Tank Circuits

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guitareefs

Premium Member
I'm getting frustrated with my tank circuitry. I thought an Aquacontroller would be the solution but have been told that due to my descriptions of my power consumptions and limited outlets, that would do me no good.

Here is my situation: I have one two outlets behind my tank. I only have one surge protector power strip on the outlet. The strip is running my skimmer, powerhead, and return pump. The other power strip is running from behind a couch on another wall. That is running my powerhead and fuge lamp.

When I plug in my 250W Metal Halides on each strip, the lights don't turn on. They work off and on, they fire up and another day they won't fire up. Once, it caused my return pump to stop working after I plugged in a MH. I unplugged the MH and the pump started working again.

So I'm getting aggrivated at one, I feel this is a fire hazard, since I seem to already be tripping the strips. And second, I can't figure out the route to go. I hate plugging and unpluggin the metal halides manually. Do most of yall do that? Unplug them by hand every time? I thought about buying reef timer strips, but have been told those are hazardous.

What I want: To be able to run MHs without worrying about overloading an outlet. I want to be able to have them on a timer, to turn on and off and certain times, cause I hate doing it by hand. Sure don't want to get shocked.

What can yall recommend?

Here's a layout of where my tank is:
 
What type of room is it in? First level with second level above it or attic above it? Wall back of tank has another room behind it or outside facing? Baseboards in the room? Do you happen to know if all three outlets in the room are on the same breaker?
 
No, I don't know if they share the same breaker. It has an attic above and the tank wall is outside facing. It's my living room.
 
And my outlets aren't GFCI. Should I change them? I have someone who could do some electrical for me. He's not licensed so I guess he can't do too much, but what else should I look into?

This is a rental house as well so cutting the walls and adding a breaker and such would seem a bit much for it not being my own house. It'd be extra money on something in a house I wouldn't be staying in.

So ANY and ALL advice is welcome here. I don't know how to do this. I believe the living room is on one breaker.

Please advise me on what I should look into.
 
Unless your breaker box is full you would not need to cut into the wall. You could add some breakers to the current box. Then drop a line to the fish room, you can use outdoor conduit if you want it all removable.
 
I meant cut extra outlets in the wall? I would need to wouldn't I? To add some extra outlets close to the tank?

That's what I'm needing suggestions on. That's good to know though, that I may not need another breaker. Just add some extra breakers.

What does something like this cost? Adding extra breakers and running lines through the house to a new outlet? Would this be dumb to do to a rent house?
 
@guitareefs wrote:
I meant cut extra outlets in the wall? I would need to wouldn't I? To add some extra outlets close to the tank? That's what I'm needing suggestions on. That's good to know though said:
Well if you have to hire an Electrician...I imagine it can be expensive. My dad did mine (not certified but knows what he is doing) so it was only cost of parts. Breakers probably cost around $20 and then conduit for the room wouldn’t be that much. Romex (wire) would probably be the most expensive piece. You would only have to drill a hole in the ceiling wall to start your conduit. I do not think it would be dumb to do in a rent house. All this can be pulled out easier then it was installed. The hard part is getting the new wire in the breaker box, and then you need some that know what they are doing so no one end up dead.
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Based on the load on the panel, you could change out the breaker from say a 15 to a 20 amp... don't know what is there but you could get a circuit breaker tracer for a few bucks or just flip breakers until the stuff turns off.

Get the name and model number of the breaker panel before you go shopping - they're all different. If you can bring the old breaker when you go shopping that helps too.
 
Went to Lowes and explained my situation. They said I'm not neccessarily overloading the breaker, just the power strips. They recommended using a 14 gauge or 12 gauge extenstion cord and running that from a single wall plug.

So they said it's not really adding an extra breaker that'd be the solution but getting a more heavier duty strip or extension cord.

:?: :x

Wish yall lived closer, I could really use a hand right now with this situation and figuring out a new way to arrange everything.
 
Yea, that might make a difference. You could always build your own power strip from gfci outlets, boxes, a plug and a length of 10-12 gauge romex. Make is whatever size you want and even hang it on the wall if you want. It'd be just like whats in the wall now but exposed for easy access.

As far as safety/code I'd use some flexible plastic conduit over the romex and waterproof/outdoor plastic outlet boxes.
 
This is weird. I went into another room with nothing buy my phone charger plugged into the wall. I unplug the phone charger and the lights still won't turn on. I went to my friends business and plugged the lights in there. Bright light, very bright light...it worked fine there. He had a kill a watt and tested it. Everything seemed fine there.

He explained that there are several possibilities.

1. Could be low voltage in the house. (Could explain by bulbs keep going out in the house like every 2 or 3 weeks)

2. Bad neutral wiring in the house. One side has more voltage than the other.

3. Bad transmitter or something having to do with my neighborhood which would call for electrical company to intervene and check on problem.

4. Old and out dated wiring throughout the house
 
Did the house have an addition at some point? It does sound like a short or power drain, possibly loose connections at the outlet or breaker. Maybe bad connections at a junction box if the wire stops somewhere before going onto the panel.

I'm no electrician but I'd get a buddy who's 'good with tools' to check this out. Being a landlord myself I'll tell you it's the landlord's responcibility to have a basic electrical safety check done.
 
Yeah, I just called our landlord. No add on, house is pretty old. Nothing new added to it.

I just used my friends kill a watt and tested the rooms. Volts are at 122 average. I plugged in the MHs and it did drop to 117. But still the lights didn't turn on. Something is weird here. Like I said we change new bulbs out every 3 weeks or so throughout the house. I'm surprised the tank has been running this long.

One of those times I just want to sell the tank and wait till we move into our own house. But hey, this is good, this is the landlords responsibility. So nothing much from us financially to get this one fixed.
 
If you are running 117 volts with the halides turned on then you do not have a voltage drop situation. Have you plugged in the lights directly to the wall without using the power strip? If not then try that. Also if there truly is a problem with the power it sounds like a loose neutral to me. If nun of this helps I will be there this weekend to check it out. If I can get a break sooner I'll be there sooner.
 
@guitareefs wrote:
2. Bad neutral wiring in the house. One side has more voltage than the other. 3. Bad transformer or something having to do with my neighborhood which would call for electrical company to intervene and check on problem. said:
A bad neutral at the meter base or from outside transformer to meter base can cause this as well. Most electric utilitiew will check this free of charge - but that was before all the dereg so you may want to verify up front.
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I've tried plugging the lights into the wall directly in different rooms and nothing, I just get a ballast buzz. But at my friends business, they lit up immediately with no buzz
 
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