Be carefull almost cought fire.

My whole place almost burned down last night due to my lil nano tank. Seems I had moved my clamp on light to a part where it was letting water come out of the tank. And I had just did a water change so tank was very full. So durnin the night I was asleep and my girl says babes something is burning I get up and look and I don't see anything. So I lay down on couch in living room to find where the smell is coming from . It was my timer extension thing full of water with two plugs with sparks coming out. So just be carefull people I love my fish but I need a place to stay more lol. By the way the tank is fine. But now she's a bit skeptical of my tank lol because her house burned before ughh great right now I can't stare in peace with out hearing how it almost killed us lmao

 

Thankfully it wasn't worse than that,but three words-ground fault interrupter (gfi/gfci).You can change your breaker on that circuit with one or replace the outlet itself with one (provided it is a grounded outlet) and some powerstrips have them built it.It may not just save your house or tank,but could save your life.Glad alls ok though.

 

Thanks I'll look into it today need a new timer now

 

DON'T JUST GET THE ONE ON THE POWERSTRIP!

It doesn't protect you nearly as well as the ones that install as a new outlet (and, I'm assuming, the ones that are the breaker themselves).

I nearly had a fire thinking the GFCI on my powerstrip would protect me. Well... that's of course only if the water goes to the powerstrip. If it winds up in the outlet (in my case, a cracked tank, with water streaming straight into the outlet) the powerstrip does nothing. I nearly started my house on fire this way, and since then I HIGHLY recommend GFCI outlets as mandatory aquarium equipment

 

Agreed,the order I would choose in would be the breaker itself (also could be the most expensive depending on the brand of breaker box you have).2nd would be the outlet itself,still not real cheap,but it's worth saving your life.Last would be the powerstrip/timer itself,if your outlet is not a grounded outlet,they are next to worthless,but can work on a proper grounded outlet.

I was an HVAC technician/electrician for over 20 years,and trust me,a persons first instincts (including mine) is when they see water on the floor and sparks flying is to run up and start yanking plugs.That could be a recipe for something very bad.Ive been zapped hundreds of times over the years but had a very close call working on an a/c unit in the rain (not by chioce,my boss forced me to and needless to say,I didn't stay with that company for very long.)

 

I think this is a mistake everyone makes once, and hopefully one time is all it takes to make the proper impression! Im glad to hear nothing terrible ended up happening and everyone is ok.