What size breaker?

nay,kid · 02-06-2008, 05:05 PM

I need to add a breaker and outlet for my sequence barracuda pump, and a separate one for my heaters and skimmer pump (mag 12). I don't Know what amp breakers to use. anybody have a way to figure this out? thanks

veriann · 02-06-2008, 08:28 PM

do you know the ratings of all your equiptment?

lReef lKeeper · 02-06-2008, 08:52 PM

if this helps Matt, my cousin is adding a 15 amp and a 20 amp to my panel just for my fish room. 15 for all of the pumps and 20 for all of the lights and heaters.

nay,kid · 02-06-2008, 09:29 PM

Thanks bobby, How do I know if that would work with my pump? V I don't know the ratings, theres a panel on the side of the pump that lists a few things, and I haven't bought the heaters yet. what ratings am I looking for? all I do know is its 110 volts.

poppin_fresh · 02-06-2008, 10:52 PM

You could easily run the Barracuda, the Mag 12 and about 1000 watts of heating on a single 15 amp circuit if you needed too. Those devices in total are about 1400 watts which is considered the safe load on a 15 amp circuit (max 1800w),

nay,kid · 02-06-2008, 11:27 PM

thanks poppin you've been really nice to respond to my posts. I think I'll do what bobby's doing and run one 15amp and one 20amp. both GFCI of course. I'd like to keep the pumps and the heaters separate.

poppin_fresh · 02-06-2008, 11:43 PM

Separate circuits are not a bad idea, its always better to have some extra capacity... as long as your panel has the room. If not, at least you know you can fall back and still be safetly within the limits of a single 15 amp breaker.

Skurvey Dog · 02-07-2008, 10:32 AM

Hey Nay,Kid ! I know I'm a day late and a buck short, but for what it's worth..... I found this article that gave me a better understanding of household current, and outlets.

Howstuffworks "How many things can you plug into an electrical outlet before it catches fire?"

THEJRC · 02-07-2008, 10:55 AM

A few things....

Poppins right on the calculations, it's fairly easy to figure out what load you can handle by multiplying voltage times amperage, thus your 15 amp at 120v yeilds 1800, for safety it's best to stay under 80% of that which is about 1440 ish. When running wire there are a few tricks, typically a 15 amp circuit calls for 12 guage wire and you have some options, if the slot in your breaker box is a stab slot you might be able to run a dual breaker thus doubling your circuits.

If it were me and the wiring was needed to be run I'd pull 12/3 wire (12 gauge 3 conductor with a 4th conductor as ground) and do a double breaker for two circuits. You can easily share the common and the other two conductors for your hot on the circuits. Depending on length of run you can also go up to 20 amp on 12 gauge and double breakers are available in both 15 and 20 packages so thats something to look at as well!

if it were me I'd go with two circuits, ditch the 1000 watt heater and swap it out for a pair of 500's and then run a pump and heater on each breaker, that way you have redundancy in flow and temp! I'd also run each circuit on 20 amp and pop a nice 20 amp switch in right next to the outlet in the event I wanted to turn the outlets off and back on easily (tank feeding, etc). And of course GFI.

dfisch1 · 02-19-2008, 09:04 AM

In my area most new wiring is done in 20 amp. I like to work in 20 amp, it is a little bit more expensive but that is miniscule anyway. If you are not running the lines in the wall, I would use PVC to run them from the box.

NaClFinatic · 02-19-2008, 08:42 PM

I have a single 20amp regular circuit but it has two separate GFI outlets that I carefully distributed the load accross in case one trips. When you get close to the limit on the GFCI something like a light firing up or a motor start could trip it. The one in my garage occasionally trips when I start the circular saw up. Typical GFCI outlets used in bathrooms are only 15amp so it doesnt matter then if the breaker is 20amp or not. I haven't looked but you can probably buy 20amp outlet GFCI also. Personally I like the outlet style becasue if it does trip it is easier to reset than heading for the breaker box.

dfisch1 · 02-19-2008, 09:41 PM

You can get 20 amp GFCIs and Lowes for about 1.50 more than 15 amp.

THEJRC · 02-21-2008, 10:32 AM

another thing to note, if you wire in parallel any outlets wired in AFTER the GFCI will also receive GFCI protection. If you plan to use separate GFCI outlets your going to want to split your power out at a junction box and give each outlet it's own separate feed.

While mucking around there you may want to split off each circuit a few outlets and wire switches to them, it's a tad more expensive but I cant tell you how awesome it is to be able to flip a light switch and turn off just this pump or just that skimmer.

nay,kid · 02-21-2008, 04:50 PM

That sounds like a great idea with the switches, thanks. should I run the wire in PVC to protect from water? I was just going to use romex . All receptacles will be GFI just to be safe.

THEJRC · 02-21-2008, 06:22 PM

if you have the spare cashola run pvc, theres also gel filled wirenuts that will help as well.

Get the nice sealed gray junction boxes too like in dfisch's DIY, they're a little more but once again well worth it. You can slap together a cheapo hack job or do it nice and tighty righty with a few extra $$ Personally I'd rather spend the few extra especially considering the wonderful conductivity properties of salt water