Don't think a GFI outlet is necessary? Lemme tell you about my day...

[kcress]

I think they might also be called freezer monitors. They are for minding the outlet your garage freezer is plugged into. That way you aren't greeted by some nasty $400 mess one day because you didn't realize the freezer outlet blew a few days ago.

 

[H3D]

Seems like the whole situation would have been avoided by not keeping the power strip under the aquarium.

 

[wantvws]

Seems like the whole situation would have been avoided by not keeping the power strip under the aquarium.

Ahhh...hindsight. Being the newb that I was (and am) at the time of setting up an aquarium, the possibility of the protein skimmer overflowing never crossed my mind or came up. The only thing that I came across as far as electrical precautions was the GFI outlet which I initially thought was installed in that room but after I discovered it was not I decided it would be (just not soon enough), and to make sure your cords dangling down the back of the tank have drip loops, which is one reason I put the strip up higher on the stand. I suppose the strip could have been installed higher than the tank...I guess in my efforts to hide plumbing, hoses, heaters, pumps, I didn't see what apparently was so obvious.
So anyone who reads this thread, PLEASE be sure to NOT put your power strip under anything that might overflow.
Robbie

 

[TomToro]

Ahhh...hindsight. Being the newb that I was (and am) at the time of setting up an aquarium, the possibility of the protein skimmer overflowing never crossed my mind or came up. The only thing that I came across as far as electrical precautions was the GFI outlet which I initially thought was installed in that room but after I discovered it was not I decided it would be (just not soon enough), and to make sure your cords dangling down the back of the tank have drip loops, which is one reason I put the strip up higher on the stand. I suppose the strip could have been installed higher than the tank...I guess in my efforts to hide plumbing, hoses, heaters, pumps, I didn't see what apparently was so obvious.
So anyone who reads this thread, PLEASE be sure to NOT put your power strip under anything that might overflow.
Robbie

Very good advice. I'm glad it worked out for you and you(we) learned a lesson instead of tragedy. I'm going to do a complete overhaul of my octopus of wires behind my tanks because of this thread, starting tomorrow. Thanks for this.
Take care,
Tom

 

[wantvws]

Very good advice. I'm glad it worked out for you and you(we) learned a lesson instead of tragedy. I'm going to do a complete overhaul of my octopus of wires behind my tanks because of this thread, starting tomorrow. Thanks for this.
Take care,
Tom

Thanks Tom...I'm glad you found it helpful. I hope someone else has too and possibly avoids a situation that could be much much worse than mine. That's the reason I posted this....I wasn't really looking for what I did wrong when setting up the tank...I know that.
Robbie

 

[TomToro]

Just to let you know I took this seriously, I re-did my whole electrical debacle. I made drip lines where there were none, I bought four gfci's for some additional circuits that I'd neglected, I raised plug strips above the tank and zip tied the octopus in both tanks into two pythons.

Thanks again for the wakeup call.

Best regards,
Tom

 

[wantvws]

I'm glad it helped! My sump is not completed, so my skimmer is still HOB but having it drain into the bucket seems to be working well. I think it increased the skimming efficiency a bit because I have the level a tad bit higher now. I do flush the drain line with hot water occasionally to keep it from clogging.
Thanks!
Robbie

 

[kcress]

You are showing survivor tendencies TomToro.
Good going!