Calling all electricians

[Davy Jones]

Thanks for all the posts folks. I took the time to read through these and let me clarify a few things

1. The fish room is 2 seperate 20 amp circuits. I do not believe I am overloading them based on items being split between breakers

2. Essentially All of my breakers are afci, the house was entirely gutted and remodeled before I bought it, so removing these ones would be in violation of code.

3. I think the problem is the red dragon rd3. If I move just that pump to the other circuit it will trip after a couple hours and the other seems to stay on.

The pump is working fine, no stray voltage or wire issues with it so I think it's just a false trip on the breaker

 

[gbroadbridge]

I am loosing my mind here. I have 3 tanks running in my fish room, with 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits. Randomly the breaker will trip. By randomly, I mean it can be days, weeks, months or hours between trips.

The breakers are both siemens 20 amp GFCI/AFCI breakers.
One circuit was run 2 years ago, the other was done before I bought the house
Both circuits follow the exact same path, and the wiring is in the same holes/boards so every other outlet is a circuit
I run everything on apex eb832's, and those are in turn plugged into surge protectors.

Lighting: 2 orphek atlantik v4's, 1 illumagic blaze 4ft, 1 giesemann aurora t5/led hybrid
Flow: 4 mp40qd's, 2 reef octopus octopulse 2's, 1 octopulse 4
Heat: 4 Eheim 200 watt heaters, all less than 1 year old
UV: 2 40watt pentair uv steralizers
Return pumps: Reef octopus varios8, red dragon rd3 80 watt
Misc pumps: sicce syncra 3.0, current usa dc return,
skimmers: reef octo elite 280 sss, reef octo classic 200 (both using varios 4 pumps)
Misc: 3 tunze ecochic refugium lights, 2 tunze ATO's
I think that covers most of everything in here..

I THINK the problem is actually caused by the dc pumps or even line interference causing the gfci/afci breaker to think there is a problem and trip, but I am not an electrician.

What I want to know, is what steps can I take to help prevent this from happening.

Are there less sensitive gfci/afci breakers i can buy? ( I believe it is code now to require both.)
Would something like ferrite chokes help?
Can I replace the breakers with standard breakers, and wire in a gfci outlet on each circuit instead to remain compliant?
Do I need to run a 3rd circuit in here?

I can post pictures for clarity if needed. I have no idea how to officially test this as again it is completely random, I have tried the unplug everything and plug in 1 at a time but that doesnt cause anything to trip so no help there.

Call an electrician if you want advice.

Advice here is worth exactly what you paid for it.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Thanks for all the posts folks. I took the time to read through these and let me clarify a few things

1. The fish room is 2 seperate 20 amp circuits. I do not believe I am overloading them based on items being split between breakers

2. Essentially All of my breakers are afci, the house was entirely gutted and remodeled before I bought it, so removing these ones would be in violation of code.

3. I think the problem is the red dragon rd3. If I move just that pump to the other circuit it will trip after a couple hours and the other seems to stay on.

The pump is working fine, no stray voltage or wire issues with it so I think it's just a false trip on the breaker

Glad you found the probable cause. There may be an updated version of your breaker, if so it would be worth a gamble trying it out to see if it’s any better. A soft start pump, I’m not familiar with the red dragons and they may be, might help but no guarantee. You could always visit your city permit desk and explain the situation. You never know, you could be granted a variance as it’s a dedicated circuit for a fish room. It’s a long shot, but worst that could happen is they say no.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Call an electrician if you want advice.

Advice here is worth exactly what you paid for it.

….and that goes for pretty much everything and anything on the internet. I still believe everyone honestly tries to help without having any ill intent, but I’m naive.

 

[gbroadbridge]

….and that goes for pretty much everything and anything on the internet. I still believe everyone honestly tries to help without having any ill intent, but I’m naive.

No, I didn't mean any hostile intent - justr that their are too many lounge chair experts not really qulified to answer some questions.

I put electrical wiring firmly in the basket that no one should offer advice unless they are qualified and licensed because the risk of someone getting hurt is too high.

 

[Gatorpa]

DO NOT GET RID OF CODE COMPLIANT DEVICES! Find the problem, fix it, verify there is no hazard. Hire an electrician if you are not able to isolate it to a piece of equipment! This is bad advice.

With many of the high tech devices we run many arc faults are too sensitive. Every electrician I know says this.
If something has a microprocessor on it and can affect the arc fault.
Don‘t forget they weren’t code for decades and everyones house wasn’t burning down.