sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
So I'm not going to open a can of worms by asking what peoples opinions on GFCI circuits and the aquarium, but I am going to ask what's your opinion on putting "non-wet" items into GFCIs.
First some background, I have 2- 20A circuits run inside the tank stand, and unless things change I'll have 3 - 2 outlet boxes. 2 in my "dry space" under the stand, and 1 brought above the stand. I'm sure this is all sorts of against code, so I'm not even going to ask those questions for the arm chair electricians of the Internet who seem to have more time answering questions than they have jobs to work on.
My thought is to have one circuit the "dry circuit" without any sort of GFCI on it at all, this circuit simply won't have "wet stuff" on it, no wet stuff no GFCI needed right?! right! The other box will have two GFCIs each separate from one another so I can have two possible trip points and not one trip point that takes everything out if there's a trip, this way I can have a return pump separate from an in tank pump etc. Then off the load side of one of the GFCIs goes the box with regular plugs that is above the tank, the box will be physically attached to something (not that tank) but being as lights and stuff that could possibly fall into tank should really have some level of protection. The reason for regular plugs is because they're downstream (in line) with another GFCI they're protected as if they are connected to the GFCI and since the GFCI plugs are in a "Dry area" there's less worry about humid air prematurely making them fail. I don't know what I'm going to do about load balancing for the tank right now, but to be honest I'm not on that step anyways.
So here's the question though, at some point I might want an Apex (or some other controller), do people plug the EB832 into a GFCI outlet because presumably you'll have "wet items" plugged into it, if anything to use the current sensing to see how your pumps are working. But if a GFCI trips the whole system goes down, and presumably you would lose a lot of function of your tank when that happens. Or do people just not use GFCIs with their controller?
First some background, I have 2- 20A circuits run inside the tank stand, and unless things change I'll have 3 - 2 outlet boxes. 2 in my "dry space" under the stand, and 1 brought above the stand. I'm sure this is all sorts of against code, so I'm not even going to ask those questions for the arm chair electricians of the Internet who seem to have more time answering questions than they have jobs to work on.
My thought is to have one circuit the "dry circuit" without any sort of GFCI on it at all, this circuit simply won't have "wet stuff" on it, no wet stuff no GFCI needed right?! right! The other box will have two GFCIs each separate from one another so I can have two possible trip points and not one trip point that takes everything out if there's a trip, this way I can have a return pump separate from an in tank pump etc. Then off the load side of one of the GFCIs goes the box with regular plugs that is above the tank, the box will be physically attached to something (not that tank) but being as lights and stuff that could possibly fall into tank should really have some level of protection. The reason for regular plugs is because they're downstream (in line) with another GFCI they're protected as if they are connected to the GFCI and since the GFCI plugs are in a "Dry area" there's less worry about humid air prematurely making them fail. I don't know what I'm going to do about load balancing for the tank right now, but to be honest I'm not on that step anyways.
So here's the question though, at some point I might want an Apex (or some other controller), do people plug the EB832 into a GFCI outlet because presumably you'll have "wet items" plugged into it, if anything to use the current sensing to see how your pumps are working. But if a GFCI trips the whole system goes down, and presumably you would lose a lot of function of your tank when that happens. Or do people just not use GFCIs with their controller?
