Please advice electrical issue!

[showard]

Hey reefer friends! I thought this was ok but apparently not. I realized during peak time yesterday all of my lights (2 250watt radium's) and my 3 300 watt heaters were on yesterday and I woke up to smell this.

Very glad my home didn't burn down but I would like that you nicely tell me what to do correctly. I'm not an electrician and assumed because I was using an APC surge protector this wouldn't happen. The breaker didn't pop ether. Should I break up the two old school AC tunzes on their own outlet, then my reeflo hybrid on its own outlet, then my EB8, which has the MH/heaters, on its own outlet, and then both DC pumps and ATO on another?

Yes they were all on one outlet and I included the pictute of the other end of the cord. Again please be nice as clearly I did something stupid and I get that.

I just need the community to point me towards the safest solution to avoid this again. I do very much appreciate you all and try very hard in all I do. I hope to see some good constructive criticism coming my way.

Also I wanted to add three black box LED units and one more large DC pump for a backup skimmer so also keep that in mind.

My tank is a 220 display, 65 gallon sump/frag tank and a 40 gallon frag tank.

Equipment breakdown at a glance:
-2 250 watt MH radium's (running opposite of each other since they're on 2 different tanks)
-3 300 watt heaters (one in each box of water)
2 Tunze AC pumps 7240.27
-autoaqua ato/awc
-apex classic with eb8 for heater/light control

Want to add:
-2 black box LED's
-one more large DC pump

 

[Cpage101]

need a little more info.
1 where and how was the plug strip positioned
2 is this a 15 or 20 amp circuit coming from your panel
3 Is your system Protected by a GFCI ground fault protected outlet
4 What are y’all plug strips rated for in amps
and are they UL listed
5 are any of the outlets on the plug strip or wall outlet loose when you plug into them

 

[Sparky88]

Sometimes cords wick salt water to the outlet. Heavy draws that run constantly tend to lead to this. Your lights draw about 5 amps. Heaters alittle less. Plus the other equipment your real close to 15 amp rating on that plug amd or cords. If you replace cord ends and seperate the loads you should be ok.

 

[Sparky88]

Slightly loose plugs arch and this arch ruins the metal causeing the gap that the spark jumps to grow. The longer the spark the hotter it becomes. It is a runaway situation were each arch causes more damage and that increasing damage causes more and hotter sparks with cause more damge.

 

[Cpage101]

wattage for the 2 tunze pumps?
wattage for ato system
wattage for anything else plugged in. (Plugstrip plugged to plug strip is never a good idea also)

without the above unknown info you are at around 11.6A if everything is on at once

 

[showard]

need a little more info.
1 where and how was the plug strip positioned
2 is this a 15 or 20 amp circuit coming from your panel
3 Is your system Protected by a GFCI ground fault protected outlet
4 What are y’all plug strips rated for in amps
and are they UL listed
5 are any of the outlets on the plug strip or wall outlet loose when you plug into them

I will have to check this out at 3 on my lunch break (live next door to my job) thank you!

 

[showard]

Sometimes cords wick salt water to the outlet. Heavy draws that run constantly tend to lead to this. Your lights draw about 5 amps. Heaters alittle less. Plus the other equipment your real close to 15 amp rating on that plug amd or cords. If you replace cord ends and seperate the loads you should be ok.

Thank you for reaching out it's very much appreciated I will do that

 

[showard]

Slightly loose plugs arch and this arch ruins the metal causeing the gap that the spark jumps to grow. The longer the spark the hotter it becomes. It is a runaway situation were each arch causes more damage and that increasing damage causes more and hotter sparks with cause more damge.

Good to know also!!!

 

[showard]

wattage for the 2 tunze pumps?
wattage for ato system
wattage for anything else plugged in. (Plugstrip plugged to plug strip is never a good idea also)

without the above unknown info you are at around 11.6A if everything is on at once

Thank you very much, I will have those numbers at 3 today.

 

[dz6t]

What type of ballasts are those metal halides on? If they are magnetic, they usually draw 3.2 Amp each


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[jasonrusso]

Seeing how it was only one outlet, I'd guess the outlet was loose. I see loose fuses on cars all the time that burn the contacts.

You didn't have a power surge, that's why the surge protector didn't do anything. You didn't exceed 15amps, that's why the breaker didn't trip.

Lastly, it was 80 degrees yesterday. Why did you have 900 watts of heaters on at the same time?

 

[showard]

I left the window open overnight and the temp dropped in my basement. Finally I am home. Getting those numbers now sorry guys

 

[Cpage101]

I left the window open overnight and the temp dropped in my basement. Finally I am home. Getting those numbers now sorry guys

all good and like dong said what is the listed amps or wattage on the halide ballasts too.


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[showard]

Ok here's a pic of the panel. I didn't know what was what till 10 mins ago so that's rad. I put whiteout dots where the tank is connected

37 - reeflo hybrid/Tunze AC pumps
38&40 - everything else

 

[showard]

The room used to be an office so I guess it was decked out with a few circuits

 

[showard]

I was using a APC surge arrest it's UL certified. Rated for 15 amps.

 

[showard]

Here's my ballast it's also UL cert. and it 5.5x2 Amps

 

[Cpage101]

The room used to be an office so I guess it was decked out with a few circuits

there is no way your tank should be on a 60a 2 pole breaker. is there another sub panel that 60a 2 pole may feed? if it is on a 60a 2 pole breaker and not out of a sub panel off of that breaker than that is a problem[emoji15]


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[showard]

need a little more info.
1 where and how was the plug strip positioned
2 is this a 15 or 20 amp circuit coming from your panel
3 Is your system Protected by a GFCI ground fault protected outlet
4 What are y’all plug strips rated for in amps
and are they UL listed
5 are any of the outlets on the plug strip or wall outlet loose when you plug into them

The APC is plugged into an outdoor extention cord with 3 outlets. I had everything on the 15 amp breaker prior to today. The APC is 15 amps, the outdoor thing is rated for 13 amps though (oh crap). Nothing was loose except for the connection from the APC to the outdoor extension. I never thought much of it though because I always shoved it back in.... Arcing makes a bit of sense but these are mismatched, I can see that now.

 

[showard]

there is no way your tank should be on a 60a 2 pole breaker. is there another sub panel that 60a 2 pole may feed? if it is on a 60a 2 pole breaker and not out of a sub panel off of that breaker than that is a problem[emoji15]


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I just started shutting things off and found the 15 amp is for two outlets in the room and then the two pole 60 is for the two sets of outlets on the other wall and the lights for the room and it seems the room next to this one is also on the 60 two pole