what's the wattage needed to run a reef

[james1990]

I'm not sure if I have enough electric going into my new reef room. I have 2 GFI outlets with 4 plug inputs on each. but when I plus both my power cords from my ATI 8 bulb into one of them I blow a breaker. as you can tell I'm not versed in anything electric related.

I'm moving everything over from my other tank into the new one soon. I don't want to run into issues once the tank is broken down so if I need to add more electric to the room I need to act fast.

here's my equip list:

full apex
kalk reactor
calcium reactor
skimmer pump
return pump
ATI 8x54watt
ATO

[reefermike1]

Its more about amps than it is watts. If you have a circuit with a 15 amp breaker and you try to put more than 15 amps through it, it should trip the breaker. It wont matter how many different plugs you have if they are all on the same circuit. There should be a tag somewhere on every piece of equipment that lists the device's amp draw. Add them all up and see what you have. Lights, heaters, and return pumps typically use the most amperage on a reef tank.

That being said, here's a question for you. Is it tripping the circuit breaker or tripping the gfci?

[james1990]

thanks for the help. when I plug both light plugs into one gfi it just blows the gfi itself. so do I need to separate all my equipment onto different outlets to display the draw?