dbdisok

I have exactly two panel GFI on panel breaks as 20 amp for 140 gallon tank. I also use wall for a few items also. It is really only a partial solution to power management. I installed it myself with 12/2 wire, gfi breaker, and cable socket for about 40 each.

it is really only part of a power management solution. The other part is UPS that can send off emails if power fails.

The third part is aready emergency power. I have 2 Tunze 6105's with safety switch and 100 aH battery pumps relay to if power fails. I have powerhead on each ciruit.

When power comes back after failure it is very possible to blow a circuit. POWER function on AC jr turns items back up in time increments to prevent this and can be easily tested.

When setting up your outlets, you can never have enough, it seems. If I suggested you install 12 outlets, within a month or two you'd say I should have suggested 14.

Count your equipment components to determine how many power cords you'll use for sure, and add a few more for those times when you need an extra couple. Like when you have to mix up new water in a bucket or barrel, you'll have a powerhead/pump and an extra heater plugged in, correct? That same pump may be used to pump water out of the tank and to pump the newly mixed water back in. You may opt to add more flow in the refugium and need another outlet. You may want to add a cooling fan in the summer. Or a battery-powered air bubbler, which has to be plugged in to determine when the power goes out so it can come on. What about a temporary quarantine tank? Or phytoplankton station?

The second part of your question involves how to divide your power across the breakers. I'd suggest you be careful not to overload either circuit. If you plug all your lights and heaters into one, that will probably be the circuit that trips when all of these turn on at the same time. I prefer to divide my equipment across several circuits so if one trips, the others are still live to provide at least a little flow in the tank. Battery backups and generators are fine if you have them, but by careful planning you can avoid some nonsense trips.

Another thing you can do if you are handy is to make your own GFCI outlets that do not run in series. In other words, each outlet gets power all its own. That way if one outlet trips the little button, only the two items plugged in turn of and the rest of your outlets are still live. When wiring these outlets, you want each one to get a hot and common wire, rather than connecting them in a daisy chain. The latter would be that the the first one trips and any outlets after it go dead as well. That would be a bad plan, which is why I don't wire them that way.