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

i'm glad your wife is not an idiot like i am. . . i was cleaning a canister on my 150g tank (FW) when i'm like. . . "What's that noise?" I go over to the tank and look inside the stand, stare at it for a second, and then REACH MY HAND INSIDE to make sure that what I am seeing is actually a cabinet full of water, siphoning down from a desconnected tube. A cabinet full of water with a power strip now FLOATING in it. incredibly i didn't even get a shock. unplugging the entire strip was the next move after my stupid little "stunt".
 
You should have EVERYTHING around a tank running on a GFI. Do not isolate anything from a GFI. Especially things in the water like heaters.

The purpose is to save your life :shocked: and in some cases like wantvws's it would've prevented any smoking damage and prevented the likely house fire that would've occurred if his sharp mate hadn't been there.

I have had my tanks running for more than a decade and never had the GFI "accidentally trip". If it is tripping accidentally you have a device with defective levels of leakage that should be found and removed. If the GFI trips because of power fluctuations or lightning then so be it! There is a very good possibility it's tripping would prevent over voltages from nailing some of your equipment and rendering it into junk.

GFI GFI GFI every one chant with me GFI :thm::thm::thm:
 
Ok ok.. GFI.. leads to my question. Does anyone know if APC UPS's are GFI? I run everything on my tank on a APC 2000 battery backup. The only thing I see about it is "Overload Protection Resettable circuit breakers". Does that mean GFI?
 
But on a battery backup.. there is a push button breaker. That pops out when it overloads (like when someone attaches a laserjet printer to a UPS) and you just push the button back in to reset it, just like with a GFI outlet. I was wondering if it was actually the same thing or just a "cheap" version of a GFI that doesn't offer as much protection.
 
No, doesn't have a test button, but why would a UPS have a test button? It does internal tests on itself all the time. It's a little smarter than just a wall outlet.
 
Actually every APC UPS I have ever installed has a "test" button. That is from the desk versions, the home versions and the server cabinet versions.

APC.jpg
 
Ah ya.. that button. LOL.. I was looking on the back where the pop out breaker is. Duh! Mine is the rack mount server version. So, yes, it does have a test button, just not right next to the breaker button like on a GFI outlet.
 
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