glad someone knows and understands this. I see it all the time on my and my friends salt water boats every unprotected contact in it has corrosion and if its a high amperage circuit like a 200watt light, just like Magic said this leads to a arc or way more draw amperage draw than normal and then some heat, melting and then fire. These boats are stored on trailers by the way its just being around the salt air that cause this not the contact actually being wet.

 

[The_Codfather]

Thanks for the heads up Bob.. I took my one back last week to Petsmart and even told the manager when ask why i was returning it.. he said he was going to call coralife about it

 

[AJ1080]

Learning a lot from this forum already.

1) Throw away coralife power strip.
2) Install GFI outlet behind tank
3) Put child protectors on any unused outlets.

Picking up a new stand today a trop so Im going to have to see how much room I have under there and where I should put everything.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Yep all good things. Bob(aka magic)certainly saved a lot of us major problems with this post.

 

[magic]

Yep all good things. Bob(aka magic)certainly saved a lot of us major problems with this post.

That's what family is for!

Bob

 

[asonitez]

I used to use this timer as well on my 90gallon. Cheap and worked for the most part. One day we came home late and the lights and pumps were off on my tank. Smelled burnt smell in the air. Sure enough the
Coralife and blew up and burned/fizzled itself out. 2 Things saved my apt. #1 I had drilled into a metal plate in the wall to mount it and #2 - I had it on a GFCI.

I don't know how many of you know this but having read so many disaster stories about tank failures... I noticed one thing in common was that if it wasn't Bacterial or Physical it was because equipment failed. Equip failed due to a surge,power outage,or burn out. I noticed also that a LOT of people put equip that is not designed to be around water right next to their sump! For comparisons sake i got one of those moisture absorbers and placed it into my sump area. Within 3 days I had over a CUP of water... SALTY water in the container.. I was blown away. Next I placed a humidity strip/moisture strip (like the little white dot inside your phone that tells if it got wet or not) on each plug walked away and came back and all changed color to pink. I took one of my power strips off and opened it and sure enough inside of the power strip components/contacts had started to turn green and there was definitely some rust.

I was so scared looking at my expensive components,tank, rock, controllers equip thousands of dollars worth of equip and that's not including my other expensive stuff in the same room.

I went out and purchased a BASE CABINET from home depot. It cost me 49.99 and took 20 minutes to build. It is basically a white cabinet that stands approx 30" tall and about 20" wide. I mounted all of my power strips/Controllers/Transformers into the cabinet. Things that had SHORT Cables I went to monoprice.com and purchased 18AWG single extension cords in 8ft lengths. they cost under 1 dollar each. Shipping was like 5.95 When I was done under my tank was SPOTLESS I had SO much more space for reactors there were NO CABLES in there and because the 18AWG cables were nice and uniform I was able to cable wrap and hide them very well. I did the moisture thing again and under the sump continues to fill up the moisture cup which I think catches the majority of the moisture under the tank and my components are 100% safe. It looks pretty stylish too and was easy to bore holes into to run cables.

Just remember if your home burns down because you put electrical components knowingly next to water if it can be proven I think you might be in trouble with the insurance company.

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

I used to use this timer as well on my 90gallon. Cheap and worked for the most part. One day we came home late and the lights and pumps were off on my tank. Smelled burnt smell in the air. Sure enough the
Coralife and blew up and burned/fizzled itself out. 2 Things saved my apt. #1 I had drilled into a metal plate in the wall to mount it and #2 - I had it on a GFCI.

I don't know how many of you know this but having read so many disaster stories about tank failures... I noticed one thing in common was that if it wasn't Bacterial or Physical it was because equipment failed. Equip failed due to a surge,power outage,or burn out. I noticed also that a LOT of people put equip that is not designed to be around water right next to their sump! For comparisons sake i got one of those moisture absorbers and placed it into my sump area. Within 3 days I had over a CUP of water... SALTY water in the container.. I was blown away. Next I placed a humidity strip/moisture strip (like the little white dot inside your phone that tells if it got wet or not) on each plug walked away and came back and all changed color to pink. I took one of my power strips off and opened it and sure enough inside of the power strip components/contacts had started to turn green and there was definitely some rust.

I was so scared looking at my expensive components,tank, rock, controllers equip thousands of dollars worth of equip and that's not including my other expensive stuff in the same room.

I went out and purchased a BASE CABINET from home depot. It cost me 49.99 and took 20 minutes to build. It is basically a white cabinet that stands approx 30" tall and about 20" wide. I mounted all of my power strips/Controllers/Transformers into the cabinet. Things that had SHORT Cables I went to monoprice.com and purchased 18AWG single extension cords in 8ft lengths. they cost under 1 dollar each. Shipping was like 5.95 When I was done under my tank was SPOTLESS I had SO much more space for reactors there were NO CABLES in there and because the 18AWG cables were nice and uniform I was able to cable wrap and hide them very well. I did the moisture thing again and under the sump continues to fill up the moisture cup which I think catches the majority of the moisture under the tank and my components are 100% safe. It looks pretty stylish too and was easy to bore holes into to run cables.

Just remember if your home burns down because you put electrical components knowingly next to water if it can be proven I think you might be in trouble with the insurance company.

GREAT post and great idea. Thanks for posting Asonitez

 

[Olivier]

the roof the roof the roof is on the fired don't give them no water let the !@#%@$%@ burns .

let it burns let it burns let it burns