Christmas Fire/Miracle?

SanClementeEric

SanClementeEric

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Honestly a little freaked out right now. I just discovered that we almost lost everything to an electrical fire that somehow, miraculously, didn't get past this point yesterday (Christmas day), while wondering why my aquarium lights weren't on this morning!

Guess I need to relocate my DJ strip. Well, replace it too.

IMG_2677.jpg

IMG_2676.jpg
 
solitude127

solitude127

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WOW. someone is watching over you. Was it plugged into a controller outlet?
 
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JFish180

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Very lucky! I had the same thing happen recently due to 8 yrs of accumulated salt creep. Luckily I was home and the fire alarm went off... I replaced my wall outlets with AFCI/GFCI receptacles, minimized clutter under my tank, and made sure all cords have proper drip loops. If your breaker box has room, you could swap the breaker for your whole room with an AFCI or AFCI/GFCI breaker. I didn't have room in my breaker box or that would have been the route I took.
 
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Reason to give thanks for the reason of the season.

Salt creep? Let this be a warning to others to check more than just what your corals and fish are doing or how well your reactors are working.

Keep the bells and whistles working. Adding more gizmos to your setup DOES NOT lessen the time you need to maintain it but actually adds to it. Note, most people with trouble are those with most equipment trying to be dialed in then counter adjusting them to counter the adjustment on the other thing.

Most people that get out of the hobby are those with the most equipment thinking it lessens the maintenance when it's the opposite. "I'm out, no time for hobby".

When I go on vacation or away for any time. I fill ATO reservoir, empty Skimmer overflow container and tell my sister, usually, to drop in one cube every other day. Done.
 
SanClementeEric

SanClementeEric

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solitude127 said:
WOW. someone is watching over you. Was it plugged into a controller outlet?
Click to expand...
The controller is on another outlet on that DJ strip. The burnt outlet and plug are to the timer power strip and the regular power strip you see on the floor. Those ran the sump light, a fresh water aquarium and was running an MP-60 temporarily.
 
SanClementeEric

SanClementeEric

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sklywag said:
Reason to give thanks for the reason of the season.

Salt creep? Let this be a warning to others to check more than just what your corals and fish are doing or how well your reactors are working.

Keep the bells and whistles working. Adding more gizmos to your setup DOES NOT lessen the time you need to maintain it but actually adds to it. Note, most people with trouble are those with most equipment trying to be dialed in then counter adjusting them to counter the adjustment on the other thing.

Most people that get out of the hobby are those with the most equipment thinking it lessens the maintenance when it's the opposite. "I'm out, no time for hobby".

When I go on vacation or away for any time. I fill ATO reservoir, empty Skimmer overflow container and tell my sister, usually, to drop in one cube every other day. Done.
Click to expand...
All good points.

The location of this DJ strip is definitely wrong. Second problem wasn't salt creep, in my case (despite the appearance of salt in the area), although technically it could have been eventually. What I did that was wrong here was turned up the MP-60 in Tidal Swell Mode Nutrient/Transport Mode and didn't hang around to see how high the flow/waves would be. I had a sneaky feeling that the water might splash over but in the rush of the morning, moved on to other things and left it unattended. Obviously, that was a big mistake and a lesson learned.
 
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sklywag

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SanClementeEric said:
All good points.

The location of this DJ strip is definitely wrong. Second problem wasn't salt creep, in my case (despite the appearance of salt in the area), although technically it could have been eventually. What I did that was wrong here was turned up the MP-60 in Tidal Swell Mode Nutrient/Transport Mode and didn't hang around to see how high the flow/waves would be. I had a sneaky feeling that the water might splash over but in the rush of the morning, moved on to other things and left it unattended. Obviously, that was a big mistake and a lesson learned.
Click to expand...
I've had something similar happen. No fire though. But heard a splashing water sound, as I looked, I saw water running down the front of my tank from under hood. The pumps set at random randomly met each other on full for a couple of seconds and as the streams collided they sent water over the front of my tank.

Always those things you know you should or shouldn't do that get us.
 
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JFish180

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I still strongly suggest that you (and anyone else reading this) replace all outlets near your salt water aquarium with arc-fault circuit interrupt (AFCI) outlets. You could also simply change the circuit breaker for the whole room if your panel has space. This is a small cost for peace of mind that your tank won't one day cause your whole house to burn down. Do a quick search of the reef forums and you will see that this is not an isolated incident.

People often protect their tanks via GFCI outlets. This is a great way to protect you from getting shocked by stray current from a bad pump or heater, but does not prevent electrical fires. In 1999 the US electric code started requiring AFCI protection for all bedroom outlets and currently all new houses are required to have AFCI protection on all electrical outlets... So, if your house was built before 2014, you might want to look into AFCI or AFCI/GFCI combination protection...

That's just my 2 cents...

Jared
 
SanClementeEric

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JFish180 said:
I still strongly suggest that you (and anyone else reading this) replace all outlets near your salt water aquarium with arc-fault circuit interrupt (AFCI) outlets. You could also simply change the circuit breaker for the whole room if your panel has space. This is a small cost for peace of mind that your tank won't one day cause your whole house to burn down. Do a quick search of the reef forums and you will see that this is not an isolated incident.

People often protect their tanks via GFCI outlets. This is a great way to protect you from getting shocked by stray current from a bad pump or heater, but does not prevent electrical fires. In 1999 the US electric code started requiring AFCI protection for all bedroom outlets and currently all new houses are required to have AFCI protection on all electrical outlets... So, if your house was built before 2014, you might want to look into AFCI or AFCI/GFCI combination protection...

That's just my 2 cents...

Jared
Click to expand...
Appreciate that. This is an old house (we rent) and even plug-in GFCI's didn't work when I tried them before (I feel because the outlet isn't properly grounded to begin with.) I have to go over some other things with the land lord, so I will go over replacing the outlets by a competent electrical contractor, with him.
 
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thedevilscandy

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Yikes! Glad there was no major damage. I believe it's pretty straight forward to have an electrician come in and ground the outlets. Were the power strips on the floor? At my old place they were mounted on the wall above the tank. I've got them mounted inside the cube stand at the top middle now. How's everything otherwise? Long time no chat. Do you still have any of the fish and such from when I moved?
 
SanClementeEric

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thedevilscandy said:
Yikes! Glad there was no major damage. I believe it's pretty straight forward to have an electrician come in and ground the outlets. Were the power strips on the floor? At my old place they were mounted on the wall above the tank. I've got them mounted inside the cube stand at the top middle now. How's everything otherwise? Long time no chat. Do you still have any of the fish and such from when I moved?
Click to expand...
The one that blew was up under the tank but more like still sticking out where it could get splashed on. I have to move it under the stand more. The two in the picture are more remote but on the floor. I guess I need to revamp the whole wiring. I have a new strip with amperage readout that I'm going to use.

I know I still have the watchman. He's now paired with a pistol shrimp, I never see but only hear. But the goby comes out fairly often. He's major fat now. I lost the filefish recently, not sure why, just disappeared.
 
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