Electrical Planning for a 220 freshwater aquarium

[Caperguy99]

I'm starting at ground zero for a 220 gallon Lake Tanganyika setup and I'm trying to wrap my head around the electrical requirements. I have a friend who is an electrician, so he is going to come to my house this week to run a dedicated GFCI outlet off of its own 20 amp circuit in my electrical panel. The whole circuit will also be attached to a Generac automatic propane home generator system to maintain power in the event of an outage. By my read, this should give me around 2,400 watts that I can work with - which should be more than sufficient for the type of equipment I hope to run. Let me know if you agree.

I'm planning the following:

I will be plugging two Kill-a-Watt PS-10 power strips into the GFCI outlet. These power strips will be run through the back of the middle cupboard on my aquarium stand and mounted onto an Adaptive Reef controller board.

The first power strip will control:

- Inkbird ITC-306 heater controller and attached Eheim Jager 300 watt heater (300 watts approx.)
- Inkbird ITC-306 heater controller and attached Eheim Jager 300 watt heater (300 watts approx.)
- Fluval FX-6 canister filter (45 watts approx.)
- Fluval FX-6 canister filter (45 watts approx.)

The second power strip will control:

- Twinstar LED light, Series B 120 (50 watts approx.)
- Sicce Ultra Zero Pump during water changes (100 watts approx.)

This totals out to approximately 850 watts.

Does this setup look appropriate? I've taken my watt estimates by Googling the products I hope to use - do my calculations match your expectations? Are there any additional pieces of electrical equipment that I'm not accounting for that could increase the power consumption down the road? Let me know what you all think!

 

[dmyersWv]

That sounds great. I don't think you should have any issues adding items as you find need with that setup.

 

[deeda]

I would split your equipment between the 2 power strips: heater, controller and FX6 on one strip and the same with the 2nd strip just is case of a failure of the actual power strip.

 

[Backfromthedead]

I would split your equipment between the 2 power strips: heater, controller and FX6 on one strip and the same with the 2nd strip just is case of a failure of the actual power strip.

Great idea, i would do the same but these darn gfci strips are pricy!

I actually split my equipment between circuits. All of the "primary equipment" runs off of one strip, but i use another outlet across the room on a different curcuit solely for the backup air pump.

 

[Caperguy99]

I would split your equipment between the 2 power strips: heater, controller and FX6 on one strip and the same with the 2nd strip just is case of a failure of the actual power strip.

Ah that’s something I didn’t consider -

I split them in the proposed way to make it easier for water changes. I supposed that I could just switch off the power bar with the filters and heaters, while leaving on the one that had the light and the drain pump.

How likely do you think a power bar failure is?

 

[deeda]

Well all electrical equipment fails at some point in time and usually at an inopportune time. Sometimes it's due to a power surge, overloaded, older item or just because.

 

[quikv6]

Hi Caperguy99,

A slight tangent, but I have been using 2 - 100watt heaters on my 180 with complete success. Actually, only one is used, and the 2nd is set a few degrees lower, just in case heater number one fails. (Both heaters are on the same inkbird, but I let the heaters do the work, and just set the bird a bit higher, in case a heater fails in the ON position.)

My basement is usually around 66-67 degrees, and that one heater has no issues maintaining 78. Depending on your room temp, you may be able to save some wattage by using 2 - 200 watt heaters, or, possible even a 200w and a 100w.

Just some food for thought.

 

[Caperguy99]

Hi Caperguy99,

A slight tangent, but I have been using 2 - 100watt heaters on my 180 with complete success. Actually, only one is used, and the 2nd is set a few degrees lower, just in case heater number one fails. (Both heaters are on the same inkbird, but I let the heaters do the work, and just set the bird a bit higher, in case a heater fails in the ON position.)

My basement is usually around 66-67 degrees, and that one heater has no issues maintaining 78. Depending on your room temp, you may be able to save some wattage by using 2 - 200 watt heaters, or, possible even a 200w and a 100w.

Just some food for thought.

This is actually super helpful, especially as my electrician came in today and revised the plan a little bit.

I’m installing a single 15 AMP dedicated circuit with a GFCI outlet. This will be hard wired to the propane generator system, so in the event of a power failure the tank will continue to run.

Since it will only be 15 amp instead of 20, I think I may try to 200 watt options as you suggest.

Much obliged for the insight!

 

[yellowfinfmb]

I would run a circuit for the heaters only I would make the circuits 20 amps each if your running them new and I would run a spare circuit for later when you will upgrade. I know your not going bigger but it cost really nothing to run now. I am also an electrician and I wouldn't run any 15 amp circuits for my tanks/

 

[12 Volt Man]

I'm not an electrician but my understanding is that you are only to run 80% max load on a breaker safely.

So on a 15 amp dedicated circuit you should run no more than around 1400w, you would be using 850w if everything was running at the same time.

Isn't a 15 amp circuit then plenty for this setup?

you can run a hot tub on a 20 amp circuit, never mind a fish tank