hi everyone!!! it's been years since i've had a reef because i've been moving around so much. i just moved into a house and plan on staying put so it's reef time for me. i have some work to do on the house before i start up but i want to figure out if an electrical upgrade will be necessary for what i plan on doing. i have a room which is 19' by 12'. i plan on having 2 6' tanks in an L shape along 2 walls. one will be a reef (180-210 gal.) with metal halides and everything else needed for a successful tank and the second will be a 210 gallon fish only tank. of course there is the possibility of the fish only turning into a second reef over time. the capacity of my service panel is 100 amp. i have a feeling this will need to be changed. what's everyones thoughts on this subject?
home electrical system
- Thread starter deadhead
- Start date
I think some people have a delicated 20 amp breaker for the reef room, which is about 2000Watt max. Should be enough for your setup. That will leave 80 Amp for the rest of your house. See if the ampage is reasonable, and go from there with electrician if you need to change anything.
Add up the amps for your system to find out the total it uses, If your are putting in new wiring I'd break the circuits up into a couple of breakers, pumps, halides, heater , controller etc on separate breakers. That way if one pump locks up it doesn't shut your entire system down, I separated my circulation pump, closed loop pump and Halides into three breakers. Also install ground fault outlets at the aquarium.
That would depend, in my opinion, on how large you plan on living with the MH lights and the water movement. We just put a subpanel in our basement, primarily to handle a large lighting load, and we used a 100amp panel from which we ran 240v/120v power. The light is a 600W, so if you were going with, say, two 400W MH's + 1/4hp pump (plus accoutrements) I think a 100amp panel would suit your purposes fairly well.deadhead":27nn2h6v said:
Sounds like it'll be a beautiful room to just hang and chill, watch the fishies.
He he maybe he is a slowwww electrician.
I just put in 3 20 amp breakers for my new tank, spread over 10 outlets all GFCI protected.
I am running T5's on my tank, a halide on my sons, pc's on my nano. I also use a 400 watt halide..my electric bill was $280 this month...oy vey...
I just put in 3 20 amp breakers for my new tank, spread over 10 outlets all GFCI protected.
I am running T5's on my tank, a halide on my sons, pc's on my nano. I also use a 400 watt halide..my electric bill was $280 this month...oy vey...
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