getting new electrical outlets put in, where should they go?

[RyanBrucks]

Hello,

I'm trying to get everything ready for my 220 that *should* come by the end of the month. I am having an electrician come for a quote to add two 20amp breakers, one for the dining room (where the display goes), and one for the garage (where the sump and most equipment goes).

My question to you guys is this:
In the dining room, where should I get the outlets installed? It's a small dining room (going to look even smaller with a huge tank in there), and the tank will be pushed very near the wall.

Can I get the outlets installed right behind the tank, and then cut holes in the back of my stand to access them, or is that a bad idea?

I was thinking of getting those weather-resistant plastic door outlets. Will those make it safe to have under/behind the tank?

If not behind or inside the stand, does anybody have any ideas of where to put them so they'd be fairly hidden? I'd like to avoid using the wall directly adjacent since you'd be looking right at them. I'll be adding at least 6 double outlets.

Thanks for any tips. Photos of your electrical setups would be great!!

Thanks,
Ryan

[RyanBrucks]

any tips?

[KyleO]

I had a couple of new lines pulled for my setup and the electrician insisted on GFI..........this is probably more important than being weather resistant.

I would personally say to have the actual outlets placed as high as possible.......

[Slphappy]

Good luck... That's a tough call. Without seeing your setup and without knowing exactly how you wish to build out the tank, it's hard for one of us to tell you where to put your outlet.

Where ever you decide to put it, make sure you can reach it.

It also might help to draw out your set up a bit. Nothing fancy, just some doodles to help you visualize where things will go. that might help you decide where to put the outlet a bit better.

Good luck...

Todd

[RyanBrucks]

yup i'm definitely going to go with GFCIs

I'm not quite sure how to go about concealing an electrical box in the dining room above the tank. I suppose I could make a cabinet style encasement for it? or I could place it in the kitchen nearby and hide it inside some cabinets and then just run a conduit?

of course, if some of the appliances don't have a long enough cord to reach the high-up or next-room box, won't I have to use an extension cord in or around the tank stand? Is an extension cord down there just as bad as an outlet?

ill take a picture of my dining room later

[RyanBrucks]

I actually do have a somewhat outdated schematic of my system:



the main thing thats outdated is that I decided to drop the bridge between the overflows, they're just corner overflows now (aesthetic reasons, trust me you'll see when my system is done

Most everything is in the garage, and going to be in this stand. Outlet placement for the stand is pretty much a no brainer. Going to just have 2 outlets (with water splashguard) in each 'quad' area.




in the dining room with the display is:
3x 250w MH
1x Icecap 430e ballest (2x140W vho)
1x sequence dart for OM4way
1x OM 4way
1x LED moonlights
1x LED backlights
1x vortec+batterybackup

so 9 outlets. Going to get 6 doubles incase I need to add something else later.

It's going to look bad if I have the electrical panel above the tank in the dining room, anybody have good alternate suggestions?

[KyleO]

Nice setup man!!!

If it were me.....I would definitely place the Quad (outlets) high on either side of the rack in the garage. Anything and everything you place out there should reach without extensions.

I have a 72" display also (on a cabinet) and I had the electrician place the new Quad just inside the boundary of the cabinet about halfway up the height of the cabinet.

This way it is out of sight and easily accessible at the same time. After a year, I am happy with this arrangement.

[RyanBrucks]

thanks! it will be some time before the entire thing is operational but ever since I finished the stand its really got me motivated to get the rest. I might finish my end of the work before AFY finishes my tank

" had the electrician place the new Quad just inside the boundary of the cabinet about halfway up the height of the cabinet.
"

sorry I'm a bit confused by how that was worded. do you mean your box (quad is the term?) is actually inside the aquarium cabinet, ie under the aquarium? or outside the cabinet but at the height of it?

do you have to worry about water when using the kind of outlets with the plastic lids??

[KyleO]

I would always worry about water with an outlet near..........but......my wording was kind of cryptic. What I meant was that I had the outlets placed on the wall behind the cabinet just out of sight but close enough to the edge of the cabinet to easily access.

Can't wait to see your progress!

[RyanBrucks]

thanks for the tips everyone.

electricians came this morning and they are wrapping up now.

Ended up getting 3 GFCI circuits.

1 GFCI controls 6 outlets (12 plugs) in the dining room.
1 GFCI controls 1 outlet in the garage, to be used for return pump
1 GFCI controls 5 outlets (10 plugs) in garage for all filtration equipment.

(I considered 2 GFCIs for dining room so closedloop was on its own, but decided the return pump on its own is plenty)

there are 2 switches in the dining room to turn off pumps for feeding. 1 controls the outlet for the closedloop sequence dart. the other controls the GFCI outlet in the garage used for the return pump. This allows me to do all feeding without going to the garage and shutting it off manually.

got plastic bubble protectors on all outlets.

actually got 3 new 20amp breakers instead of 2 added since the electrician recommended not sharing separate GFCIs on the same breaker if I absolutely wanted them not to trip at the same time. I asked about wiring parallel and he said its not a good idea. He was really puzzled why I wanted so many GFCIs until I explained the reasoning. Thoughts?

will post pics later when everything is done!

[RyanBrucks]

Inside outlets:


ligtbox is roughly where tank will go.


garage outlets:


conduit was run for the pump switch because the wall in that location is full of various plumbing all over the place (house, not tank), and they didnt want to make a bunch of unnecessary cuts in the dywall.

[reggiepe]

When I had an electrician come in, I had him install the outlets above the water line...and of course they were GFCI's.

[RyanBrucks]

the ones in the garage are placed as high as they can go. this is largely because I'll be running my acrylic tanks without lids in there and its likely to get humid/wet.

in the dining room I kept picturing what it would look like with outlets up by the ceiling, and just couldnt convince myself to do it. There will be a chair that snugs up against the corners that should block the outlets from visibility and from direct water splashes (if I'm doing maintenance with the hood off). least its a couple feet from the tank. hope I didn't make a mistake. I could very easily build an acrylic cover to encase the entire outlet pyramid if you guys think its a good idea.

[stunreefer]

I'm interested in this thread.... I'm getting outlets installed Friday, 3 dedicated lines with GFI... and wanted to add one of the main things I worried about height wise (being low) wasn't so much splashing as having drip loops. Be sure to have something to prevent water creeping or apply drip loops.

[RyanBrucks]

thanks for mentioning that. I'm definitely going to make drip loops with the wires.

I'm also going to build a very thin acrylic 'tank' that will cover the outlets. It will probably be 3 or so inches wide. It will simply mount on the wall with screws through holes drilled in the back (holes wide enough for screw heads, then vertical slots smaller than screw heads to lock it down). I'll leave the bottom open to get the wires in.

I have so much scrap acrylic that I don't know what to do with it, so this idea is as good as any

Should protect the outlets from anything short of the room flooding to their height.