minchton Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 Imagine this if you can. There are 2 1200cm tanks on stands, one behind the other. The rear tank is empty and the front tank is being used as a sump for surplus live rock etc for the marine tank. It has 2 fluros, a heater and skimmer running from a plug box, which was sitting on top of the spare tank. Sitting on top of the rear tank is an "Instant Ocean" skimmer which I was trying out but wasn't happy with the way the motor on it was running, which is why I unplugged it and sat it on the top of the rear tank. It was not conected to any power or anything else. In the meantime I decided to go to town to do the usual things that you do and duly arrived home 4 hours later. I walked back into the garage to an awful smell that could only be connected to fire and burnt plastic. Nothing on the Marine tank was going, no lights, heater or skimmer. All the glass on the top of the spare tank was lying in the bottom of the tank in many pieces, there was melted polystyrene on the floor and over everything was this black mass. I finally worked out that it was the spare skimmer which had completely disappeared apart from the cap which I found a distance away on the floor. All I can assume is that the cat must have knocked the skimmer over onto the plugboard, then the residue water shorted on the plugbox and set fire to the skimmer. Fortunately no damage was done to the marine tank and no major damage in the garage apart from the fact that I am now down one skimmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogmatix Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 So sorry Mitch , i think this is a good lesson to be learnt all. Again soz to hear mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 Oh No!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 You lucky you got an understanding wife though, if I pulled something like that, Id be more scared of my wife than of the fire!! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 Lucky!!!!!!!!!!! It could have been a lot worse. Did you do any damage to the cat? :lol: Cheers Jude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 Fortunately no damage was done to the marine tank Ummmm yeah, lucky. Lucky you din't burn the house down too. Invest in an RCD, they cost less than $150.00. How much is that skimmer worth? How much for the cat? Or the house.. Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregb Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 Exactly how much is the cat worth? You can get 3 dozen dim sims from a cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 Sad to hear what happened ....glad to hear nobody hurt & house in tact! Everybody stop picking on the poor pussycat, he may have been trying to cook himself some supper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluetom Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 3 dozen!!!!! you must make small dim sim, or have a small cat :lol: :lol: Some RCDs can cost way less than $150 i think we got one for $30. Yeah, yeah you get what you pay for but we haven't had any problems with ours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 Exactly how much is the cat worth? You can get 3 dozen dim sims from a cat. also 4x lucky cats paws and a good pair of fur slippers! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 I would reccomend getting a 'proper' RCD instead of one of those plug into a socket types, the couple I have had failed after a while. The type I use now replaces the whole outlet and costs about $90. They also protect all the sockets wired down stream of them so if you can find the first outlet the RCD will protect all the other outlets as well. I was able to wire these in myself, but if you have to get a sparky in to do the job for you it might make more sense to get the RCD put on the main board. (FYI I understand it is now a requirment in new houses for all outlets to be on RCD's so the price for main board RCD's should have come down) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 go for 2 x RCD's where possible. if you have everything on the one RCD, if it trips and you're out that means NO power to ANYTHING on your tank. preferably split the circulation, say the return pump on one circuit and closed loops/powerheads on second circuit. you want to maintain some form of water movement/aeration should one RCD get tripped because of something simple like a drop of water on the plug! i have my closed loop on one circuit and everything else on another. 20amps each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 I'd like to have a dedicated fish tank circuit, as it is now my marine tank is on the same circuit as most of the kitchen so the tank going+the toaster/dishwasher+the jug=tripped circuit breaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetskisteve Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 U should check reefs house out, half the lights don't go & if they use the microwave its all over :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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