Powering A Fish Room

[MojoDex]

as im sure some of you are aware i will be setting up a fish room as soon as the tanks ive ordered arrive! ive already sorted lighting (cheers wolf) and filtration will be simple sponge filters all run off one 150 litres a minute or 9000 litres an hour air pump.

my next problem is heating the tanks i dont really want to heat the whole room as it happens to be the spare bedroom so if i heat the whole room it will inevitably heat my whole flat up and i dont want that. id much sooner use tank heaters. now the problem is there will be 27 tanks or so maybe more at a later date. the room only has 3 plug sockets, it just doesnt work out right now so does anyone know of any stupidly big multi plug adapters the biggest ive been able to find was a 12 way but i was kind of hoping for smething with a bit more to it maybe a 20 or 30 way, i dont even know if such things exist but im sure some of the fine ppl on this board with fish rooms can help me out

this is all just what ive been thinking might work but if anyone has a better way im all ears

 

[The-Wolf]

you may wish to get an electrician in and set up a couple of new ring mains.
one could be for the heaters/filters and one for the rest lights/air pumps etc.

I have no idea of the cost involved in such a venture but you could install the circuit yourself and then get a sparks to
join it to your main fuse box, that should keep the cost down.
I would personally have an additional consumer unit in the room and then have that joined to the main fuse box

 

[MojoDex]

i know what your saying but its just not practical as the floors r all concrete and the walls are concrete block it would mean ripping half the wall and ceiling plaster out to do something like that

i had another thought how do they power offices obviously there running X number of computers they all need 2-3 plug sockets must be a way

 

[SkiFletch]

Just be careful that you don't exceed the amperage service of the room... I'm not sure what common amp service in the UK is, but remember, if you exceed the capacity of the circuit you'll be blowing fuses, tripping breakers, or wrost, starting fires...

 

[MojoDex]

yea ill use surge protected stuff no worries this building is worth more than my hobby

 

[chr15_8]

you will need an electrician

if you say you are using 100w heater on each tank say 30 tanks (for ease of sums) you will be pulling around 3000w/3kw.

i believe form my last college lesson him saying that 2/3 1kw heaters will trip the fuse on a ring.
so you probably have another bedroom on the same ring (not sure how big your place is (if its a flat/house etc so im assuming) also you have the air pump and the sockets in the other bedroom.

im assuming your tank lights are also plug in? if so to light 30 tanks thats alot of lights to be plugging into the exsisting ring as well as the heaters.

so you will need an electrician

chris

edit: offices

they normally use the sockets that are in the ground

link 1

link 2

depending on the amount of sockets needed will depend on the amound of rings used also depending on the type you could use dado trunking

link 3

 

[MojoDex]

the lights will be running off the 1 unit got a special light unit from arcadia coming so that only takes one plug the air pump again is only 1 plug so lighting and filtration is 2 plugs and there done.

its heating the tanks thats really causing a problem.

how does eveyone else do it im sure no1 else has re-wired there house to suit a fish room surley?

ive managed to find a 12 way splitter thats designed specifically for aquarium but still it would need at least 3 of them this aint looking promising is it?

i saw some sockets in wickes that just snap together for offices but i cant find them on the net for the life of me!

 

[BINKSY]

in most office enviroments there is a floor box under each desk with a twin socket, and pcs use no way near the amount of power you require

 

[MojoDex]

everyone is telling me i need a sparky but plenty of ppl on here have fish rooms how do those ppl heat the tanks surley they cant all heat the room? there must be a way because this plan is disapeering infront of my eyes very quickly

 

[Tolak]

I do my own electrical work, so my fishroom is wired for plenty of outlets, along with being on a 30 amp circuit. In the US they sell surface mount channels & boxes for use in situations where concrete, or concrete block was used in the construction. With this you could pull a larger gauge of wire, install a higher amperage breaker, and run more surface mount outlets off of the existing outlet box. These are easy to remove if you ever sell the place, a dozen outlet boxes in a bedroom might make a buyer wonder.

 

[chr15_8]

the lights will be running off the 1 unit got a special light unit from arcadia coming so that only takes one plug the air pump again is only 1 plug so lighting and filtration is 2 plugs and there done.

its heating the tanks thats really causing a problem.

how does eveyone else do it im sure no1 else has re-wired there house to suit a fish room surley?

ive managed to find a 12 way splitter thats designed specifically for aquarium but still it would need at least 3 of them this aint looking promising is it?

i saw some sockets in wickes that just snap together for offices but i cant find them on the net for the life of me!

its not about the amount of plugs you should be worried about its the amount of load/watts your putting on it

you could plug in hundreds of phone chargers as they dont use much electricity but heaters do!

heater use 2.5 amps (150w heater) each so if you turn 12/13 heaters on at the same time the electrics will kick out/blown/trip if you use 100w heater they will use just below 2 amp so if 15 turn on at once the electrics will trip etc

so you would have to turn 5-10 on at a time wait untill it turns off turn another 10 on etc but at night i can garentee more than 15 will be on at one?

chris

 

[chr15_8]

I do my own electrical work, so my fishroom is wired for plenty of outlets, along with being on a 30 amp circuit. In the US they sell surface mount channels & boxes for use in situations where concrete, or concrete block was used in the construction. With this you could pull a larger gauge of wire, install a higher amperage breaker, and run more surface mount outlets off of the existing outlet box. These are easy to remove if you ever sell the place, a dozen outlet boxes in a bedroom might make a buyer wonder.

you can do that over here using the dado trunking im on about and use surface trucking if you dont want damage

however over here you will find it had to get an electrician to do that work as the room will be classed as a wet room due to tanks and water etc so it will not comply to the regulations and he wouldnt be able to carry out the work unless you say to him its for something else

however if you do it by your self you can do what you like i believe.

 

[rsands]

each electric ring can only take so much load. too much load on a power ring and boom...up it goes.

it is seriously dangerous to overload an electric ring...everything might appear ok to start...but it heats up wires and can cause a fire.

GET an electrician to properly check what the ring can cope with...it may not need rewired but instead of causing a safety risk for everyone else...get a professional.

We rewired our business....we have 3 phases and loads of electric rings to run an IT service centre with machines running in it and lights, etc.

 

[Lateral Line]

i dont really want to heat the whole room

By "heating the tanks" you are, of course, heating the room. The tanks are simply low wattage radiators, and the power used to heat them will, inevitably, escape into the room.

Properly insulating your fish room will help keep your heating bill reasonable. Well insulated and with good vertical air movement, (warm air rises), in less then extreme climates, heating is not a big issue power wise.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, a lot of fish rooms I see are all interconnected via drains and a sump therefore only requiring one big heater to suit their needs. Tolak pretty much hit the nail on the head, you need to make sure you have enough amperage service for the project. For example, using UK numbers, a 100watt heater draws about 0.5 amps (220V x 0.5A). Say you have 20 heaters, that's 10 amps (if they're all on at once). Then add some lighting, say 20 18watt T8s (about 20watts to run), thats another 400watts or 2 amps. Now you're up to 12 amps. Add air pumps and you're approaching probably 15-20 amps of service required. I have no idea what electrical service is common in the UK. In the States, all our breakers and fuses are labeled for the max current they're designed for. Might be worth having a poke around your fusebox/breakerbox.