Cali Kid Corals

40g ADA move and upgrade

roostertech said:
When battery is charging, gfci thinks it is leaking current and trip. Same thing happen with induction coil. Google UPS trip gfci or fridge trip gfci.
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It doesn't happen with all gfci's or all ups's. Only certain combinations. Not all ups's will leak current to the ground wire and if they do not all gfci's will inturpret the amount of current as needing to be interrupted. You would need to have a ups that leaks enough current to the ground wire to cause the gfci to think that it needs to trip. The point of the gfci is to interrupt the current when it senses enough to hurt someone but not enough to pop the breaker at your service panel. Different gfci's have different thresholds for this.

The bigger problem is that by putting an ups on a gfci you've essentially defeated the safety functionality of the gfci.
 
BSAJim said:
Mike - good question. Chromis - anything else on that circuit?

One problem created by electricians is daisy chaining outlets off of a ground fault. if the outlet detects a fault and pops, all the outlets downstream go dead, while the circuit breaker in the box is unaffected. It can be frustrating troubleshoot experience.
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After hearing all this feedback I will be able to have a better discussion with our contractor Monday (and am considering hiring a dedicated electrician to fix his work). Good idea to put the aquarium on its own circuit so it's power only gets interrupted if it's absolutely necessary. We did check if any GFIs popped nearby in the kitchen but did not check the garage yet, now that I think about it. Not sure how he wired it since he didn't really discuss any details with us - a missed opportunity in hindsight.


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So contractor fixed the outlet (he hadn't connected it yet) and we installed a GFCI. Next hurdle is the Eshopps overflow bulkhead leaks, how is this even possible? Starting troubleshooting - hopefully just cleaning under the gasket and screwing it back down will fix it. Any suggestions? You can see the water leak (another bead of water is starting to form) circled in the photo.
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Drained the tank enough to pull the overflow out and examine it. Aren't there supposed to be rubber gaskets on the outside too? Maybe Eshopps forgot them? Going to try a silicone solution for the leaking :(
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No just on the inside. Do not put silicone grease on the rubber gasket, it will allow it to wiggle around and may prevent a good seal.

Did you tighten the nut by hand or did you use a wrench?


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I've been through this a couple of times. Overall, this is a great overflow though being rear/external can be a pain to plumb (more corners to round over a short run).

I had no leaks the first time I plumbed this overflow, but I replaced the bulkheads when we moved our tank and the new ones slow leaked like this. I drove myself crazy cleaning the surfaces thinking it was my fault, but it was just a cheap/cracked bulkhead from the LFS. I replaced it with a solid Lifeguard bulkhead and I had no problems.

I'd recommend doing some cursory work to clean/reseal it. Though, if it's a new overflow I doubt there would be any debris to break the seal. If it still leaks, replace the bulkhead.

There's no bulkhead gasket in the dry side, only the wet side.

You also might make sure there's no latera torque from your plumbing on the bulkhead. If so, it may prevent the bulkhead from sitting flat if there's lateral pressure.
 
wpeterson said:
You also might make sure there's no latera torque from your plumbing on the bulkhead. If so, it may prevent the bulkhead from sitting flat if there's lateral pressure.
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Yes, that was the problem! The nut on the leaking bulkhead was noticeably not parallel and was probably putting uneven pressure on the internal gasket. Thanks for reassuring there wasn't a missing gasket! I decided to brute force the overflow with silicone. Ironically the Eshopps quality check sticker was also in the way of the tightening nut, but on the side that wasn't leaking.
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After silicone sealing the box bulkheads, the box seal against the tank had a slow leak. I finally realized the bottom disconnect was hitting the lip of the stand, and pulling the pipes/seals off parallel. So seems nothing's wrong with the Eshopps box, it's just very sensitive to the gasket seating angle so your pipes can't be pushing the seals unevenly. I had to disconnect everything again, saw some length off the PVC pipe, and reglue a new connection. Super frustrating but hopefully others will read this and not repeat my mistakes. That's what this is about, right? :)

Finally no leaks and just need to adjust the water temp and salinity before moving my reef from the garage!
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Finally moved everything back into the tank (except sump lights). I might reorganize the power strips and setup timers later after kids go to bed. From experience I moved my fiesty Pygmy angel at least 10 minutes after the clownfish, wrasse and chromises established themselves to take her down a notch.
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In our old place, the aquarium was a sort of room divider and had a nice bonsai flow, but this time the architectural style is more like "pile of rubble". I may need to get rid of a few rocks!


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Oh man. This tank move unearthed a giant cucumber which I remember being<< 1" long when it arrived as an unsuspecting passenger in a bag of macro-algae from live-plants.com, and I thought he would just starve eventually so why not give him a chance and see how it goes, but his latest is 3-4" now! I had contradicting thoughts, I heard they can be toxic (?) what if he gets upset and releases toxins that kill some corals I care about? but he seems to be surviving off something in my tank so maybe he's part of the "clean up crew"? I have these moments frequently where I find some new weird development and wonder if I should shut it down immediately or "see how it goes"... anyway I let him stay in the ecosystem for now :)
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Even the fish seemed to be checking this rare sighting of sea cucumber out... does anyone else have a long-term cucumber guest and was it positive or negative in the end?


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I added a rose bulb tip yesterday at the top/back of my reef where it could get good current, and it started creeping behind the rocks. I repositioned it at the bottom of the reef, and it hung out between some rocks, the tips turned to bubbles after I fed it a small piece of shrimp, so it appeared happy. But overnight, it went way under the rocks completely out of any current or light and hasn't come back out. Is it damaged? Has anyone ever had an anemone hide like that and what does it mean? I don't have any crabs or fish that would pick on it.

I can see it inside the rock pile with its foot under a rock, looking pretty normal, but it's not getting any light. I have only seen new anemones roam closer to light/water movement, never away. Why is this one acting so weird?
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