Teresa Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 Hi All, My 12 gallon jbj nanocube stock lights (2x24wPC) keep tripping my kitchen GFCI and the power goes out to all the outlets in the dinning room and kitchen. I discovered it was the lights through lots of trial and error - but I don't know what this means. Is there a short in the system? Do I need to replace the bulbs (they are about 8 mo old)? What's strange is that this tank has it's own GFCI power cord, but this isn't tripped - just the main one for the kitchen/dinning room in my house. Do I have too much electricity running through the system? I have my 2 gallon nano in the dinning room and my office supplies as well. I've unplugged my laptop, printers, etc, but the system continues to trip. If there is something wrong with the stock lights how do I fix them? I've got corals that need light! Ideas? Help!! T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 Does it trip immediately when the lights come on? What happens if you unplug everything but the BC? Does it still trip with nothing else on the circuit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 I just blew out the PC-R bulbs on my NC24... bad day for NC lights! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted April 24, 2011 Author Share Posted April 24, 2011 So when only the light are plugged in, the system handles it fine. When I leave the lights on and plug everything else in, the system stays on. The power trips when the lights go from being off to on. I wouldn't think that there is too much electricity running through the system that it can't handle the burst of energy that happens when the lights first come on. I'm thinking something is wrong with the GFCI in the kitchen. It's tripped throughout the year at random when even less items have been plugged in. It's a brand new house so I have a bumper to bumper warranty. I'll submit a work order just to be sure. Could it be something else? Is it possible I'm running too much electricity on the system? It's only a 2 gallon nano w/13w light, canister, the 12 gallon nano with stock light and pump, a couple of fans, etc. hummmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 It could be a bad gfci. IME, they don't go bad very often, but they can. I would suspect that more if it were a 20 year ol house. If you have a warranty then there is no reason why you couldn't have them rule that out. Home depot alao sells GFCI testers that i think are 10 bucks It seems to me that it is drawing too many amps on start or at least more than the switch cam handle. how old are the ballasts? Faulty ballast maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted April 24, 2011 Author Share Posted April 24, 2011 I only bought the nano cube 8 mo. ago brand new. As I am now recalling, the GFCI circuit used to trip when I had my old aquarium and 70w viper. I would come home from work and the system would be off. I always assumed there was a power failure during the day or something. I agree that there seems to be too many amps pulling on the system when the lights come on. I'll see what my builder has to say first. They are really good at getting back to me - already had a faulty kitchen fixture and broken/leaking ac that they fixed inside of a week's time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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