Please save me from electrocution !

[Expos Forever]

Here is my problem:

1) My TV "flickers" when my hallides turn on (in the living room, same area,different outlets as the tank) Apparently this is bad for electronics.

2) When the hallides come on the GFCI in my bathroom trips when there is something plugged in. It used to trip only when the lights where left on in the bathroom.

3) I planned on installing a sump underneath but am afraid the extra power required will cause this shaky set-up to fail electrically.

My tank is not plugged into GFCI receptacles Does the fact that my lights are tripping the GFCI in the bathroom mean that my whole system is at least protected from ground faults? Like everything is on the same circuit?

I live in an appartment which I would one day like to vacate in favor of my own home. In other words I would really like to avoid paying an electrician a fortune for the sake of a year or two. I purchased a GFCI receptacle two years ago and will get it installed if necessary but "upgrading" my electrical system is not an option. My fuse box holds the following cryptic (for me anyways) info:

125 AMP 120/240V AC/ca

I see some people have 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits. I'm assuming my whole apartment has 125 amps...

My questions boil down to this

1) Is my tank GFCI protected?
2) Am I maxed out power wise or can I add an extra pump, etc...

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[Anonymous]

If the lights aren't being shut off when the GFCI trips, then I would wager they are not protected. It sounds to me as though you've really overloaded your circuits. I'd be careful if I were you. You might end up with a very real headache of a suit against you by the landlord if you've (as I'm thinking) fried the wiring. I see no other solution but to hire an electrician.

 

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention the very real possibility of causing a fire. If you overload the wiring it may very well melt the insulation, thus causing sparking, thus causing a fire. Maybe you might want to reconsider keeping the hermatypic creatures for now (or at least the ones that have such high lighting requirements)--it appears that the endeavor is causing you unforseen difficulties.

 

[reefNewbie]

heres what you do. Run an extension cord across the hall to your neighbors outlet. problem solved. LOL

no but seriously i would be very careful and take maidens advice. I would have an electrician come out and take a look at your wirring because something is considerably wrong if your tv flickers and your bathroom gfci cuts out.

btw: your lights are not gfci protected unless they went out when it tripped, then they would be protected. You might want to even see if the land lord could hire an electrician. you could complain and say that this is not supposed to happen and that its making a hazard for you and the other tenants.

I live in an apartment as well and probably need my own generator with all of the energy i consume. Yet my lights dont flicker and i dont have gfci's tripping. So i would definetly talk with your land lord.

Hope that helps!

 

[RWillieK]

it is possible to run other outlets from a GFCI outlet - I purchased three, and protected 8 outlets - if the GFCI is tripping, and the lights go out, they they are protected, if not, something is very very messed up in the wiring.

Robbie

 

[Expos Forever]

It has become obvious to me that this situation is worse than I feared. Since all this occurs only when my hallides come on, I will be unplugging them for the time being. Being the simpleton that I am I didn't realize the obvious: that if my lights didn't click off then they obviously weren't GFCI protected.

Fortunately I only have leathers and mushrooms that I can raise closer to my NOs (MH's are 175W). I'm leaning towards having an electrician come in on my request as opposed to involving my landlord right away. Until I figure out exactly what I'm looking at here... I guess if the electrician wants to start breaking apart the walls that point may soon be moot I have a few questions that remain:

Is my apartment a ticking time bomb? or is unplugging my MH's a suitably safe temporary solution? I definetly don't want to endanger anyone in my building. Is it possible I have two different circuits and I transfer some power demand to another one? What is the worst-case scenario if my wiring is "very very messed up"?

 

[texasreefer]

It sounds like either you have your circuits way overloaded, or you have a loose wire somewhere. I would geuss a loose wire. You need to get somebody to check it out. You may have a loose neutral or hot wire in your breaker box which will cause all the problems you described. If you do have a loose wire somewhere it could cause a fire. I just replaced the breaker box at my parents house, because of a fire caused by a loose wire. If you are not comfortable working w/ electricity see if the landlord will have a electrician look at your wiring. You should not be maxed out in a apartment w/ a 125 AMP service, though you may have a couple of circuits overloaded depending what all is on the same circuit.

 

[Bobzarry]

I had a similar problem in my apartment and it turned out to be a weak circuit breaker( guess it was just old). Replaced the circuit breaker and no problem since. One way to check this is to go to your circuit breaker and see if it makes noise when the flickering is happening.


Bob

 

[ENS]

One thing you may need to also consider - Are your MH's on an electronic ballast? If so, you may not be able to plug your MH's into a GFCI outlet.

Anyone have this issue: After setting-up my new system recently, in which I have 2 175w MH's on an electronic ballast from Hamilton Lighting, I couldn't turn on my lights without instantly tripping the GFCI. Although nothing in their literature contained any warnings or other info about it, upon inquiry, Hamilton informed me that their electronic ballasts can NOT be plugged into a GFCI outlet. This was a surprise to me. As a result I was required to do some re-wiring for addition of one non-GFCI outlet near the tank for the MH lights.

Also, if you do not have an electronic ballast, you might consider upgrading b/c they are more energy efficient and pull less amps than standard MH ballasts -- this alone might help get around your problem.

Cheers.

 

[Expos Forever]

It is a Hamilton dual 175W standard ballast (weighs a ton, could fry an egg on it). Maybe if I don't have to pay an electrician too much,the cost of an e-ballast might be a little easier to swallow. My main concern right now is not burning my building to the ground. I just tried to trip it on purpose to hear what happens at the fuse box as suggested by Bobzarry but of course nothing happened... no TV flicker no GFCI failure. Turns out I was using the wrong plug in the bathroom (same outlet different plug). Which is even more bizarre. Am keeping my fingers crossed it's something relatively simple like an old circuit breaker. Have to wait to restart MH's and will post results.

 

[cal91666]

My fuse box holds the following cryptic (for me anyways) info:

125 AMP 120/240V AC/ca

There are some very good suggestions listed in this thread but lets look at a couple of things one step at a time. Do you have a fuse box or a breaker box?? If it is a fuse box find the circuit your using and make sure the proper size fuse (15amp, 20amp,...etc) is being used.

 

[Expos Forever]

Again showing my ignorance: it's a breaker box.

 

[Expos Forever]

Tried again to re-create the problem and,of course, no flicker/no GFCI failure. And this time the lights were on in the bathroom too. Maybe wishful thinking has repaired my wiring...

 

[reefNewbie]

sounds to me like a loose wire.

 

[cal91666]

Just a quick check .................... if your MH's have been on a while feel the cord where it is connected to your outlet. If its hot your drawing a lot of amps for the circuit.

 

[Anonymous]

Expos, you have a wiring problem. I would demand that the landloard send out a qualified eletriciin to troubleshoot the problem. Your landlord would likely have no idea the load that your fish tank is adding to the circuit.

Make the landlord fix the problem. Don't assume that the problem is just because you have a tank that is overloading the circuit. It very likely is some wiring problem and could be serious!

BTW, what type lighting, pumps, etc. do you have connected to this circuit?

Louey

 

[Expos Forever]

Will definetly call my landlord tomorrow morning. He's a decent sort so I hope there won't be a problem. My biggest fear is/was that I way overloaded the circuit and that I will now be responsable for re-wiring the whole place. If I had any money I wouldn't have a Rio pump powering my skimmer :wink:

BTW, what type lighting, pumps, etc. do you have connected to this circuit?

Humm, let's see:

2x175W MH
2X40W NO

1XRio 3100 for skimmer
1X250W ebo jagr heater
2X Hagen 802
1X Hagen 301
1X Hagen 201

 

[Anonymous]

Expo,

When I first set up my 75, in my previous house. I added two dedicated circuits for the tank. That was great. I moved a several of months ago and just had to plug everything into areceptacle that is in the family room in the new house. That was in September. Nothing has ever tripped. And it shouldn't. You have less load than I have. You shouldn't have a load problem.

A 15 amp circuit should be able to handle 1440 volt-amps continuous. Multiply your volts times your amps to come up with your volt-amps. For example: A 15 amp 120 circuit equals 1800 VA. A circuit should only be loaded to 80% of any continuous load. A continuous load is a load that is on for 3 hours at a time.

I doubt your are exceeding the breakers limit.

Good luck!

Louey

 

[cal91666]

A wiring problem is definetly a possibility. Try a couple of things first. You were getting flicker and GFCI faults when your MH lights come on after being off for a period of time but you were unable to recreate problem when you cycled lights on/off in a short period of time. MH ballasts have capacitors on them. If your capacitor is leaking you are having to recharge it whenever your lights come on after being off a period of time. Recharging the capacitor is a high amp draw. Your not experiencing the problem when you cycle lights on/off in a short period of time because capacitor has not had time to leak its charge. This is just another option for you to look at and just my opinion. I am not an electrician however I do work with DC electricity and components daily.

 

[Expos Forever]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I think it was the catchy title

cal

What you say makes a lot of sense. My system has been set up for three years with pretty much exactly the same equipment. The lighting system, actually is now almost 2 yrs old and the problem has been going on for about 3 months and getting worse.

Coupled with what Louey is saying (that it doesn't sound over-loaded)does that mean that a faulty ballast may in fact be causing the problem? as opposed to faulty wiring?

Is every breaker one circuit? I'm confused why the bathtroom would be affected.