Power Issues.

[lickwidspace]

Kevin's tripped GFCI thread made me think of this.

Unfortunatly living in a condo I do not have the luxery of running several circuits to my reef. I have the tank running off a couple different outlets but all on the same 20A Circuit.

The other day we lost power for about 30min. When the power came back on, the whole tank tried comming back online, Pumps, Powerheads, lights, everything. The inrush of current tripped the breaker. So the tank sat dead for another hour and half till i got home. I opened the door, and got that wonderful sunken stomach feeling of "why is the tank off?"

Well I figured out what happened flipped the breaker and got everything back on. Now I am wondering what the best way to protect against this would be.

I was thinking the best way would be to delay the MH's from refiring the moment power comes back. This would allow the rest of the tank to start running, and then have the MH's fire a few min later.

Anyone know of a way to do this... Almost like a time delay timer?

 

[IffersTankSlave]

You are better off to put lights and pumps on different circuits if at all possible. I'm not sure of a delay timer like you mentioned. Electrical experts?

 

[lickwidspace]

I would love to add another circuit. That would be truely the best way to go about things. But alas I do not own the condo, so putting another circuit in is not an option. Also the fuse panel to my condo is already filled, So I dont even have the space to add an extra circuit if i wanted to.

 

[RichConley]

I live in an apartment, and have the same issue. Another circuit is simply not an option.

I know building a feeding control for a powerhead.. IE push the button and it goes off, comes bakc on a 1/2 hour later takes about $8 in parts...maybe something similar could be put together.

IE something that after losing power, takes a half hour ot come back on. Would need to add some relays, but it could probably be cheap, I just dont have the know how to do it.

 

[Cheetos]

All you have to do is put the return pump....the one that draws the most amps on a separate circuit!

 

[Liquid]

God how did we miss it the answer was so simple all along!

Thanks for reading the post!

 

[RichConley]

All you have to do is put the return pump....the one that draws the most amps on a separate circuit!

Thats not an option from what he said, I think hes only got one circuit to work with.

 

[witchdoctor]

You could build or buy a battery backup system for some components of the system, especially some of the pumps. That would avoid the big surge of amp draw when all of the pumps try to start up at the same time. If some of them are already running, they won't have that big spike of demand (up to 2x the rated amperage of the pump). That would also provide some partial flow if the power goes out.

If you want to do the mag-12 on a backup(which would probably be ideal), you'll need a pretty big one, though. That pump is probably rated at somewhere around 1.5 to 2 amps?

One other alternative would be to set it up so that some of the system doesn't automatically come back on when the power is restored (e.g., lights). No big deal if the lights are out for a couple of hours until you get home. One way to do that is set up the lights on a downstream outlet with a non-resetting GFCI at that receptacle. That is a GFCI that has to be manually reset if the power goes out. They make them that way to prevent unmonitored equipment startup. (There are other GFCIs that do not trip if the power goes out). You did say that you are running off of a couple of outlets, so just figure out which one is downstream of the other.

 

[lickwidspace]

Witchdoctor, Thank you, I think you may be onto something with the non-resetting GFCI on the lights! That would be fairly easy to incorporate in also.

Lowes/HD carry those I would assume?

 

[dave601m]

or see if you can get yourself a slow blow breaker. they use a thicker strip to hold more initial startup current. may work, depending on just how much juice you're pulling.

also there is come controller out there meant for reef tanks (maybe someone knows the name, i don't) that i read about that i believe has a timer which, after recovering from a power failure, waits like ten or twenty minutes to turn back on your metal halides to prevent problems that often occur with trying to rapidly restart a hot bulb. this may help your situation too, though i think it was like $200 or so. you can also use it to automate your other reef components (pH, temp, etc)

 

[Andy O]

or see if you can get yourself a slow blow breaker. they use a thicker strip to hold more initial startup current. may work, depending on just how much juice you're pulling.

also there is come controller out there meant for reef tanks (maybe someone knows the name, i don't) that i read about that i believe has a timer which, after recovering from a power failure, waits like ten or twenty minutes to turn back on your metal halides to prevent problems that often occur with trying to rapidly restart a hot bulb. this may help your situation too, though i think it was like $200 or so. you can also use it to automate your other reef components (pH, temp, etc)

I have the neptune aqua controller jr. that does that. If the fixture is turned off, it will wait 30 minutes before starting it up again (you can set the duration). I believe, but am not 100% sure, that you can also set that delay for any other item that is plugged into the unit.

 

[Cheetos]

Sorry didn't see the part about the circuit options. A delay breaker will work fine for this.