Electricity is my biggest fear right now. It's one of the reasons I am downsizing the 180g in my home office.

Some things not to do (all of which I am pretty much doing right now...LOL..BUT I am in the process of changing slowly but surely)

  • Don't put your tank in the room above the breaker box... especially if it's 180g
  • Don't lay your power strips on the floor next to your sump on the bottom of the stand...elevate them slightly in case you overfill your sump...see Drip Loops 101
  • Don't have everything on one circuit (like Jim said)
  • Don't hang your power strips on the wall over your open-top tank


Rob...when you come over on Wednesday.. you are gonna die! If my insurance people would ever come inspect my house... *cough* ... anyway!

I had an electrician come over and give me a quote on doing things the right way. This included having 2 breakers feeding a sub-panel for my fish room and feeding up to my home office where the 180g currently resides. Material-wise, I'm looking at $400 or less. Why would I not spend that to make things right??!!?? Right now, I can't run my 180g and my 90g FW turtle tank at the same time because I trip the breakers.

One thing I found too is that those temporary little things you do in a hurry become permanent or pesky 2 year temporary things (like the power strips on the wall..over the 300g). I firmly believe that not doing things in a hurry and making sure you've done the appropriate prep work is key. And in all cases, it is not something I did. Now I have to go back and pay someone to retrofit. Ohhh the joys of working with electricity around saltwater. Not that I'm complaining that I had the world of saltwater thrust on me before I was ready. But I dived right in and I'm doing OK. Just need to now go back and take care of the electricity.

I refuse to do any serious fish breeding until the electricity is done the right way so that I can do an appropriate build.