Where do you keep your power bars?

C

CarolynM

For the 2nd time in about a month I poured water all over my power bar. Talk about Panic...popping...fizzing and smoke...almost enough to cause a heart attack right on the spot.

I have mine located on a box about a foot high behind my tank. Seems safe enough except when I do a water change and an errant hose pops out and sprays water -every time it sprays all over the powerbar.

So I've either got to improve my water change technique or move the powerbar. Are there any kinds of clips or something available to hold hoses in the tank/sump while doing waterchanges? This would solve much of my problem because it just always seems I need 3 hands!

And then on the powerbar....this one is a power supply -so is big and bulky. I have my little one mounted in the cabinet but this guys too big for that. Is there a safe way to cover it ? Could I put it in a plastic bag (for some reason this doesn't seem wise...but I don't know why).

Any tips greatly appreciated...luckily the last power bar I fried is all dry a month later so I had one waiting and ready....geesshhh..
 
Well, I can't say that I practice what I preach, but if/when I re-do my entire setup, or when I set up a new setup, all the power distribution will either be mounted outside of the tank cabinet, in their own cabinet (Preferable, but a LOT of work) or, mounted upside down as high up in the setup as I can get them...

As high up to keep them away from sitting in water, and upside down so any splashes will pour out, instead of pooling IN the sockets...
 
After having a similar thing happen- while I was 7 hours away from the tank- I moved _everything_ to be 4 feet from water, to the side of the tanks.
 
Your power bar might have some holes or recesses in the backside that will alllow it to be hung from a screw. I put a few screws in an upper corner of the cabinet, and hung the power bars up and away from my sump. I'm in the process of moving them into a cabinet away from the tank.

By "powersupply" do you mean battery backup? If so, you should locate that out of the cabinet.
 
I use my sisters hair clip to clip the hose to the top of the tank 8) Simple and easy one man method water change
 
Under my 55g, I did this:
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Later I did something more permanent, mounting outlets to a board.
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For my 280g, I did this:
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That kept all the plugs to the side of my tank, instead of underneath it.

Later I did this:
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With a few waterproof boxes over the sump. These were the most expensive, because each electrical box is switched off one of the DJ power center switches, to turn off any particular plug.
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