Fuge overflow caused BIG electrical short!

[runway1]

I awoke Easter morning only to find my tank power totally dead, a puddle, and a fried wall outlet with black fire indication over the outlet!! Very scary.

I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but I suspect this; I started a hang-on fuge 2-3 weeks earlier. The spaghetti algae has very good growth and maybe some of it, or something else, fell into the return chamber of the fuge. This is a gravity return so, if it gets clogged, it's not able to "return" and the fuge overflows.

Needless to say, I have another extension now from another part of the room to power the tank. I'm going to have to drain the tank sufficiently to move it out enough to fix the fried outlet. Quite the hassle!!

Has anybody ever had this happen? Any other strange overflows that I might read about?

 

[Wooster]

one question, do you have a "2-prong" wall socket where you put an adapter for "3-prong" sockets that you then plug your tank stuff into?

 

[xahx]

MAybe u running it off of an old cable or old powere surge.

 

[ReefRaff]

your pretty lucky your house didn't burn down. Thank god, for he was whatching out for you and your family.

When u fix it. Make sure you install a GFI (Ground Fault Interup) Recepticle, insted of just a regular plug.

Tim.

 

[markh30]

I basically had the same thing happen to me last year. My overflow sprung a small leak underneath, where the feed hose connects. Needless to say, it dripped down the wall and into my electrical outlet. The way I found this out was I was in my kitchen and kept hearing popping sounds. I finally pinpointed it and totally freaked out. It was the outlet shorting out. Needless to say, I did install a GFI outlet, which really does work. A few months later, I walked by the aquarium and noticed everything was turned off. After investigating, I realized the same problem had reoccurred, except this time the outlet kicked off. That's when I also realized it's a good idea to use metal clamp where the feed hose connects to the overflow (yeah, it takes me a little while to figure these things out).

 

[runway1]

Yup, definitely going with GFI.

As for the plug, Wooster, it's a standard, grounded (three prong) outlet. I plugged in a six-box (makes two outlets into six) and from that, I have two industrial grade, 15 amp power strips and a Coralife timer strip for the lights. Total of about 14 plugs into those three strips.

For those of you thinking "the fool has waaaaay to many plugs in a single outlet - no wonder!" The current draw on this circiut peaks out at about 12 amps with everything on. The circuit is a 20 amp circuit. Also, I have intermediate strips (as mentioned) with 15 amp internal breakers. So, I have redundant breakers and a long way to go before I overload the circiut.

There's streaks on the wall along side the fuge that indicate it dripped down the wall and fried the outlet. You hit it ReefRaff, the Almighty gave me a break.