fredknack Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Hi Folks Well I went and learned yet another lesson the hard way. My blue spotted jawfish jumped into the overflow of my 29 gallon BioCube quarantine tank. When I was done rescuing him I failed to reconnect the inflow from my external refugium. I turned the pumps back on and low and behold the fuge overflowed and filled my power strip under the desk with water. It tripped the circuit breaker and now the circuit does not work at all. Has anyone ever had something like this happen? I have never had a whole circuit go out and stay out before. The jawfish was quickly relocated to my 140 gallon tank and I was planning on selling the BioCube anyway... I am looking for advice and possibly a referral to a good electrician that is fair and hopefully understanding. Lessons Learned: 1) Always check that all tubes ate going where you think they are before restarting after maintenance. 2) Figure out where the water is going to overflow if something goes wrong and make sure that it won't find its way to electrical sockets. 3) Blue spotted jaw fish are missiles. Thanks, Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Look up Barelycuda Dave is an electrician by trade and a clown fish breeder by night:D He is a great guy and can help you out if he has the time. Let us know how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 They truley are missles i've lost two of them allready.I now have another,but had to build a special cover for my overflow and a screen for the back of the hood...no problems sence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Is there a possibility the the circuit in question is on a GFI somewhere in the house that is tripped? That happens sometimes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 +1 for the GFI. I have an old house and there are GFIs in really weird places. If a circuit goes out, I start hunting for all the GFIs in the house. After 3 years, I thought I knew of them all, but I just found a new one over the last summer. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Might also check and make sure some saltwater didn't get somewhere live. Into a socket on the wall, for instance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredknack Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 Thanks for the input everyone! Spectra I will check out Dave and see if he takes on jobs like this. R-3 and Dsoz: do you guys know what I should be looking for to see if it is GFI? Is it just that the plug will have a tester button it or is their something else I should look for? Andy: I am pretty sure salt water made it into a power strip but I don't think it made it to the wall socket but it is possible. I am assuming that somehow water hitting the power source somewhere along the line killed the circuit. I really wish I knew a bit more about electrical stuff. What it comes down to is that if you want a large reef you should probably be a plumber, electrician, and a banker fishmanmike: This Bluespot is super cool. I really want him to thrive. I am going to put some gutter guard netting over the top of the tank. I just hope the netting does not block to much light. I dream of growing SPS under my new 400 watt lights someday. Thanks again everyone for your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 do you guys know what I should be looking for to see if it is GFI? Is it just that the plug will have a tester button it or is their something else I should look for? Most of the time they are just the two buttons on the outlet. Go around and test and reset all of them dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barelycuda Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Did the circuit breaker in the panel trip? Also if the breaker in the panel tripped, did you try to turn the breaker all the way off before trying to reset it? Some breakers will not reset without eing turned off first. I did get your PM. PM me with your phone number & I'll give you a call tomorrow. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredknack Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 Thanks dsoz and Dave. I will send you a PM Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Also if it is a GFI I have seen those go bad also. My neighbor could not figure it out on his house and it turned out that the GFI was toast. Let us know what you find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredknack Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 It is fixed!!! It is fixed!!! R-3, dsoz, and barleycuda saved the day! (clap)(clap)(clap) My wife was starting to give me that look but this forum has rescued me from the abyss. Here is how it tricked me. I have an outdoor socket that is a GFI with the test buttons on it. When my office/aquarium circuit went out the outdoor GFI circuit was still working fine. I figured that if it was working why test it? I did not know that that working GFI circuit was somehow connected to the broken indoor circuits. That is so cool. Thanks again guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredknack Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 Thanks spectra! I forgot to give you props. You gave me the Barelycuda hook up. Dave's tip was critical to my trouble shooting process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Good to hear man! Nobody needs a mad wife Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Nobody needs a mad wife Aint that the truth(whistle) Good to here its working again(clap) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredknack Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 I am so stoked. It first it was pretty harsh. Me and my wife work from home. The 140 gallon tank is in our office where we pretty much live. Loosing the circuit meant that we lost the overhead office lighting. I had just gotten new duel 400 watt 20000k bulbs so the whole office was cast in a deep blue light. I had to run to Target to buy some desk lamps so that we did not have to work under water. Ok on to creating the next disaster...I am turning the hall behind the tank into a fishroom so I can add more water volume and a huge fuge. Thanks again, Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barelycuda Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Glad to hear it worked out for you. I'll give you a call this afternoon to talk about the other project. Dave 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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