# Diy alert!



## dpickleboy (Feb 28, 2011)

OK so I'm not here to promote myself or be a nag but as an electrician I honestly want to warn you all about playing with electrical and trying to jam some stuff together to save abit of money.

I'm 100% supportive of DIY Aquarium stuff but I've see alot of poor electrical over the years in houses aswell as aquariums mostly from people who think they know what they're doing.

If you're not sure for your own safety aswell as your familys please ask someone who may be able to help you (not just me). Handymen and women always think they know what they're doing but it's not always the case and I've had to go rewire houses that went up in flames but were salvaged. Dont let it be the case.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL!

That's all I ask.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Yeah, I wouldn't try to DIY anything electrical...


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## dpickleboy (Feb 28, 2011)

I've seen a few attempts recently so i honestly wanted to just ask you all to be careful


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## Antoine Doinel (Dec 20, 2010)

I'd say if you're going DIY, it's essential that you have a gfci outlet/powerbar.

Should be essential regardless, but I'm sure at least half of people with aquariums don't use them.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Not sure I understand exactly what you're trying to say. Exactly what are you seeing? Do you mean people pluggin too much extension bars? Drawing too much power from one single source? Or just people pulling a line with with the wrong type of wires or tampering with the amperage of the circuit breaker? ...

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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Nice, a resident electrician on the board. Always good to know.

I'm also curious as to what exactly you mean.


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## dpickleboy (Feb 28, 2011)

Basically you're using electricity near water and I'm seeing thing like open tanks that someone makes a lid with a light they found and they marrette the wires above the water, or even breaking the 3rd prong off a plug, people using transformers (if not wired the right way you can make something that was 120v now 1200v instead of the 12v you were trying for your LEDs). Theres just so many little things and I'd rather just you guys be abit more careful than thinking it's no big deal. I've seen so many dangerous things over the years.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

Generally I don't deal with AC modding/DIY's as I like DC mods for portability and I mainly deal with low voltage <10-15V so I'm pretty ok most of the time.


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## balutpenoy2oy (Feb 17, 2011)

dpickleboy said:


> Basically you're using electricity near water and I'm seeing thing like open tanks that someone makes a lid with a light they found and they marrette the wires above the water, or even breaking the 3rd prong off a plug, people using transformers (if not wired the right way you can make something that was 120v now 1200v instead of the 12v you were trying for your LEDs). Theres just so many little things and I'd rather just you guys be abit more careful than thinking it's no big deal. I've seen so many dangerous things over the years.


you very are right, but for a transformer with primary winding of 120v and secondary winding of 1200v this is step-up transformer and probably its size would be a 36 GAL aquarium, they really should not mess around it. Manufacturer will not missed winding either step down transformer or step-up one and furthermore if name plate says, 120v input and 12v output it is, if it says 12v input and 1200v output it is. What I'm saying is read the label first before attempting.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I feel guilty enough as it is when I look at my collection of plugs :/ I don't ever DIY Electrical stuff


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

+1, with multiple tanks, it's scary enough 



Ciddian said:


> I feel guilty enough as it is when I look at my collection of plugs :/ I don't ever DIY Electrical stuff


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