Erratic chiller behaviour! Please help!

[vinz]

It's scary how many electrical items in or around our tanks (full of water) are not earthed.

[mordrake]

Errr... wait. Just to clarify.

Melvin, in your case, you earthed the chiller right?

CKM, in your case, you earthed the light casing?

Anyway, to those less electrically inclined... it's not just a matter of changing the plug from 2 to 3 pin. You have to make sure that the earthing wire is connected to the earthing pin and the object you want to earth.

yep, dun play play with electrical appliances ...

[nostalgia]

yep, dun play play with electrical appliances ...

esp with wet hands!!!

[eggy]

to all: other electrical items do not affect the chiller at all.. only the lights

mordrake: the chiller uses a 3 pin plug

CKM: may i know how to earth the ballast and the light?? the light plug is a 2 pin rite??? how to make it to 3 pin...which one goes to the live and so on..
do let me know, i want to try it, thanks

tawauboy, vinz, bclee : i have bought a surge protector, will let u guys know if it works...

thanks for all ur help once again guys.....

[CKM]

Hi eggy, the eballast i brought has 3 slots for the wiring. At first i thought using the live and neutral was ok already, so i just use a 2 pin. you can check whether your eballast has 3 slots?

[tawauboy]

Melvin, when you changed to 3-pin plug, how many wires was connected in the plug? hopefully, it is 3.

a power strip with a toroid coil (donut shaped looking thing with wires wrapped around it) would help in reducing external surges.

[eggy]

hi bros...
just wan to confirm something..
a surge protector is just a adaptor with surge protector capabilities rite..??
coz i bought one of those travel plugs which states that it has surge protector capabilities..cost is about $5
let me know if i have bought the correct thing...or is there something else i am missing....
another thing.... grounding my lights are kinda impossible(i think) as the pl light and the casing only has 2 pins... there is no additional option for me to add another ground wire anywhere....
thanks....

[vinz]

As far as I know, surge protectors probably can't differ much, except for quality and perhaps the level of protection. In your case, if you bought a fairly reputable brand (or looks reputable), it should suffice.

As for earthing the lights, there are a 2 options:
1. Open the casing and look for the grounding/earthing point on the ballast (it is normally indicated with a symbol). Secure a earthing cable (a green and yellow cable that you can buy from electrical or hardware shops) to the point, run it out of the case, along the power cable until it reaches the 2 pin plug. Then replace the 2 pin plug with a 3 pin plug. The earthing cable goes to the long earthing pin. You'll need to look at how the power cable wires are connected to ballast to figure out which one is the live wire, and which is the neutral and connect the other ends accordingly to the 3 pin plug.

OR

2. Use a testpen to find out which screw on the casing is leaking electricity. Loosen the screw and connect the earthing cable under it.

For earthing symbol, look here.

[vinz]

Electricity is not to be trifled with. Make sure you know what you're doing before you start opening cases and connecting wires to plugs, etc. The wrong connection can trip your whole house's electricity and perhaps damage the altered equipment.

Or it could lead to malfunctioning equipment which might pose a fire hazard if they overheat. Or become a electrocution hazard.

It's pretty basic, the stuff I wrote in the previous post, but PLEASE be careful. If you are not confident, get someone who is knowlegeble to do it for you.

[eggy]

Mr vinz then..hehe..
my ballast does not have any extra grounding/earthing point,
it just has 2 points only...so i dun think i can connect the earth to any part of the ballast...

i have tested the whole casing with a test pen before and nothing seems to be leaking any electricity...no light frm the test-pen or anything...
anyway my rm lights has also affected the chiller as well
i have decided to wrap the casing up with the rubber tape to prevent any slight current that might pass thru frm the tank lights that was not detected frm the test-pen (just incase)...

let me know if you are aware of any reputable shop which services chillers ( besides bio**). pls pm me their contacts, i wld like to consult them for their advise as well and find out what the prob might be. and try to rectify it..

let me know if you guys have any futher suggestions for me to try out...
i wld gladly accept ur suggestions and try them out if they are feasable...

thanks for ur time and have a nice day

[vinz]

Have you tried the surge protector? You said you bought one, but did not share with us the results.

[eggy]

i cannot confirm that it does not work yet..let it run afew more days...
then i'll confirm it...
but it does not look good...

[mordrake]

actually come to think of it... what if the problem lies with the wiring of the room?

did you plug in your chiller into another socket, like say in the living room and test?

[vinz]

Oh, and where did you install the surge protector?

It should be:

Chiller->surge protector->power source.

There should not be any appliances on the same side of the surge protector as the chiller.

[tawauboy]

.............................
another thing.... grounding my lights are kinda impossible(i think) as the pl light and the casing only has 2 pins... there is no additional option for me to add another ground wire anywhere....
thanks....

grounding does not need another pin.
just connect the ground wire to the metal casing of your light.
if your casing is non metal, then it serves no purpose. you'll need to open up your light set and connect the ground wire to all the ballasts. do this only if you know what you are doing.

[eggy]

mordrake: i did not try to put the chiller in another room and try...
but i did try to connect it to another wallplug in the same room. (does not help).
yah i will try to use extension and link it further to another rm or something to try for a while...
will let u know the outcome... thanks

vinz: yes that was what i did.
Chiller-> surge protector-> power source*-> wall plug
but my power source* is the mulit socket bar.

tawauboy: ok... this sound abit complicated....
kk some information here..
i am using 3 pl lights... those normal ones one tube per casing...
so is like 3 casings but i diyed and connected 2 of them up and left one alone as it is...
so is 2 plugs for 3 lights and 3 casings...
1 set to one 2 pin-plug and
2 sets connected to one 2-pin plug

so ur saying is that the earth wire just 'touch/ connect/ come in contact' with the light casing or the ballast will do???
And then connect it to the earth of the 3 pin???
correct me if i am wrong...
let me know if u need a pic of the set or need me to clarify anything..

thanks for all your help

[tawauboy]

so ur saying is that the earth wire just 'touch/ connect/ come in contact' with the light casing or the ballast will do???
And then connect it to the earth of the 3 pin???
correct me if i am wrong...
let me know if u need a pic of the set or need me to clarify anything..

thanks for all your help

yes.
just connect the light casings or ballasts together. the casings have to be metallic.
you'll may need to change the wirings for you lights. you need 3-core wires instead of the usual 2-core wires.

[alanyeo99]

Eggy, don't know if you have found a solution to your problem yet. Would like to suggest something.

First, it doesn't help if you plug your chiller to another wall-socket unless you are pretty sure the wall-socket is connected to a different circuit breaker. Check your house electrical wiring diagram. If unsure get a professional electrician to help.

Second, I suspect the wiring in your home is incorrectly done. Rightfully, a lighting switch and a wall-socket plug are connected to separate circuit breakers. This is a stringent practise by the authorities. To test... locate the correct circuit breaker and switch it off. If both light and wall-socket are out, then something is wrong. Get HDB or a qualified electrician to verify.

Or thirdly, there must be a leakage somewhere causing this.

BTW, As we all know, most aquarium equipment does not have earth-protection. If one piece of equipment is faulty, the whole tank is "LIVE". Friends of this forum who are concerned about un-earthed equipment in their tank can opt to install an earth probe that sticks into the water and takes out excess electrical leakage. This practise was gained from the days when I was in the reef hobby.