GFCI, do you recommend one? Discuss...

Circuit breakers may or may not prevent a fire. Newer arc/Fault breakers are supposed to do a better job. Circuit breakers only trip on over current at 15 or 20 amps. 15 or 20 times the current needed to kill a person.

GFIC trip on a loss of current... I think 15 or 50 milli amps. GFIC are for working around water. They protect PEOPLE from DYING by electrocution if the circuit becomes grounded by a path through water.

Whether they work as intended or stop an arc from occurring or protect a piece of equipment form melting is a different discussion.

Bottom line is that GFICs are not for equipment or property protection... they are for living thing protection. Perhaps that does not mean much to some, but perhaps it means a lot to the other living things in your home. GFIC are an important safety measure around water. If you are the type that does not have working batteries in a fire detector, then this probably does not mean much. However, if you value your life and the lives of those around you and you choose to take prudent measures to protect those, then you will have a GFIC circuit on your fish tank. Just saying... YMMV

 

I do this as well. I have 2 GFCI breakers. Each are used only for the tank and my powerheads and returns are split between the 2. It would be highly unlikely that they would both trip at the same time. I chose to put the GFCI protection in the box, which is much more $, but if i ever need to replace one i wont have to crawl into my stand to do it.