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I am thinking of having a 6ft tank on a stand and 3 little 18" tanks underneath.
Currently I have the 3 little tanks with a couple of power boards running 1 x 3ft light over 2 tanks, three filters, three heaters, and a 2ft light (couldn't find an 18" light).
That's 8 plugs but what if I add a 6ft tank?

That would be probably a canister filter below and beside the little tanks, a 6ft light (if I can find one), probably 2 heaters and an airpump for an airbubbler. So thats another 5 points required. A total of 13 points.

Should I be thinking of having 2 x 8 plug powerboards?
What is that likely to do to my fuses if two boards are plugged into a double GPO?

Is there an electrical limit to how many appliances and powerboards plugged into GPO's around the house? I have other tanks around, and computors with powerboards as well.
Yea, I know a greenies power consumption nightmare.

Yes there certainly is a limit. If you know an electrician I would get him to check your fuse box out so that you will know exactly what fuse is what and how much load you can put on it.

One mistake could be very costly and that is all you will be allowed to make one and only one mistake.

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If you aren't daisy chaining them, I can't see a big problem. In saying that, many a fishroom is run of a single outlet and some 'creative' wiring.

Powerboards generally have a loading limit on the back of them somewhere so, rather than thinking about the number of appliances, you need to check the total amps and watts and make sure that it doesn't exceed the limit (I'd be surprised if it did, most tank stuff sucks very little power) I would say that wall sockets would have a higher rating than powerboards, but I can't find any references to an actual number.

There is a limit on stuff around the house, but AFAIK it is based on total power required not the number of appliances. Our fuse for one of the circuits trips regularly but that is because all of the whitegoods, kitchen and laundry appliances are on the same one (would love to get hold of the electrician who thought that was a genius idea *grumble*) and it sits *just* below the maximum limit. All of my tanks are on the other which has plenty of wiggle room between the load and the limit. it would probably be a good idea to poke your nose in the fuse box and see how yours is set up, and figure out where your power-sucking items are. I doubt that the extra you want to add will make much difference at all, but it would be handy to know anyway.



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have an electrician check!

if you can add anymore, he/she might be able to jerry rig a cable from another outlet with less plugged in and run a cable to the desired place and a new outlet for a bit more of the "wiggle room" Calla was talking about. everyonce and a while my breaker throws in my room with the tanks (aka my bed room) but that is usually from power eaters like hairdryers and etc. so keep the power to a bare minimum and no overloads as well as get an electrician's perspective (maybe hubby has a friend or you have a friend)!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Never thought of that. Everything is fine with multiple tanks, plugs etc until the dead of winter when you plug in 2 or 3 big oil heaters to warm yourself. Not a bad idea to get a hold of my sparky.
Likelyhood I might need to move the whole powerbox, it is under the house below where my fishtanks are. ZZZZZTTTT.

that would be wise! thats all you need is a tank to leak and you lose all power!!!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"