Fish Tank Cabinet Diy Project

[ian_m]

Most homes have a MCB installed at the fuse box, which detects current overload (eg you are drawing 30A on a 20A circuit, best to cut off the supply.)

Correct a MCB, detects an over current fault and unlike a fuse is resetable. This will not prevent you being killed if you touch a live wire, unless you exceed the current. The MCB is to protect the house wiring against a fault and on lighting circuits a shorting bulb.
 

An RCD detects shorts in your circuits e.g. someone has stuck their hand into the live tank and shorted it to earth.

WRONG WRONG. Please check your source. An RCD (residual current device) cuts the power if there is an imballance between the live and neutral conductors ie the current is returning to earth through you, rather than the neutral wire. Touching a live wire via an RCB will generally cut the power before it kills you. Been there done that, got the brown pants......

Getting water on a plug will not blow the fuse or may not even trip the RCD. If the water gets between the live and neutral it will just fizz and steam nothing will trip. However it will also probably make a connection bewteen live and earth which will be detected as a fault and the RCD cut the power.

Current UK 17th reg now have combined MCB and RCD on all wiring circutis including lights, thus if you have a modern house adding an extra RCD adds nothing as both will most likely trip at 30mA fault current.

My house is old 15th regs (I think) and has MCB's on each circuit and all the plugs protected by a 30mA RCD, thus my fish tank tripping kills all the plug power in the house. So I have no RCD and don't need an RCD on the tank as if it faulted house trip would trigger as well. If you really did want RCD protection then 15mA trip RCD (rather than standard 30mA) would be better as this would most likely trip first before the house 30mA.

Obvioulsy if you have a realy old house with wired fuses, then an RCD is a very good idea.

Even better is unplug all electrics before fiddling with your tank.
 
Below is a 17th edition house consumer unit with RCBO's fitted (combined MCB and RCDs) on all circuits.

 
 
This what a RCBO looks like.

 

 

[dgwebster]

WRONG WRONG. Please check your source. An RCD (residual current device) cuts the power if there is an imballance between the live and neutral conductors ie the current is returning to earth through you, rather than the neutral wire.

Im confused, how does this differ from the phrase "you are shorting the circuit, e.g. sticking your hand into the live tank and shorting it to earth (i.e. imbalance between live and neutral as you are earthing the tank now)??

It may be me misunderstanding what the difference is between our statements other than the words used??

Sadly my home is rented and is good ole fuse wire, and most people will be of no harm but rather good adding a £9 rcd to the socket rather than paying a sparky to come out and check what system they have. Adding a socket level that will trip first does have its benefit: my living room and hall are the same ring and all lights are socket fed, if i blow the fuse/trip an mcb (if i had one) id be in the dark trying to resolve the problem up a ladder through an 18" x 20" hole to where the fuse box is located (not my choice of placement either)

 

[ian_m]

Im confused, how does this differ from the phrase "you are shorting the circuit, e.g. sticking your hand into the live tank and shorting it to earth (i.e. imbalance between live and neutral as you are earthing the tank now)??

Wording. An RCD does not detect any form of "shorting", just an imbalance. An RCD will not protect you if you hold live in one hand neutral in another.
 

Sadly my home is rented and is good ole fuse wire, and most people will be of no harm but rather good adding a £9 rcd to the socket rather than paying a sparky to come out and check what system they have. Adding a socket level that will trip first does have its benefit: my living room and hall are the same ring and all lights are socket fed, if i blow the fuse/trip an mcb (if i had one) id be in the dark trying to resolve the problem up a ladder through an 18" x 20" hole to where the fuse box is located (not my choice of placement either)

In which case an RCD is a good idea. In my case a fault on fish electrics trips half the house !!

Generally it is not a good idea to have RCD's on "wet appliances" due to false tripping ie fridge, washing machine etc and the fact that in normal operation the user can't touch any live wires so RCD would serve no purpose, in my house these appliances are on seperate non RCD circuits.

However fish tank RCD is good idea and generally you should not be getting water on the electrics anyway.

 

[dgwebster]

Apologies, my example directs to the short to earth rather than been live and neutral direct. In the scenarios here, most accidents will create an imbalance, not a short circuit.

I do agree though, best method is to switch off the supply before work and if for any reason you are in a situation where you might create a short circuit, stick one hand in your pocket

 

[Zikofski]

please explain how i managed to put my filter into the water, i sliced the cable by accident did not relies i touched the water got a nasty shock yes luckily i am okay , but the blowed saved the kit and me

 

[dgwebster]

what blowed?

 

[ian_m]

please explain how i managed to put my filter into the water, i sliced the cable by accident did not relies i touched the water got a nasty shock yes luckily i am okay

, but the blowed

saved the kit and me

You would have tripped the RCD upon touching the water and current would have gone through you rather than back through neutral causing an imballance and a trip. Thats what RCD's are design for.

 

[Be4st]

This is one sexy project you have made sir. I'm currently in my first year of a Carpentry course and I really wanna build this. I would like to build it before I get a tank but I'm guessing that would be a bad idea unless I can get a tank made to fit the cabinet somewhere in the UK that offers delivery. The reason I want to do it that way is if I get the tank before the build is complete, I can guarantee you that the tank would be set up, cycled and populated before I even got half-way through the build... lol
 
**EDIT** Just found a UK company that makes custom sized tanks quite cheaply. Or at least, I think its the cheapest I have found. I could just buy one of their pre-made ones and build the cabinet to fit that. The site is: http/www.aquariums.ltd.uk

 

[Zikofski]

cheers Be4st, and yes i loved making this tank cant wait till i can get it setup gotta wait like a year at least yet tho , but almost all LFS make custom tanks but not sure on delivery and that site looks good tho , but i would highly recommend you built the cabinet to fit a particular size of tank, it dose not matter when you buy the tank as long as you make the cabinet to fit it, i used Google sketch up to get all the dims and stuff and fist i made the tank in that program and then built the cabinet around that tank, then took the tank away and then i could use the program to get all the dimensions from there, i also used real life values for key things like the height of the cabinet in total and the height the tank will sit at, send me a link to your journal you must make one for your cabinet
 
good luck enjoy oh and the fact you are doing a Carpentry course would make it easy for you i knew nothing about wood work haha and it kinda shows in my work

 

[Smelliot]

When are you coming to Australia? - When's it going to be set up?

 

[Be4st]

I forgot to ask earlier, on your second post (I think), you give the item list. On that list, you said you got the tank from P&H. Do you have a site for that? The only thing I can think of is Pets@Home, and I have never seen a tank of that size that cheap

 

[Zikofski]

Haha yes it was pets at home and the tanks are made by clear seal I think pet at home do sell them but if you google clear seal then other places do sell then as well

@ smelliot - I am already in Ausi now loving it here too and over a year gota see if I can get residency and stay here then get it all shipped out later if not then I go back and get it setup in the uk

 

[fishnuts]

Hi
 
just read your project, awesome mate, going to have a go at making your cabinet. the detail & instruction are great, was just wondering do you have a full cutting list? so I can replicate to the exact size.

  

 

[fishnuts]

what fish are you putting in your tank, Marine or Tropical ?

 

[dgwebster]

Doesn't look too bad considering the tools you got, shame you used screws and butt joints, lap joints would have made it twice as strong.
 
Have you considered something like this for the lighting?
 
http/www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00119419/
 
dirt cheap and looks nice

For reference I use these to light up some vivs, they barely hold that up. These are solely mood lighting, nothing else. I am currently re-designing a cupboard outfit and will be using T5HO tubes vertically up either side as the light sources. Bonus i can add some low UVB %