MICHAEL PALETTA
2 DAYS AGO
I have been stung, cut, poisoned, and punctured by my tank’s inhabitants and the equipment on it. But the pain I’ve gotten in those instances pales in comparison to the countless times I have been shocked, or nearly electrocuted from electrical mishaps in my tanks. I am not an electrician, nor do I pretend to be one, so when I have had to have any wiring done on my tanks, I have always hired a professional, and hopefully you will do the same. But once the electrician has done their job, there are still always a lot of electrical components that need to be added properly to any tank. Unfortunately, this is where trouble often begins.
To start with we need to understand that unlike a freshwater tank, where electric current does not move readily, in a saltwater tank, electric current flows readily so if present it will try to find its way to the ground and if we are touching the ground, we become the conduit to complete the circuit. That is why if you had a broken heater or loose wire on a powerhead in a freshwater tank you can usually reach in and remove it without much of a problem. However, if you do the same thing in a saltwater tank, you will at best receive a shock and at worst get electrocuted. Having been zapped to the floor on a couple of occasions I can attest that this is not a pleasant feeling. So using this as a starting point, I will try to explain how to manage all of the electrical contraptions necessary in this hobby correctly. The first thing I have learned to do to keep things safe and actually make everyone’s life easier is to try and manage all of the electrical equipment in as organized a manner as possible and to make things as simple as possible. The first part of this is to accept that despite our best efforts we will always need a lot of equipment. On my “simple” 120-gallon soft coral tank the following equipment is being used, each of which needs to be plugged in. The list includes the following: one return, four powerheads, four lights, one stepper pump for the overflow, two heaters, one UV sterilizer, one protein skimmer, one Automatic top-off, one media reactor, and one light for the refugium. This brings the total pieces of equipment to an amazing seventeen pieces.
For the entire post, please go:
Electricity, Safety, and Reef Tanks | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog
I have been stung, cut, poisoned, and punctured by my tank’s inhabitants and the equipment on it. But the pain I’ve gotten in those instances pales in comparison to the countless times I have been…
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