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Aquarium guides/Aquarium electrical setup

Aquarium electrical setup: dry connections and drip loops

Plug the tank’s equipment into a GFCI outlet or adapter, give every cord a drip loop that hangs lower than the socket, and keep plugs and power strips off the floor and away from splashes. Place them so you can unplug the heater and filter without reaching across the water.

A standard 60 cm tank with its lid and light
Shown: a standard 60 cm tank with its lid and light. Photo: 16toki, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Where the plugs go

Decide where each plug goes before you fill the tank, while you can still reach behind it. A ground-fault (GFCI) outlet or plug-in adapter watches the current going out and coming back, and cuts the power when they differ by as little as 0.006 amps, as they do when current leaks through water or a person. Use one for everything on the tank, press its test button monthly and after a power cut, as the CPSC advises, and still treat a wet plug as live. Mount the power strip above the floor and to the side of the stand, never directly under the tank or the filter.

Each manual says how its cord should run and when to unplug it; a heater, for example, is unplugged before it comes out of the water. If you are unsure about a circuit, an extension cord or an outlet near the tank, ask an electrician.

What a drip loop is

A drip loop is a dip in the cord between the tank and the outlet, hanging lower than the socket. Water that runs down the cord drips off at the bottom of the loop instead of running into the plug. The aquarium makers’ manuals ask for one on every cord; a cable tie or a cord clip holds its shape.

If an outlet or plug is ever wet, do not reach into the wet area or pull the plug. Cut the power at the breaker, or at a switch you can reach from a dry spot, first; then unplug and dry everything before it goes back on.

Before your hands go in the tank

Unplug every device on the tank before your hands go in the water, not just the light. A heater also needs the water level kept above its minimum mark while it is plugged in, and time to cool in the water after you unplug it before it comes out (30 minutes for Aqueon’s), so unplug it first when a water change will drop the level.

Label each plug at the power strip, with tape or a tag (heater, filter, light, air pump), so you can unplug the right one at a glance. Use the same names in your tank’s equipment list.

Before you switch it back on

  • Every part back together the way its manual shows.
  • The water back above the heater’s minimum line, and the heater in its place.
  • Cords, plugs and the power strip dry and undamaged, each with its drip loop.
  • The filter primed the way its manual says before it is plugged in.
  • A few minutes of watching after: water moving, no drips, no new noise.

A cracked heater, a cut cord or a pump that trips the GFCI goes out of use and is replaced; electrical repairs are for an electrician.

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