[pogodzib]

As a reminder to everyone: Be careful. A week ago, one of our local reef club members had major damage to his house which was caused by a fire that started in his fish room. The family cat was killed and his house has major fire and smoke damage. I placed a quick message on the Reef Builder's front page. Please, read the post and make sure that you have everything set up safely.

Reef Builders Forums, Blogs about saltwater fish, Marine Hobby & Aquarium » Blog Archive » Reef Aquarium Destroys House

Yes, I wrote the post quickly, so there may be details or safety tips missing. Please reply here or PM me if you see any tips that I missed so I can get them added. Thank You

[rlcline76]

That is a bummer and very informative. I am glad that this was one of the first things I saw when I visited the site this morning, this way most of us will read it! My electricity is fine the way it is now, but was not always. I had to get my head out of my butt (and my husband's) and get GFIs. Seeing as this is not necessarily about GFIs, I must say that I am certain that quite a few hobbyists are as reckless with their tank electricity as they are with their Christmas lighting. We know that it could be an issue and choose to put it off until next week, and then a week after that....it is one of those issues that needs to be addressed well before we put one drop of saltwater into the tank.
Thanks for the Blog, Brian.

[saltwaternubie]

Being a fire investigtor myself, I can just about assure you that the fire came from those strip plugs. I have investigated probably 20 fires over my 8 years as an investigator that were caused by a strip plug, the most recent 1 month ago. If you can avoid using stip plugs at all, please do, add more GFCI recepticles. I rewired my house for my fishtank, my fish tank is now on its own GFCI breaker and has 5 recepticles wired directly into the panel box. I didnt use not one of those strip plugs, I have seen strip plugs fail with just one thing plugged into them and not be over loaded, especially the cheap ones you buy at like walmart. I have actually investigated a fire that started from a strip plug behind a fish tank and this was a freshwater tank and the only thing plugged in was a flouresent light and an air pump, thats all, so please be careful, it doesn't have to be overloaded to fail.

[rlcline76]

I have noticed that there are strip plugs that state clearly that they are not meant for aquarium use.

[pogodzib]

The latest word is that the house is a total loss due to smoke damage. I can't imagine building a $200k+ house and having it burn down within two years.

My fish room has 4 GFCI outlets, and all of the powerstrips that I am using are either rated for computer or aquarium use. I have been planning on adding some more GFCI outlets, but I haven't got around to it yet. Maybe now would be a good time.

There is one powerstrip that I've seen, made by First Alert, that has a built in GFCI and the packaging says that it is made for aquarium use. I am actually using two of these strips, even though I have all of my equipment already plugged into GFCI outlets. Granted, I'd trust a GFCI outlet much more than any powerstrip, but I don't trust any of the cheap powerstrips at all.

[RyanG]

Brian, can you get any pics of the house?

[JackedupSOB]

I defintely took another look at my electrical setup after this just to be sure that everything was on the up and up.

[pogodzib]

He's a pic from the back of the house. Since it is out of one of the local newspapers, I didn't include it in the writeup. If I would have thought about it yesterday, I could have went over to the house and taken some pics. I thought about asking the owner if he had any pics that he can sent my way, but I don't want to ask anything of him right now. Maybe I will feel alright about asking him for a few pics soon. From what I have heard, pics of the inside would be much better since that is where the majority of the fire damage is seen.

[e_baer]

That is really unfortunate. I have a family friend over today and he is putting my lights in for my seagrass tank. I just explained what happened to this guy and he said he will put GFCI's in too for me. It will make me feel a lot safer knowing that everything is done properly.

[pogodzib]

Good call. IMO, ALL aquariums should have GFCI outlets. I've even used them on my 6 and 10 gal FW tanks for years. Water and electricity don't mix.

[stephaniesquires]

THANK YOU - THIS IS SOMETHING EVERYONE SHOULD TAKE SERIOUSLY. We spend tons of $$$ on the tank and ignore our safety.
Didn't sleep last night thinking about this - I have properly rated powerstrips, but no GFCI's - the tank sits pretty much right below the master bedroom and everything is plugged in in the garage. I put plumbing holes in the wall between the garage and the house - You know the FIRE WALL that code requires be put between the house and the garage. And I park my car in the garage - the car full of gasoline.... (and there are no smoke detectors in the garage!) Good thing the fish are still in QT, I'm unplugging it all till I get the electician over here to put in proper wiring and GFCI's.
I think we take our electricity for granted in that we will plug in as many things as we can - including plugging one power strip into another.
I hope everyone reads this and takes action to protect their homes and families...

[pogodzib]

Good point on the cost. I was going to mention that and then I forgot. If you think about it, we spend thousands of dollars on our tanks and hundreds of thousands on our homes, only to install cheap $3 powerstrips with no GFCI on our tanks. Does that really make any sense? Every place else in our homes that have water (kitchen, bathrooms, etc...) are required by code to have GFCI outlets installed.

[stephaniesquires]

Electrician came over this morning and is going to install a dedicated breaker. Easy fix for lots of peace of mind!!

[Dr. Clyde]

I ran 2 separate circuits in from the main power supply (100 AMP) into the garage for my 135 gallon tank. 1 circuit (20 amp) has 4 outlets & is only used for the 1200 watt light fixture and the other is a 20 amp GFCI breaker with 6 outlets for all the pumps. heater & filtration. Didn't figure the light needed to be gfci.

[Ganrin]

I had a dedicated gfci breaker installed before I set up my tank. I was more concerned with electrocution than fire, but both are valid concerns.

[Dr. Clyde]

For those of you that have unplugged thier tanks until an electrician can look at your setup, you can always use ohms law if your in doubt. Add up the total watts of all the appliances you have plugged into one circuit. Devide that number by 120 (For 120 VAC) the answer is the amount of Amp's your drawing. Most all residential wiring is 20 amp breakers, 12 AGW wire & 15 amp outlets so as long as your under 15 amps you should be safe. Keep in mind you have to account for ALL the outlets on that circuit. So if you have a couple power strips on the outlet behind your tank, it can have as many as 11 or 12 more outlets on that same circuit. Kill the breaker & check to see how many outlets lose power. I think per code you can only have 12 outlets on a 20 amp circuit. You can confirm the amp rating of your circuit by looking at the breaker in your breaker box, it should have a number right on the tab you turn it off & on with.
Hope that helps ease the weary & warn the leary.

[Uvajed]

I'm so lucky, my hubby is an electrical engineer, he's mapped out all the wiring when we moved here, corrected major problems, and is willing to take care of all my electric needs for my new tank.

I know this thread is a couple months old, how's the family now? This is a wake up call for all, especially people just new to the hobby. I'm glad I found this thread.

[pogodzib]

They are just beginning the rebuilding process and are hoping to be back into the new house in about 3-3 1/2 months. Right now they are living in an apartment. As for his reef hobby, he is planning on getting his reef tank going again and several of our local reef club members have offered frags of whatever corals he wants out of our tanks to help him get going again.

[Uvajed]

Originally Posted by pogodzib

They are just beginning the rebuilding process and are hoping to be back into the new house in about 3-3 1/2 months. Right now they are living in an apartment. As for his reef hobby, he is planning on getting his reef tank going again and several of our local reef club members have offered frags of whatever corals he wants out of our tanks to help him get going again.

This is good news! I knew a local (fire damaged) family who were living in a hotel for 6-8 months. Thanks for the update, and let him know there are prayers for his family from strangers. Good news on the tank!